SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. – There’s no place like home.
Shepherd University returned to the cozy confines of Ram Stadium and protected its house with a 35-7 win over Millersville University in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East matchup on Saturday.
The win put the Rams back in the winner’s circle after last week’s road loss to Kutztown. Shepherd is now 4-1, including 4-0 at home and evened its PSAC East mark at 1-1.
This week, quarterback Michael Hardyway controlled the game with 19 of 31 passing for 220 yards and three touchdowns – two coming in the first half.
Hardyway connected with Darrell Pierson on a 62-yard scoring strike in the first quarter and Nyon Mason for a 16-yard score with 29 seconds remaining in the half to give the Rams a 14-0 lead at the intermission.
Millersville got back into the game in the third quarter when Calleb Howse fired a 43-yard option pass to Kyreek Bradshaw for a touchdown with 3:00 left in the third quarter to cut the lead to 14-7.
But Shepherd quickly answered when Ian Mauldin broke off a 53-yard run for a score just 48 seconds later for a 21-7 Shepherd lead.
The Rams blew the game open with two fourth-quarter touchdowns on an 11-yard pass from Hardyway to Daryl Harper with 8:01 left in the game. Shepherd added 36-yard touchdown run by Jackson Sigler with 1:05 remaining to close out the 28-point win.
Pierson had four catches for 78 yards to lead the Shepherd receivers and Mauldin had 10 carries for 96 yards to lead the Rams.
Shepherd had 410 yards of total offense while limiting Millersville to 224 total yards.
