2002 Warrior Football

Warriors Return to Action Against Solid West Chester for PSAC East Top Spot

October 22, 2002

East Stroudsburg, Pa. - After having an extremely rare week off in the middle of the season, East Stroudsburg returns to the gridiron this Saturday. The Warriors take to the road for the 66th meeting against West Chester.

ESU heads into the matchup with the Rams ranked 19th in this week's American Football Coaches Association Division II Coaches' Poll and moved into the D2Football.com Top 25 rankings at number 23.

The Warriors and Rams meeting will be for the sole possession of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division. Both teams head into the weekend with unblemished marks in the league as ESU stands at 3-0 and 5-1 overall while West Chester claims a 2-0 Conference record and 3-4 for the year.

Both squads come off affairs with East member Cheyney University with identical results. West Chester disposed of Cheyney last week 56-0 while ESU had the week off after pasting the Wolves 48-7.

Catch the Warriors on WVPO and RedzoneMedia
The action for Saturday's game can be heard by two different means. Chuck Seese and Bob Brittain will bring the call on the radio for WVPO 840 AM and on the internet at www.redzonemedia.com.

Warriors Aim for First Five-Game Win Streak in Seven Seasons
ESU will be gunning for their first five-game winning streak since the 1996 campaign. In 1996, ESU won their 4th through 8th games of the season including a 40-33 victory at West Chester as the second contest of the streak.

The Warriors are on only their second four-game winning streak since that 1996 season. The other four-game run came in the first four games of the 2000 season with the second game again being a win at West Chester 12-6.

ESU Inches Up AFCA DII Coaches' Poll and Appears in D2Football.com Poll
The team had the week off but that didn't prevent them from moving up in the latest national rankings. The Warriors moved up from 22nd to 19th in the latest AFCA DII Coaches' Poll with 181 points. ESU is joined by PSAC West member IUP (7-1) who held steady at 10th with 441 points.

ESU make their debut this week in the D2Football.com poll at 23rd. IUP sits 11th moving up from 13th while Clarion moves into the poll as well at 25th.

The third NCAA Division II Regional Rankings were released on Tuesday with ESU holding steady in 8th position in the Northeast. The regional rankings are used to determine the four teams from each of the four regions of Division II . Other PSAC schools listed were IUP-5th and Clarion-7th.

Palm Fires for Five Scores as Warriors Have Their Way with Cheyney
The PSAC's leading passer quarterback Jeremy Palm tied his career-high with five touchdown passes to guide the Warriors to an easy 48-7 mauling of Cheyney. The senior qb passed for only 202 yards but was 10 of 18 passing along with nine yards rushing.
Greg Vaughn rambled for over 100 yards for the first time by an ESU back to do so in 2002. Vaughn recorded the third best single game average in Warrior history at 12.1 yards per carry with his 133 yards on 11 attempts.

Freshman fullback Anthony Carfagno added to his touchdown total with two more in the game. He ran for one (two carries for eight yards) and caught the other (three rec. for 42 yds.). He has now totaled seven touchdowns in the team's first six games.

Linebacker Ryan Vermillion led the team in tackles with nine including a tackle for loss. Defensive end Greg Thoman and backer Matt Rapa each stopped three Cheyney runners for loss with Thoman also having a sack and seven stops.

Series Even Over Last Eight Years
The series between these two PSAC East Division foes has been even 4-4 over the past eight years. The Warriors have won the past two seasons while the Golden Rams took the 1997-99 matchups.

Jeremy Palm found Justin Kondikoff two times in the first quarter and ESU never looked back from that point. Andre Castiglioni ran for 187 yards in the team's 28-9 win.

ESU head coach Denny Douds is 11-17 in his tenure against West Chester. His teams are 5-10 playing at the Golden Rams' home field but won their last meeting there in 2000 by a score of 12-6.

Battle of Top Two PSAC East Offenses
The top two offenses will try to outduel each other this Saturday. The Golden Rams will take the top unit of the Eastern Division averaging 411.4 yards per contest with ESU not far behind at 383.0. The teams are even closer in scoring offense where they are tied for third best in the Conference at 31.3 points per game.

The dueling passer of Palm for ESU and Bob Findora for West Chester lead the two best passing attacks with the Warriors at 258.3 yards and 250.0 yards.

West Chester holds the edge in the rushing department putting up 161.4 yards to the Warriors 124.7.

Warriors Defense to be Put to the Test
The Warriors will their hands full more than the unit has had all season long. ESU will have to be at their best to put pressure on the Golden Rams. West Chester boasts the leading ground gainer of the PSAC in Mike Eckmeyer. Eckmeyer is averaging 135.0 yards per game and totaled 945 yards on 175 carries for an impressive 5.4 yards per clip. ESU has not allowed a 100-yard rusher the past two games after allowing three-straight.

Warrior linebackers Ryan Vermillion and Phil DeCecco will lead the charge against Eckmeyer and the running attack. Vermillion is the team leader with 53 tackles to go with five tfls and 2.5 sacks. DeCecco has registered 42 stops, five tfls and a sack to his credit.

West Chester also throws the ball better than anyone else in the Conference behind Findora. The sophomore has thrown for 1,640 yards on 128 of 221 passes for a solid 57.9 % completion rating. His favorite target has been Cory DeForrest. DeForrest has pulled in 34 passes for 494 yards and seven scores. He sits 4th with 4.86 catches per game and 7th in receiving yards a contest at 70.6 in the PSAC. Brian Bradley also has grabbed 21 balls for 335 yards and two touchdowns.

The Golden Ram air attack will be facing the league leading interceptions per game defense. ESU has snatched 12 passes with nine going to the pair of Warrior cornerbacks in Nick Beisker (5 int's) and Michael Glover (4 int's).

The ESU pass rush will be lead by first-year players Greg Thoman and Zach Toomey along with senior Dustin Barno and sophomore David Dean. Thoman leads the team with 10 tackles for loss and three sacks. Barno has eight tfls and a team-high 3.5 sacks with Toomey and Dean each with eight tfls and four sacks between them.

ESU Defense Tightens in Red Zone and Most Opportunistic
There have been two keys to the Warriors success in their current four-game winning streak. The keys have been the best red zone defense and turnover margin in the Conference. ESU opponents have only been successful 57.9% of their trips inside the Warrior red zone by allowing points in 11 of 19 times.

The turnover margin has went higher on the plus side each game. ESU stands currently at +12 in the turnover margin department. They have gained 23 turnover while allowing just 11 on the season. West Chester stands at a -1 in their seven contests.

Palm and Warriors Look to Keep Offensive Success Rolling
Jeremy Palm will look to keep the Warrior attack churning again after the past week off of action. Palm has fired for 1,332 yards with 13 touchdowns to only four interceptions in four and a half games of play. The majority of his 75 completions have connected with wide out John Jeffries, full back Anthony Carfagno and wide out Justin Kondikoff. Jeffries heads into Saturday 5th in receptions per game at 4.67 (28 for the year) and 8th in receiving yards a contest at 70.5 (423 total yards) while going for four scores.

Carfagno has pulled in 21 passes out of the backfield for 357 yards and three TDs while Kondikoff has come on the past couple weeks and is tied with Jeffries for four touchdowns to go with 18 catches for 249 yards.

Defensive end Graham Eggleston guides the Golden Ram defense with 10 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. His bookend at the other end spot, Jake Walker, has 7.5 tfls and team-best 5 sacks.

Greg Vaughn has his rushing total up to 365 yards on 85 carries for a 4.3 average. He has looked his best over the past couple games including his 133 yards two weeks ago against Cheyney. Carfagno and Mike Yanocha are in with 134 and 123 yards apiece while Palm has a positive 104 yards to his credit in 2002.

Middle linebacker Brandon Neely sits atop the WCU tackles list with 43 including 3.5 tfls while fellow linebacker Tim Garman has 37 stops and safety Chad Weaver 33 hits.

Notes: ESU will return home for their Homecoming contest on Nov. 2nd against Millersville University…Jeremy Palm needs only 12 touchdown passes in four games to tie Damian Poalucci's school record 69 career passes.

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