BLOOMSBURG - In the never-ending quest for excellence, football players and coaches will never look at a performance - no matter how dominating - and say it was the "perfect" game.
Until that happens, Bloomsburg will have to be content with Saturday's 41-10 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division thrashing of West Chester in a showdown of undefeated and nationally ranked teams on Danny Hale Field at Redman Stadium. Considering the quality of the opponent, this performance was as impressive as any the 8th-ranked Huskies (8-0, 7-0 PSAC) have had in recent memory and their largest even over the Golden Rams (7-1, 6-1).
Defensively, redshirt sophomore defensive back Jerrin Toomey, who was making his first career start in place of injured senior Tyler Knoblauch, intercepted three passes, which were as many as senior quarterback Sean McCartney had thrown the entire season for the 7th-ranked Rams. Defensive back Tomas Cabrera also had an interception and a forced fumble, and defensive back D.J. Robinson and linebacker Andrew Harris both had fumble recoveries.
Offensively, the two-headed running threat of senior Eddie Mateo and junior Dai'Shon Munger had career performances. The Huskies rushed for 454 yards. Mateo had 22 carries for a career-best 269 yards and four touchdowns, and Munger had 13 carries for a career-best 143 yards.
"I'd like to think that all I did was do my job and follow my blockers," Mateo said. "Right now this offense is getting better week after week, and I think a lot of that has to do with the play of our offensive line.
"This just feels really good to come out here and get a win over a top-10 team. It especially feels good after the way they beat us in the playoffs."
Last year, the Huskies won 31-28 in Week 10 at West Chester to clinch the PSAC-East title and propel themselves to the PSAC title. In the NCAA second round, however, the Rams won 40-38 at Bloomsburg.
Especially impressive was the right side of the offensive line where red-shirt junior guard Nick Reed and red-shirt sophomore tackle John Garland shredded the Rams. Bloomsburg set the tone early with a 4-yard TD run by Mateo to cap a six-play, 34-yard drive that was set up when Robinson recovered a fumble on the second play of the game.
Later in the quarter the Huskies used a five-play, 88-yard drive to take a 14-0 lead on a 12-yard run by Mateo, who got the drive started with a 56-yard run to the 32 to become the eighth player in Bloomsburg history to rush for more than 3,000 yards. By far, that was the biggest deficit of the season for the Rams, who trailed 10-7 in the season-opening 35-30 victory at New Haven.
"I'd have to say we got an excellent effort in all areas," Bloomsburg coach Paul Darragh said. "That all began this week in the meetings and practices the coaches had with the various units and the efforts we got from the players.
"There's been improvement in all areas, and the offensive line has developed and settled in with its level of play. We've been seeing this for the last few weeks that in all areas we've been getting better and better."
Bloomsburg increased its lead to 24-3 at the half on a 25-yard field goal by Braden Drexler and a 21-yard TD run by Mateo. A 21-yard TD pass from Tim Kelly, who completed 11-of-19 passes for 99 yards, to Connor Gades and a 22-yard field goal by Drexler extended the lead to 34-3 in the third quarter before the Rams got their only TD on a 22-yard pass from McCartney to Tim Brown with 40 seconds left in the quarter.
McCartney was coming off a 339-yard, five-TD passing performance in a 55-28 victory at Shippensburg that earned him his second PSAC-East Offensive Player of the Week award. From the outset the Huskies made certain he would be under pressure, getting three sacks for minus-32 yards and harassing him into a 22-of-42 performance for 170 yards.
"We all knew what this game meant," Toomey said. "I just wanted to make sure I did my job."
Like the rest of the Huskies, he did his job as close to perfect as could be expected.