MOON TOWNSHIP – Robert Morris (3-3) coming off of their bye week and a loss was looking to get back on track for their season and put that loss behind them as they welcomed Delaware State (1-6) to Joe Walton Stadium for the homecoming game.
You could tell there was a week off for the Colonials as they would only score three points in the first half, but in the second half the offense would wake up and put points on the board. RMU would make homecoming a good one by getting the win 23-0.
The only points scored in the first half would come by way of field goal. Jayson Jenkins would hit a 37-yard field goal to cap an eight play, 43-yard drive.
With only scoring three points in the first half the Colonials would need to make second half adjustments to put some points on the board.
“The biggest thing was the offense needed to start moving the ball, start seeing some cracks in their defense and we were able to take advantage of those things,” Clark said. “They didn’t handle switch routes well so we needed to do a better job at getting guys open.”
Those seconds were heard by the team and they would come out and score three unanswered touchdowns. The second half started with a 42 yard pass from Anthony Chiccitt to Carl Smith to make the score 10-0.
Anthony Chiccitt would play a part in the final two touchdowns. He would attribute another passing touchdown to Cole Mitchell and Chiccitt would find himself some space and rush in a TD for 20 yards.
Anthony Chiccitt would go 25 for 31 for 224 passing yards and two passing touchdowns, and would get the rushing touchdown as well.
The first half was night and day for this game however the Robert Morris offense was aggressive the whole game. There were two instances in the first half where the Colonial offense found themselves in fourth and short situations.
One moment was around midfield and the other instance came in the red zone. Both times the offense would come up short and turn the ball over on downs.
After the game, I was able to talk with coach Clark about his team’s aggressiveness when it comes to those types of situations.
“In those situations I’m trying to see if we can get some momentum going. Because they (Delaware State) are getting excited because they are getting stops, so I’m trying to get the first downs so we can get a little more excited”.
For how unimpressive the offense in the first half, the main story of the game might be the defensive performance by the Colonials. RMU would shut out an opponent for the first time since September 2023.
The Colonials did a good job of getting to the quarterback, sacking him for a total of five times. Lucas Lambert led the team with 1.5 sacks. But everyone on defense got in the mix, 25 total players would record a tackle with Tyris Harvey leading the charge with nine.
After the game, coach Clark spoke upon just how impressive that defensive performance was tonight.
“We put pressure on the quarterback which is what we went into the game wanting to do because their quarterback is a mobile threat”.
Robert Morris will return to Joe Walton Stadium next week for an NEC game against LIU.
