KU football celebrates Family Day with 46-7 victory

Golden Bears move to 3-0 record in the first Saturday home game

By Tommy Scuderi

Students and families packed into Andre Reed Stadium on Saturday, Sep. 20th to watch the Golden Bears take on the Gannon Golden Knights. KU was coming off a 34-0 shutout victory over Edinboro last week and carried that momentum home, refusing to slow down in front of its own crowd.

After forcing Gannon into a punting situation with 12:40 remaining in the first quarter, KU’s Rich Paczweski broke through the line and blocked the punt, which Quintin Pfautz would scoop up at the 10-yard line and waltz his way into the endzone to put KU on top 7-0 early.

KU’s defense would force Gannon to punt once again on their next drive, before quarterback Judd Novak would lead a 12-play, 73-yard drive down the field, before capping it off with a touchdown pass to wide receiver Trevor Amorim. On the extra point, Ben Martin III would serve as the holder, before executing a fake and scampering his way into the endzone to extend the Golden Bear lead to 15-0.

Gannon would respond with their only score of the game, where running back Tristen Kenan would end the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run to bring the Golden Knights within eight.

KU would answer right back with a field goal by kicker Will Smith, their first of the year, to extend the lead back to two scores and make it 18-7. On the next drive, KU linebacker Austin Leyman would force a Gannon fumble deep in Gannon territory that was scooped up by defensive back Lee Coleman. KU would capitalize on the great field position and punch it in to score once again on a play where Judd Novak would roll to his right and find tight end Gino Campagna in the back of the endzone. That catch would be Campagna’s first career receiving touchdown.

At halftime, the kick for tuition was run by KUSSI. The annual event occurs on Family Day, where one immediate family member of a KU student is selected to come out during halftime and attempt to kick a field goal to win a free semester of in-state tuition for their student. David Van Brunt, father of Evan Van Brunt, would drill a 25-yard field goal to secure a free semester as Andre Reed Stadium erupted.

KU’s special teams made their mark once again to start the second half, where Lenneik Preston would return the kickoff 100-yards for a touchdown to make the score 32-7, the first 100-yard kick return touchdown for KU since Oct. 8th, 2011 vs East Stroudsburg.

Steven Burkhardt would gallop into the endzone for an 18-yard touchdown run on KU’s next offensive possession to bring the score to 39-7. Later on, the special teams unit would again make an impact, as defensive back Michael LeMay would race around the line and block a Gannon field goal try.

Not to be left out, the defense would come up big again, where linebacker Austin Leyman would pick off Gannon quarterback Anthony Harris on the first play of a Gannon drive. The special teams unit seemed to take that as a challenge, as on the next Gannon punt, they would record yet another block, this time by Quintin Pfautz, who would continue his career day by surging through the line and getting his paws on the football. It was the first time KU has blocked three kicks in a game since Oct. 30th, 1999, at Millersville. That block would set up KU’s final score of the game, which would come on a 2-yard touchdown run from running back Ben Martin III, with his first career touchdown, to end the scoring with a final score of 46-7.

KU advanced to 3-0 on the season with this victory over Gannon, and will head out to Shepherd next week to take on the Rams on Saturday, Sep. 27th at 12 p.m.