PSAC football Week 2: IUP finds way to win on day of Hall of Fame coach Cignetti's death

Indiana (Pa.) found countless ways to win in Frank Cignetti's 20 seasons as football coach. On the day the College Football Hall of Famer died, the Crimson Hawks paid homage with a never-give-up performance.

Nick Andrasi kicked a game-ending field goal from 32 yards on Saturday night to lift IUP to a season-opening 38-35 win at East Stroudsburg. IUP led 20-0 just 21 minutes into the game, watched the Warriors (0-2) score 28 straight, reclaimed the lead on quarterback Mak Sexton's two touchdown passes and then saw East Stroudsburg tie it at 35 on Jake Cirillo's fifth touchdown pass of the game with 4 minutes 14 seconds remaining.

IUP got the ball on a punt at the Warriors' 45 with 34 seconds to play. Sexton completed three passes, two for first downs, to set up Andrasi's attempt from the 15 with 3 seconds remaining.

Sexton completed 26-of-36 pass attempts for 360 yards and three touchdowns. The Pittsburg State transfer and receiver Duane Brown connected 12 times for 207 yards and a score.

Coach Paul Tortorella has a 39-9 record one game into his fifth season, the best start for any coach in program history. He has a ways to go to catch up with Cignetti, who died Saturday morning at 84.

Cignetti's teams won 182 games from 1986 to 2005. IUP won 14 PSAC West titles and went to the NCAA Division II playoffs 13 times and to the national title game twice under Cignetti. Also a former West Virginia coach, and the IUP athletic director, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013, the same year IUP renamed its field Frank Cignetti Field at George P. Miller Stadium.

"Frank Cignetti's impact on IUP athletics is profound," Todd Garzarelli, IUP's director of athletics, said in a statement. "He made it his goal to make IUP athletics one of the best in the country by giving its student-athletes a first-class experience that helped set them up for life after sports. Any tribute we have ever given him doesn't match the impact he had on all IUP student-athletes, even the ones who came after his time at IUP ended."

Elsewhere on Saturday:

● Kutztown scored 17 straight fourth-quarter points and upended California (Pa.) 24-19 in the day's marquee East-West crossover game. Cal (1-1) entered the game 17th in the first American Football Coaches' Association poll; Kutztown had dropped two spots out of the preseason Top 25 after a 3-0 loss to Assumption in Week 1.

Kutztown (1-1) scored on Darryl Davis-McNeil's 9-yard run, a 42-yard pass from Donny Blaine to Jerome Kapp and Nick Coppolino's 29-yard field goal to turn a 13-7 deficit into a 24-13 lead. Davis-McNeil ran for 99 yards, one more than California as a team.

● Gannon moved to 2-0, winning 16-10 at Millersville (0-2) behind a stiff defense and relentless rushing attack.

The Golden Knights allowed 157 total yards including 22 on the ground. Trey Baker and Malachi Woody each had two of Gannon's five sacks.

Gannon led 16-3 in the third quarter on Kory Curtis' 10-yard scoring pass to Johnny Freeman, but it was the run game that led the way. Gannon got 135 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries from Melvin Blanks and 76 yards on 10 carries from Antonio Wright. Blanks has started his senior season with back-to-back 100-yard games.

More: Most Gannon football starters are back. Their aim is the Knights' best record since 2015.

● No. 18 Slippery Rock got rushing touchdowns from four different players and won 35-14 at West Chester (1-1).

Chris D'Or ran for 108 yards and a score and Isaiah Edwards, Chris Wells and Noah Grover also scored on the ground for The Rock (2-0).

Week 1: Erie County's college football teams go 3-0 on Division II's season-opening weekend

● Mercyhurst scored 29 third-quarter points to break open a one-point game and routed host Lock Haven 49-7.

The Lakers led 7-6 in the third when Dustin Shoaf scored back-to-back rushing touchdowns. Trevon Tate scored on a 24-yard pass play and Dillon Ferretti returned an interception 32 yards for a touchdown with 13 seconds left in the quarter. Jaylen Butera and Ayron Rodriguez added touchdown runs in the fourth for the Lakers (2-0).

Ferretti and Jacob Holl each had two of Mercyhurst's seven sacks. DeAndre Wakefield ran for 130 yards for Lock Haven (0-2).

Mercyhurst University football preview: Ryan Riemedio coaching era begins

● Ronnie Brown scored on runs of 39, 73 and 50 yards as No. 5 Shepherd beat visiting Edinboro 41-7.

Brown had 278 of Shepherd's 357 rushing yards while the Rams (2-0) held Edinboro to 16 yards on the ground.

Isaac Bernard went 28-of-51 for 338 yards and a touchdown for Edinboro (1-1). He was intercepted twice and sacked four times. Thaddeus Standfield caught seven Bernard passes for 127 yards.

More: What did Brown do for Shepherd in win over Edinboro?

More: Edinboro football had momentum late in 2021. Can the Scots pick up where they left off?

● KJ Riley threw for 258 yards and four touchdowns in Bloomsburg's 42-3 rout of visiting Clarion.

Riley also rushed for a team-best 64 yards, most of it on a 57-yard scoring run in the first quarter.

Bloomsburg is 1-1, Clarion 0-2.

● Redd Douglas scored on a 100-yard kickoff return and twice on passes from Sam Johnson III to lift Shippensburg 36-17 over visiting Seton Hill.

Khi'on Smith gave the Raiders (2-0) an early lead with a 75-yard interception return for a touchdown. JaiQuawn McGriff scored on a 65-yard pass and 8-yard run for Seton Hill (1-1).

Coaches' poll: Gannon, Edinboro football picked to finish in the middle of PSAC West

PSAC football Week 3 schedule

Saturday

● West Chester at Gannon, noon

● Bloomsburg at Edinboro, noon

● Kutztown at Mercyhurst, noon

● East Stroudsburg at Seton Hill, noon

● Slippery Rock at Millersville, noon

● California (Pa.) at Shepherd, noon

● Indiana (Pa.) at Shippensburg, 1 p.m.

● Clarion at Lock Haven, 2 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: IUP earns emotional win in highlight of PSAC football Week 2 action