Gettysburg College Athletics

OPENING KICKOFF: Today’s Centennial Conference (CC) game marks the 67th meeting between Gettysburg (2-6, 1-3 CC) and Ursinus (7-1, 3-1 CC) in a series that dates back to 1903. The Bullets lead the all-time series 35-27-4 but the Bears have won the last six meetings. The last Gettysburg win was a 42-17 victory in Collegeville on Sept. 10, 2016.

WHEN LAST WE MET: Ursinus scored 28 straight points in the second quarter before holding off a furious second-half rally by Gettysburg to finish off a 48-35 win last season. Rocco Abdinoor (Edgewater, Md./St. Mary’s Annapolis) led the Bullets with a career-high 316 yards passing, completing 24 of 34 passes with two touchdowns. He also ran 13 times for 27 yards and a score. Ryan McAndrew registered his third straight 100-yard receiving game, catching seven balls for 130 yards. He caught one touchdown. Jalen Bradford also had a 300-yard passing day for the Bears, completing 18 of 30 passes for 312 yards and four touchdowns. (Full Recap) (Box Score)

COACHES’ CORNER: Moe Banks is in his fifth year in charge of the Gettysburg program and fourth season with games. Banks enters today’s game with a 6-31 record on the sidelines. He came to Gettysburg after six seasons at Georgetown (2014-18) and Penn (2019). At Georgetown, he coached defensive backs and oversaw special teams, including mentoring a secondary that ranked third in the FCS in team passing efficiency defense (97.2 percent) and fourth in interceptions (20) in 2018. At Penn, Banks assisted with the development and implementation of defensive and special teams schemes. He coached a pair of All-Ivy League selections at linebacker and was also the play-caller for the kickoff unit, which finished third in the Ivy League in net kickoff average… Peter Gallagher is in his 24th season at Ursinus. He has posted a 129-109 mark at the helm of the Bears, including a 6-4 record in his first season (2001), marking the first time an Ursinus coach registered a winning season in his first year. In 2006, Gallagher added offensive coordinator to his duties and recorded the most successful campaign in his tenure at 8-3. In 2010, he guided the Bears to a share of the Centennial Conference title and became the program’s all-time wins leader. Prior to his arrival in Collegeville, he served as the defensive coordinator at the University of Rochester in addition to successful stints at Dartmouth, Wagner and Georgetown. Gallagher guided Ursinus to seven straight winning seasons – the longest stretch in program history. In 2018, the Bears returned near the top of the standings with an 8-3 record that included a 70-14 win over Misericordia in a Centennial-MAC Bowl game. Ursinus has won its Centennial-MAC Bowl matchup each of the last two seasons.

LAST TIME OUT: Dickinson scored 34 straight points to take a 34-7 lead and ultimately defeat Gettysburg 34-14 last Saturday. Michael Zrelak (Monroe, N.Y./Monroe-Woodbury) led the Bullets with 81 yards rushing on 13 carries and a touchdown. He also caught a 14-yard pass. Dane Sorensen led the Red Devils with 112 yards rushing on 13 carries with a touchdown.

LEADING THE WAY: Rocco Abdinoor (Edgewater, Md./St. Mary’s Annapolis) and Vic Hofman (Pasadena, Calif./Maranatha) captain the squad in 2024. Both are first-time captains. It is the first time since 2019 that the Bullets have had just two captains for a season.

TRIPLE-THREAT: Rocco Abdinoor added a receiving touchdown to his ledger on Saturday. He has now thrown for 13 scores this season and run for another seven before adding the four-yard receiving touchdown late in the first quarter on Saturday. He has three receptions this season for 15 yards in addition to his 87 rush attempts for 647 net yards. 

PASSING UP THE LIST: Rocco Abdinoor now has more than 1,500 yards passing this season. He enters the final two weeks, averaging 195.3 yards per game with 13 passing touchdowns. His 1,562 yards is the most by a Bullets signal caller since Justin Davidov threw for 1,850 during the 2017 season. Davidov also threw 13 touchdown passes that season. 

RUNNING DOWN A DREAM: Gettysburg enters this week as the top rushing team in the conference, averaging 204.5 yards per game. The Bullets are averaging 6.2 yards per carry and have found the end zone 17 times on the ground. Michael Zrelak and Rocco Abdinoor both have more than 600 yards on the year. Zrelak leads the team with 657 yards on 112 carries with seven touchdowns. His 82.1 yards per game is second in the conference. Abdinoor is third in the CC at 80.9 yards per game. He has 647 yards on 87 attempts. He is averaging 7.4 yards per carry, which is ninth among all Division III rushers and second among quarterbacks.

SACK LUNCH: Alex Estes (Ashburn, Va./Broad Run) picked up just the sixth sack of the season for the Gettysburg defense. He is the only player on the roster with multiple sacks this season, leading the way with 2.0 on the season. Estes has 23 total tackles, including 4.5 for loss. He also has an interception this season. 

OFFENSIVE DISPLAY: The Bullets have scored 238 points this season, which is the highest scoring output since the 2016 team put up 305 points. Gettysburg has scored 14 or more points in all but one game this season and 30 points or more in half of the first eight games. In total, 14 different players have contributed to the 238 points, including 11 different players scoring at least one touchdown. 

BULLET POINTS: Gettysburg has held a lead in six of its eight games this season… This is one of just five games this season in the traditional 1:00 Saturday timeslot. The final four games of the season have a 1:00 kickoff. Gettysburg had two noon kickoffs, one 3:00 Saturday kickoff along with two Friday night games. 

The Bears enter today’s game off a 42-0 win at McDaniel last Saturday. Ursinus outgained the Green Terror 498-61 on the day, including holding its hosts to minus-14 yards. The Bears had six sacks for 41 yards. Jalen Bradford completed 22 of 39 passes for 263 yards and three touchdowns. Jason Bernard ran the ball 23 times for 128 yards. Justin Collier had eight grabs, including two touchdowns, for 115 yards. Ursinus held just a 7-0 lead at halftime before a 14-point third quarter and 21-point fourth quarter. Pat McManus led the defense with seven tackles, including a sack, to go with a forced fumble and two pass breakups… The Bears have scored 40 or more points in five of their eight games this season and have only been held to fewer than 23 once – a 16-7 loss to Johns Hopkins two weeks ago. The defense has surrendered more than 17 points just once this season – a 53-50 shootout win over Muhlenberg a Friday night (Oct. 4) in Allentown… Tony Holden leads the conference in rushing with 955 yards, averaging 119.4 yards per game. He also paces the league with 12 touchdowns on the ground and needs just 45 yards for 1,000 this season. His 18 yards on seven carries last week was a season low. He had six 100-yard rushing games over the first seven, including a 226-yard outburst against Rowan on Sept. 21… The Bears are second in the conference in rushing offense (200.4 ypg) and first in rushing defense (60.0). No other team is even close in the disparity in rushing yards this season… Bradford is 188 yards shy of 2,000 passing for the season. He is completing 55.7 percent of his passes with 18 touchdown and averaging 226.5 per contest… Collier has seven receiving touchdowns this year. He and Cameron Dennis are both averaging more than 50 yards receiving this season. Collier is at 67.5 yards per game while Dennis is at 53.3… The Ursinus defense has a conference-high 31 sacks this season – nine more than any other team in the CC… Connor Carter and Aaron Rios both have 10.0 sacks this season. They are the only players in the conference with double-digit sacks… Ursinus needs to win both of its last two games and have Johns Hopkins lose both games to claim the conference title. Otherwise, the Bears will be the top seed in the Centennial-MAC Bowl series with just one win in their final two.