It has been a windy road through the first six games for the Bald Eagles. Lock Haven (2-4) has played in four consecutive one-score games before the game on Saturday, but the Golden Bears (6-0) put that to a swift end. It is the first time since 2021 (a game against Bloomsburg) that Lock Haven has been shut out through four quarters.
Here are five takeaways:
1. A bad matchup, in more ways than one.
Sometimes the team you face is simply the wrong team at the wrong time, and I think that was the case Saturday. Going into the game Lock Haven was the No.1 ranked passing team in the PSAC, meanwhile Kutztown was the No.1 ranked passing defense. Meanwhile Kutztown was the No. 3 ranked total offense, versus Lock Haven’s No.10 ranked defense.
The Golden Bears are a top five team in all of Division II for a reason. Their talent level is simply something Lock Haven has not seen so far this year. While the loss still stings, as it should, it must be noted that five years ago a game like this would have been 70-0 instead of 24-0.
2. Defense stood tall
I have been critical of the defense the past few weeks, but they deserve a lot of credit for their play on Saturday. One week after allowing almost 300 rushing yards, the Bald Eagles held Kutztown to only 157 yards on the ground, with most of those coming when the Golden Bears were trying to run out the clock. The Bald Eagles’ defense kept making plays to keep them in the game, whether it be a fourth-and-1 stand in the red zone, or holding Kutztown to only 10 points off of the four turnovers Lock Haven had.
The pass rush was not as lethal as in weeks past, but they did a great job with the run. Multiple times they dropped Golden Bears’ rushers for a loss, something they have not done in any other game this year. Lock Haven held the Golden Bears to only 24 points, which is tied for their lowest point total so far this year. The Bald Eagles were hurt by two busted coverages, and a Kutztown 50-yard field goal, their longest successful field goal in team history.
Without one or two of those plays, the scoreboard looks a lot better than it was. I cannot overstate enough how impressed I was with the defensive performance on Saturday. If they play like that every week it will be hard for any team to put up points against them.
3. Bad day for the offense, but there are signs.
Saturday was a nightmare for the Bald Eagles offense, going from bad to worse on every drive. As I said before Kutztown was the No.1 pass defense in the PSAC going into the game, and they completely shut down Lock Haven’s No. 1 passing attack. Quarterback Jackson Ostrowsky had his worst game of the season, throwing three INTs and losing one fumble while only throwing for 194 yards.
Ostrowsky leads the PSAC in passing yards, but also in INTs with nine. Lock Haven head coach Dan Mulrooney has said before that he is confident in his quarterback, and his opinion has not changed on that front, for good reason. Lock Haven doesn’t get its win against Millersville without Ostrowsky’s late-game heroics, and one bad afternoon does not change that fact.
There were other factors at play as well in the offense’s performance. Again, the run game struggled, however, it did show some life early on, and there were multiple dropbacks where Ostrowsky simply did not have an open receiver to throw to.
Either way you look at it, the offensive play was not good enough, but they were the best passing offense in the PSAC for a reason. There is no need to panic or make a change at any position as of now. If this continues then maybe that conversation can be had, but for right now I see no reason to make a rash decision based off of the offense’s first true bad game of the season.
“When you lose games and people don’t execute, there are always conversations.” coach Mulrooney said when asked if they will make any changes in offensive personnel. “There are always conversations going on the sideline about what’s going on and why it happened. We have good players, but we can’t play like that and expect to beat anybody. Me and our staff will watch the tape. You can’t make rash decisions but when we watch the film, if we see a problem that is glaring you have got to make the appropriate adjustments.”
4. The nightmare schedule is over
The first six games for the Bald Eagles were always going to be tough, and coming out of it 2-4 is not entirely unexpected. Four out of their first five PSAC games were against teams picked to finish near the top of their divisions in preseason. Now with the tough games out of their way, the path gets much easier for Lock Haven. Bloomsburg and East Stroudsburg are the only teams left on Lock Haven’s schedule who have either even or winning records. West Chester, Shippensburg and Gannon are the other three teams remaining, and they have a combined record of only 5-13.
Coach Mulrooney has said the goal for this season was six wins, meaning they can only lose one game out of the last five to reach that goal. With the easier back half of the year that is certainly doable, but it is a razor thin margin the rest of the way.
5. This team needed this result
Obviously Lock Haven would have preferred to win on Saturday, but I think getting shutdown like they were is a good thing long-term. Two weeks ago Lock Haven beat Millersville in a game that they were thoroughly outplayed. Lock Haven had a negative turnover differential, and got pushed around by a Marauders run game who has not come close to replicating that performance since. The Bald Eagles needed to see that most PSAC teams aren’t Millersville.
If you play sloppy, this is what is going to happen. On the sidelines I could see how visibly frustrated the Bald Eagles were with what happened, and they should have been. But the great thing about football is, there is always next Saturday.
Energy and emotions will be high going into Saturday’s home night game versus a surprising Bloomsburg squad. But if Lock Haven can take all that frustration from Saturday, and mold it into motivation, they have a golden opportunity to make a statement versus the Huskies.
It has been 43 years since the Bald Eagles have finished a season with more wins than losses, and getting a positive result in this week’s game versus Bloomsburg (3-3) is all but necessary to keep the six win hope alive.
Hubert Jack Stadium will play host to a night game rendition of the “The Battle on I 80”, Kickoff is scheduled for 6 PM.
Ryan States is in his 3rd year at Lock Haven University, and his second with the Eagle Eye. He is a Journalism major with intentions to minor in Sports Management. With his never-ending passion for all things sports, he wishes to pursue a career as a sports writer for a major outlet. When not watching sports, he can be found playing video games, hanging out with friends at the REC. Or you can find him helping out in the booth during LHU sporting events. His biggest hope while at Lock Haven is to be able to positively contribute to LHU sports in any way he can.
