Kilburn's Pick Six, Lopinto's Two Picks Lift Robert Morris Past Mercyhurst 28-14

Robert Morris had spent two straight Saturdays losing football games it felt it should have won. On Saturday, the Colonials stopped worrying about how close the finish would be and simply took the ball away.

Robert Morris forced four turnovers, got a pick six from Mekhi Kilburn and two interceptions from Jake Lopinto, and beat Mercyhurst 28-14 on Saturday, Oct. 24, at Joe Walton Stadium in Moon Township, Pa. A crowd of 1,451 watched in 63 degrees and sunshine.

The win moved Robert Morris to 4-4 overall and 2-1 in the Northeast Conference. It also snapped a two-game skid that had stung, a 28-27 loss to Morgan State and a 26-15 loss to New Haven. Mercyhurst, in its first year under coach Tom Sydeski, fell to 1-7 and 0-3 in league play.

A fast start, then a long wait

The Colonials did not waste time. Their opening drive covered 61 yards in five plays, and quarterback Carson Haggard finished it with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Jaqai Carter. It was 7-0 with 12:56 still on the first-quarter clock, and it looked like the kind of afternoon where the home team might pull away early.

It was not. Robert Morris lined up for a 23-yard field goal late in the first quarter, and Mercyhurst's Daylan Pringle blocked it. Later, the Lakers' Jake Miller stuffed a fourth-and-1 at the Mercyhurst 10. Twice the Colonials knocked on the door, and twice they left with nothing.

Mercyhurst made them pay for that. With 3:04 left in the first half, quarterback Alex Gevaudan capped a six-play, 88-yard drive with a 40-yard touchdown pass to Amare Lattimore. Tie game, and a visiting team that had won just once all season suddenly had a pulse.

Sixteen seconds that changed the half

Here is where the game turned. Robert Morris got the ball back with 48 seconds left in the half and needed only two plays to answer. Haggard hit Carter for 38 yards to flip the field, and Keino Fitzpatrick II ran the last 7 yards for the touchdown. The whole drive covered 45 yards and took 16 seconds. Instead of heading to the locker room tied, the Colonials went in up 14-7.

Mercyhurst had just done the hard work of erasing a deficit on the road. Sixteen seconds later, it was behind again.

The third quarter was scoreless, and for a while it felt like the game might grind into a one-score fight to the finish. Then Robert Morris put together its best drive of the day, an eight-play, 80-yard march that carried into the fourth quarter. Haggard ended it with a 35-yard touchdown pass to Galen Combs with 14:13 left. It was 21-7.

The pick six

Mercyhurst still had time. Gevaudan took over and started throwing, and that was when Kilburn made the play of the game. He stepped in front of a Gevaudan pass and returned it 89 yards for a touchdown with 12:18 to go. In less than two minutes of game time, a seven-point game had become a 28-7 game.

To its credit, Mercyhurst did not fold. Gevaudan led a long drive, 90 yards in 11 plays by the Lakers' count, and found Lattimore again for a 21-yard touchdown with 8:06 left. That made it 28-14 and gave the visitors a sliver of hope.

The Robert Morris defense ended it from there. Lopinto picked off his second pass of the afternoon, and Mercyhurst never scored again. Four takeaways, no comeback.

The players who decided it

Start with Lopinto. He finished with 11 tackles, two interceptions and two pass breakups, and on Monday the NEC named him its Defensive Player of the Week. Kilburn, whose 89-yard return broke the game open, also collected an NEC weekly honor. Amanuel Dickson added nine tackles, and Ronnie Woods had eight.

The pass rush did its part, too. Robert Morris sacked Gevaudan four times for 35 yards in losses. Khalil Daniels had two of them, worth 23 yards, and Khalil Hunter had a sack and a half to go with four quarterback hurries. Pressure like that is a big reason Gevaudan threw three interceptions.

On offense, Haggard completed 18 of 32 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns. He had been named NEC Offensive Player of the Week three straight times earlier this month, and this was a quieter day. It was enough. Carter led the receivers for the second straight week with six catches for 86 yards and a touchdown. Combs caught five for 76 and a score, and Noah Schaerli added three catches for 45.

The run game was a committee. J'Kharri Thomas carried seven times for 35 yards, Xavier Goulbourne had seven for 29, and Fitzpatrick scored the touchdown that turned the half.

Mercyhurst's bright spots

The Lakers lost, but they found something in Ethen Knox. Making the first start of his career, Knox ran 18 times for 95 yards and caught nine passes for 78 more. That is 173 yards from scrimmage, and on a day when not much else came easily, he was the most reliable thing Mercyhurst had.

Gevaudan threw for 297 yards and two touchdowns, completing 25 of 48 passes, and Lattimore turned four catches into 84 yards and both scores. This is the same quarterback who threw for 409 yards in a 43-40 loss to Central Connecticut State earlier this season, so the arm is real. The problem was the three picks, and one of them went the other way for six.

Jeff Leavell led the Mercyhurst defense with eight tackles and a sack.

Stats that matter

Robert Morris finished with 322 total yards, which is not a huge number. It did not need to be. The Colonials won the turnover battle 4-0, and those four takeaways produced a touchdown directly and ended three other Mercyhurst possessions.

The run defense deserves a mention, too. Mercyhurst ran 30 times for just 88 yards, and almost all of the Lakers' production on the ground came from Knox. Holding a team under 3 yards per carry forces it to throw, and throwing into this secondary turned out to be a bad idea.

The Colonials were simply better at the end of each half, outscoring Mercyhurst 14-7 in the fourth quarter alone. The full numbers are in the official box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

For Robert Morris, a .500 record and a 2-1 conference mark keep the Colonials in the NEC conversation. They are not out of anything. But the schedule got harder right away. Next on the schedule was a trip to Central Connecticut State on Oct. 31, against a Blue Devils team that had entered the week 4-3 overall and 3-0 in the league. After that come Duquesne, Stonehill and LIU, a stretch that will decide what this season is.

The two losses before this one came down to late breakdowns. This time the defense made the late plays instead of giving them up.

Mercyhurst, meanwhile, is still looking for its first conference win in Sydeski's first season. The Lakers' next game was at Stonehill on Oct. 31. They have a quarterback who can throw it and a running back who just announced himself. What they need is to stop giving the ball away. Both schools have the details in their recaps, from Robert Morris (opens in a new tab) and from Mercyhurst (opens in a new tab).

The last word

Mercyhurst won last year's meeting 27-13, and Robert Morris had lost two straight coming in. Neither of those things mattered by the middle of the fourth quarter. The Colonials did not play a perfect game, missed chances early and let a struggling opponent hang around into the second half.

But four turnovers will cover a lot of mistakes, and a defense that scores is the best answer to a two-game skid. Robert Morris needed a win. Its defense went and got one.

Sources: Robert Morris Athletics and Mercyhurst Athletics recaps, the official box score and Northeast Conference weekly honors. More FCS and college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: RMU Athletics.