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Written by Penn State Sports Information
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Sunday, 03 September 2006 |
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Notes on the Penn State win over Akron:
-Penn State is 99-19-2 in season openers, 34-7 under Joe Paterno.
-Penn State is now 107-12-1 in home openers.
- The Nittany Lions have won six consecutive games.
-Anthony Morelli's 42-yard touchdown pass to Deon Butler in the first quarter, his first pass as the starting quarterback and Penn State's first pass of the season, was the second touchdown pass of his career. Morelli threw a 55-yard TD pass to Ethan Kilmer vs. Central Michigan last year.
-On PSU's first three drives, Morelli was 7 for 10, for 111 yards and 2 touchdowns and directed the Lions to 17 points. He ended the day 16 of 32 for 206 yards and three touchdowns.
-Morelli is the first Penn State quarterback in the Big Ten era to throw three touchdown passes in his first career start.
-Jordan Norwood's 14-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter was the first touchdown of his career.
-Norwood had a career-high seven catches on the day, the second straight game in which he has set a career high for catches. His previous career high of six catches came last year against Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
- Freshman A.J. Wallace entered the game early in the second quarter and took the ball for a 42-yard reverse on his first play as a collegian. He also returned two kicks (41 & 54) for a total of 95 yards, giving him 137 all-purpose yards in his collegiate debut.
- Freshman Chris Bell recorded his first career reception of 19 yards late in the second quarter.
- Two Penn State freshmen (Wallace & Bell) combined to post 156 all-purpose yards. In last year's season opening win over South Florida, freshmen Justin King, Derrick Williams and Lydell Sargeant combined to post 128 all-purpose yards.
- Joe Cianciolo notched his first career fumble recovery on a muffed punt reception by Akron in the second quarter.
-Dan Connor recorded two sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss, both career-highs. Connor also had 13 tackles, marking the seventh time in his career he has had 10 or more tackles in a game.
- Paul Posluszny's seven tackles give him 263 in his career, moving him into seventh all-time on the Penn State career charts. Brandon Short is sixth with 273. Posluszny passed Trey Bauer (256), who was on the field with the 1986 National Championship team reunion, and Andre Collins (257) today.
-Tim Shaw's two sacks today equaled a career-best.
-Josh Gaines notched his first career sack during the third quarter.
-Anthony Scirrotto recorded his second career interception on the first play of the fourth quarter. His first interception was last season at Illinois. He also had a career-high 5 tackles today.
-Nolan McCready grabbed his second career interception in the fourth quarter. His first was last season at Illinois.
- Kevin Kelly's 42-yard field goal in the fourth quarter was the second-longest of his career and his third over 40 yards.
-Starting for the first time for the Nittany Lions today:
OFFENSE (7 players):
LG Gerald Cadogan
C A.Q. Shipley
RG Robert Price
RT John Shaw
TE Kevin Darling
QB Anthony Morelli
FB Matt Hahn
DEFENSE (5 players):
OLB Sean Lee
CB Tony Davis
FS Donnie Johnson
HERO Anthony Scirotto
CB Justin King (first start on defense)
-Five true freshmen played for Penn State today:
WR Chris Bell
TE Andrew Quarless
CB A.J. Wallace
DE Maurice Evans
DE Jared Odrick
- Penn State visits No. 2 Notre Dame on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in the first meeting between the national powers since 1992.
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