EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ football team succumbed to a relentless Salisbury squad as the Sea Gulls ran away with a 70-17 NJAC victory on Saturday.

Kevin Pennell and Jake McKown caught touchdown passes for the Lions (2-4, 1-2), who were unable to slow a Salisbury offense that piled up 473 rushing yards on the day. The Sea Gulls had eight touchdowns on the ground, four of them from Dario Belizaire – one of two Salisbury players to go over 100 yards.

Salisbury's vaunted triple-option proved too much, generating 306 yards on the ground in the first half alone. Belizaire started the scoring with a pair of rushing touchdowns, and Joey Bildstein added a third first-quarter touchdown to make it 21-0.

The Lions got on the board courtesy of a 35-yard field goal by Bobby Wortman at the 11:25 mark of the second quarter, ending a scoreless streak of more than 15 quarters for a Salisbury defense that came in seventh in Division III in total defense (198.7 yards per game) and 12^th in scoring defense (9.3 PPG).

Salisbury, however, responded with a touchdown just two plays later as Belizaire found a hole and took a pitch 50 yards to pay dirt. The Sea Gulls came into the weekend with the nation's third-ranked rushing offense at 357.7 yards per contest. 

Bildstein's short touchdown plunge extended the lead before Ryan Muller's pick-six just before halftime sent the Sea Gulls into the locker room with a 42-3 advantage.

The Lions' best play of the opening half was a 37-yard completion down the right sideline on a beautifully thrown toss from Trevor Bopp to Malin Jasinski. That was as good as it got for TCNJ, which produced just 70 yards on 35 first-half snaps.

TCNJ went right down the field after intermission, picking up big gains on completions to Jasinski (19 yards) and Jayson Schmidt (31) before Bopp lofted a high-arcing fade to Kevin Pennell in the back left corner of the end zone for an 11-yard score.

After the Sea Gulls (6-1, 3-0) had extended the margin to 63-10, TCNJ found its way back into the end zone as McKown got behind the defense and hauled in a contested pass from Stephen Begen in the back of the end zone for a 29-yard touchdown, the first of his career.

The Lions nearly added a third touchdown with a few minutes remaining, but Schmidt was ruled out of bounds just short of the goal line on third down and was stuffed on the ensuing fourth-down try.

Thomas Burke paced the receiving corps once again with five grabs for 49 yards, while Jasinski caught four balls for a game-high 64 yards. Jasinski also got a few reps at quarterback late in the fourth quarter, completing a 4^th-and-10 pass to Joey Bellamy Jr. for a 21-yard gain down to the Salisbury 5-yard line and adding two carries for nine yards.

Begen finished 7-of-10 for 89 yards and a touchdown in relief of Bopp, who threw for 143 yards and a score on 15-of-30. The Sea Gull secondary, which ranked inside the top-15 in the nation in interceptions, snagged four more on Saturday, all coming from different players.

Schmidt notched 81 yards of total offense, gaining 49 yards on 11 carries and adding a pair of receptions for 32 yards. 
 
Matt Kuntz and Cole Groschel were busy all afternoon, combining for 25 total tackles. Kuntz' 14 marked a career high and matched the highest single-game total by a TCNJ defender since Sean Kley tallied 15 in a 2014 game with Wisconsin-Whitewater. Kuntz also forced two fumbles, though both rolled out of bounds to keep the ball with the Sea Gulls.

Bildstein racked up 161 yards on 20 carries and the two touchdowns, with Beliziare tacking on 120 yards to go with his four rushing scores on just eight totes.

The Lions hit the road to take on William Paterson next Saturday.