EWING, N.J. – Oh, what a difference a year makes.
 
The TCNJ football team showed just how far its come in Saturday's home opener, pulling out a 17-13 victory over visiting Franklin & Marshall to improve to 2-0 on the year and exact a measure of revenge for a 25-point setback at the hands of the Diplomats a season ago.
 
Jack Young picked off an errant pass in the end zone – one of three turnovers forced by the TCNJ defense on the day – to preserve a fourth-quarter lead, and Jayson Schmidt and Malin Jasinski made it stand up with a litany of huge plays on a victory-sealing march that consumed the last 8:01 of game clock.
 
Jasinski racked up 13 catches and well over 100 yards for the second straight game, finishing with 139, while Schmidt ground up a stout Diplomats defense for 174 yards on 32 totes. Jasinski converted two third downs on the final drive and clinched the win with an 8-yard reception on 4^th-and-5 with just over two minutes remaining and F&M out of timeouts.
 
After Brandon Kuse, who wound up with 3.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks on the afternoon, combined with Pat Frawley for a sack to short-circuit an F&M possession, TCNJ covered 65 yards in 14 plays to grab the game's first points. Jasinski picked up 13 yards on a 3^rd-and-10, and a pass interference call gave the Lions a conversion on 3^rd-and-11 before Bopp found Thomas Burke in the flat for a 7-yard touchdown.
 
Both defenses stiffened from there, and Christian Bennett's back-to-back breakups limited F&M to a short field goal with 5:51 left before half.
 
TCNJ got into the red zone on each of its next two trips, but Bopp had a pass tipped and picked near the goal line and Schmidt lost a fumble. Kuse came through late in the half, though, stripping Ty Tremba on a sack and knocking the ball loose for Bill Westerby to recover. A 16-yard pass from Bopp to Jasinski gave the Lions a shot at a field goal, and Tim Willever delivered with a 41-yard kick that just cleared the crossbar with 2.3 ticks left in the half.
 
F&M pulled within 10-6 on a chip-shot field goal midway through the third and took the lead on Aidan Hutchison's 5-yard run with 3:43 left in the quarter.
 
That was all the scoring for F&M, but the Lions weren't done. A roughing penalty negated a Diplomat interception at midfield, and TCNJ capitalized on the second chance with a 27-yard dash from Schmidt leading to Bopp's 10-yard TD pass to Ryan Gill, who went over a defender and hauled it in to cap the scoring with 20 ticks left in the period.
 
The Diplomats threatened to go in front again in the fourth, stuffing Schmidt on a 4^th-and-1 and taking the ball down to the Lions' 8-yard line before Young came off his receiver and snared a high throw from Tremba intended for his tight end.
 
TCNJ never let F&M get the ball back. The Lions picked up third downs to Jasinski (twice) and Burke before Jasinski burned his defender one final time, getting wide open on the perimeter for a clinching conversion.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• TCNJ outgained F&M, 415-316, and held the Diplomats to just 62 yards on the ground
• The Lions were 8-of-15 on third down and averaged 5.3 yards per play
• Young and Justin Kurc each picked off a pass for the Lions, who held Tremba below 50-percent passing
• F&M was just 5-of-14 on third downs

NOTES

• TCNJ is off to its first 2-0 start since 2011
• Jasinski is believed to be the first player in TCNJ history to notch 13 or more receptions in back-to-back games, and the captain has 26 catches for 291 yards in just two games
• Bopp became the fifth quarterback in program history to eclipse 4,000 career passing yards, and his TD to Gill was the 30^th of his career – also fifth in school history
• Schmidt notched his fifth career 100-plus yard rushing game
• Burke secured his 11^th career touchdown catch
• Young snagged his ninth career interception, while Kurc's was his first
• Bennett matched Young with three PBUs
• Kuse more than doubled his career sacks entering Saturday (1.0) and produced the second and third forced fumbles of his career. Remarkably, he had strip-sacks on back-to-back plays, the second of which was recovered by Westerby
• Drew Varlese had his first career half-sack, splitting one with Darian Ghahary
• Willever connected on his first career field-goal attempt and is now 6-for-6 on extra points

UP NEXT

• The Lions put their unbeaten mark to the test at No. 18 Muhlenberg next Saturday