For the second straight week, the Rowan football team was able to earn a win against a nationally ranked opponent.

The Profs stunned undefeated No. 11 ranked Salisbury University in an exciting 34-30 victory to improve their regular season record to 4-1 and their conference record to 3-1.

Despite some uncharacteristically poor defensive play, the Rowan offense rose to the occasion to carry the brown and gold over Salisbury. Junior quarterback Dante Pinckney, who was named New Jersey Athletic Conference player of the week, completed 17 of 22 passes for 300 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 17 yards. 

Pinckney’s favorite target on the day, Zac Frantz, had a huge game, coming up with four passes for 141 yards and two scores. On the very first play of the third quarter Frantz caught a pass to score a 75-yard touchdown. Later in the fourth quarter, he caught a 42-yard pass during an eight play drive that lasted four minutes and ended with him catching a 13-yard touchdown pass to take the lead in the fourth quarter.

After suffering a three point loss to the Seagulls last year, Rowan used the rematch as motivation this week.

“We were undefeated last year going to play at their homecoming, we lost a close one by three and it was vice versa this year,” Frantz said.  “We were ready all week. We were looking forward to this game.”

The brown and gold weren’t able to slow down Salisbury’s offense that has been steamrolling teams with their triple-option attack, but they able to win the turnover battle and stop the Seagulls when it mattered. The Profs successfully shut down the Seagulls on third down, limiting them to two conversions on 12 tries. The Profs also prevented their opponent from converting on fourth down twice.

Rowan University head coach Jay Accorsi, impressed with his team’s victory, was not only satisfied, but already looking ahead for the next upcoming opponent.

“We’re 4-1 and we play next week,” Accorsi said. “We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve played some good football, but week in and week out in this conference is just brutal and you have to be prepared every week.”

A tough road loss to Montclair State earlier in the season handed the Profs their only conference loss, however the brown and gold are trying to look ahead especially after these past two upset wins. For their efforts, the Profs have debuted at No. 24 in the D3football.com Top 25.

The next game for the Profs will be this Saturday when they take on NJAC opponent 1-4 Southern Virginia University. The Knights are 0-4 in the conference and have been averaging only eight points a game on offense and 31 points allowed on defense.

With just five games remaining on the schedule, the brown and gold will have to take advantage of each one if they want to secure a top position in the NJAC. Two of those five teams have yet to win a conference game, but every win at this point in the schedule will prove to be critical if Rowan has hopes of going into the playoffs.

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