GROVE CITY, Pa – The Utica College football team played in its fourth ECAC Bowl Series appearance on Saturday. Host Grove City built a 42-0 halftime lead, and never looked back as they topped the Pioneers 49-7 in the 2021 Scotty Whitelaw bowl at Robert Thorn Field in Grove City, Pennsylvania. 

Utica falls to 6-5, while Grove City finishes 8-3. 

The Pioneers had 127 yards of total offense to Grove City's 629. The Wolverines had a 218-48 advantage on the ground, and a 411-79 advantage in passing yards.

On offense, Utica quarterback Sonny Badyna (Brooklyn, NY/St. Peter's) completed 8 passes for 53 yards, while Brandon Belott (Rexford, NY/Shenendehowa) was 4-for-7 for 26 yards and a touchdown in relief. Running back James Salles (West Babylon, NY/West Babylon) had 51 rushing yards, and wide receiver Matt Brantley (Rochester, NY/Eastridge) made five catches for 34 yards and a touchdown.

The story of the day defensively was graduate linebacker Kwasi Addo (Menands, NY/Shaker). Addo had a career-high 21 tackles to become just the third Pioneer to record over 300 career tackles. That performance is  tied for the third-most tackles in school history. He surpassed Pioneer Hall-of-Fame inductee Marcus Maroney for third on the college's all-time list during the game.

Devin Bryant (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) had ten tackles in his final game, while Anthony McDonald (Huntington, NY/Huntington) and James Prastio had nine each.

For Grove City, quarterback Josh Ehst threw for 411 yards and five touchdowns. Clayton Parrish and Zach Trusky each rushed for over 100 yards, while Cody Gustafson had 13 catches for 232 yards and four touchdowns. Scott Fraser had eight catches for 149 yards and a touchdown.

The Pioneers had a promising start to their opening drive, with rookie rusher James Salles (West Babylon, NY/West Babylon) rattling off nine yards on two carries, but the freshman back was stuffed at the line on 3^rd and 1, and the Pioneers ceded control of the football to the Wolverines quickly.

Grove City countered with points on its first offensive series with the aerial connection of quarterback Josh Ehst and receiver Cody Gustafson running the show. On a 7-play, 70 yard drive, much of the distance was covered by that passing pairing, with Ehst finding Gustafson on plays of 22 and 38 yards to park the Wolverines at the Utica 7. Running back Clayton Parrish capped the drive with seven rushing yards, including a 2 yard rushing score, and the Wolverines led 7-0 with 9:16 to go in the first quarter.

A five-yard false start penalty put UC behind the eight ball on its second possession, and while Salles made up half of the distance to the first down on an eight yard run, a pair of incomplete passes forced the drive to fizzle, and Utica punted the ball away a second time.

The pass game fired on all cylinders again for Grove City to double up the lead. Ehst heaved a 15 yard pass to Gustafson, and a 56 yard pass to Scott Fraser to again put the Wolverines in striking distance at the Utica 9. Ehst tossed a four-yard touchdown to Gustafson, and the hosts led 14-0 with 5:37 to go in the first.

The UC offense got itself on the rails the third time around, moving the ball into the red zone. While Salles rushed for six yards to keep the unit in balance, Badyna opened the series with five straight completions to usher the Pioneers up to the Grove City 19 yard line. The drive stalled on a pair of incompletions on the edge of the red zone, and unfortunately for the Pioneers, they would not come away with points. Medici mis-fired on a field goal attempt of 38 yards and Grove City retained its 14-0 lead through the end of the first quarter.

The Ehst and Gustafson show continued in the second quarter to enhance the lead of the hosts. The pair hooked up on touchdown passes of five yards, 60 yards, and 11 yards for a 35-0 lead. The teams traded interceptions late in the half, with Jamel Smith (Spring Valley, NY/Avon Old Farms) running his back to the Grove City 35, but no points resulted. Ehst punched the ball into the endzone on a one yard quarterback sneak, and the Wolverines led 42-0 at halftime. 

Grove City had 389 yards of offense to Utica's 88 at the break.

The third quarter went by without a point on either side of the board.

The fourth quarter opened with an additional passing score for the Wolverines, as Ehst put a six-yard touchdown pass in the hands of Scott Fraser for a 49-0 lead. The Pioneers got on the board with 10:02 left, as an Amari Abraham (Holbrook, NY/Sachem East) interception put the Pioneer offense at the Wolverine 23 yard line. Belott fired two passes into the hands of Matt Brantley (Rochester, NY/Eastridge), with the latter going for a 16 yard touchdown. The score was Brantley's fourth of the year, and the first passing score of Belott's varsity career. The Pioneers stopped Grove City from scoring again with a goal line stand at the 2-yard line, and time ran out on a 49-7 Wolverine win.

The Pioneers were one of just a handful of teams nationally to draw a Week 12 postseason game.