Lewisburg, PA –  Monmouth University's offense dominated on the ground and the defense forced three turnovers as the Hawks moved to 4-1 on the season with a 35-13 win over Bucknell (2-3) on Saturday night.
 
Safety Mike Basile (Brick, NJ/Brick Memorial) set the Monmouth career tackles record with a stop in the second quarter, surpassing former Hawk Aaron Edward's mark of 353. Basile finished with seven stops and currently has 355 career tackles. Freshman Eric Zokouri (Silver Spring, MD/Montgomery Blair) had a career-high 134 yards on 21 carries.
 
Monmouth went right down the field scoring on a six yard Pete Guerriero (Lyndhurst, NJ/Lyndhurst) run, capping a 75 yard drive that took just 2:44. Kenji Bahar (Baltimore, MD/Calvert Hall) came out and fired a 15 yard strike to White Jr and then followed that up with a 46 yard pitch and catch over the middle to Jake Powell (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee).
 
Bucknell hit a 76 yard pass play to get down to the Monmouth 15 yard line – with Kamau Dumas making the TD saving tackle. The Hawks forced a pair of plays for losses and on fourth down a routine field goal attempt ended in Teddie Martinez' (Baltimore, MD) eighth career interception. A low snap forced a desperation pass by Bucknell kicker John Burdick which was intercepted by Martinez deep in Monmouth territory.
 
The Bison got on the board after a MU wide receiver screen was intercepted by Bryan Marine and returned to the Hawks' four yard line. The Hawks held on first two downs but Bucknell scored on a play action pass of three yards. Basile blocked the extra point and the Hawks led 14-6 with 10:05 left in the second.
 
The Hawks defense continued to dominate while the MU rushing attack got cranked up with Vinny Grasso (Toms River, NJ/Donovan Catholic), Devell Jones (Iselin, NJ/Lincoln) and Bahar all scoring rushing touchdowns as the Monmouth built a 35-6 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Bucknell capitalized off a turnover deep in to cut the lead to 35-13. The Bison got one more shot at cutting into the lead but Manny Maragoto (Freehold, NJ/Freehold Twp.) recorded a fourth down sack and forced fumble, which was recovered by Martinez.
 
NOTES & QUOTES

"We have depth and experience in our offensive line and it's a unit that we rely on quite a bit. We challenged them coming into the game to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and they did a good job of that. We have a couple of good backs who run hard and we decided to feed them."  Monmouth Coach Kevin Callahan
 
"He's a special player for us and I am really happy that he achieved that goal."
Callahan on Mike Basile
 
"I knew I was real close but towards the end of the game Coach Key came up to me and said congrats so I knew I broke it. It's a great accomplishment, it's a great feeling to break any record. Coming into the season I wasn't really worried about it because I knew if I played my game the record would come."
Mike Basile on setting the record
 
 "Coach Callahan said it was going to be a very physical game, similar to our game against Albany. We felt like we let that game get away from us and we weren't going to have that happen again. Our coaches set the game plan up and then it is up to us to execute." Fifth-year senior Teddie Martinez
 

• Basile set the all-time tackles record on a second quarter run
• Teddie Martinez is the second Hawk in as many weeks to record two interceptions in a game after Kamau Dumas did it last week against Hampton
• Monmouth has now won six straight contests against the Patriot League
• Martinez moved past Basile and into a tie for fourth all-time in interceptions with nine (Matt Hill)
• Zokouri recorded a career-high 134 yards – 97 of which came in the first half
• Maragoto now has 12 career sacks to lead the Hawks, one shy of tying Brian Sweeney for 10^th all-time at MU

NUMBERS CRUNCH

• Reggie White Jr. is now tied with Adam San Miguel for fifth all-time in touchdown receptions with 14 after his three yard catch in the second quarter
• Jake Powell finished with 85 yards on four receptions
• Grasso's 39 yard run was a career-long and was his first career touchdown
• Grasso finished with 75 all-purpose yards but the Hawks were led by Zokouri's 154
• Matt White was called on to punt just twice but averaged 42 yards with a long of 46
• White Jr. finished with 39 yards, enough to move him into fifth place all-time at Monmouth past Anthony Galella. He currently has 1,661 yards on 134 receptions
• Monmouth recorded five sacks and five QB hurries and a total of 11 tackles for a loss
• Sam Pierce recorded his first career sack in the win
• Monmouth outrushed Bucknell 292-47, and outgained the Bison 463-251 in the contest
• MU was 4-of-4 in the redzone and 2-for-2 on fourth down conversion attempts

UP NEXT
Monmouth wraps up the non-conference portion of the season and its four-game road swing at Holy Cross.