Stevenson scored three touchdowns in a 12-minute span in the first half and held off Misericordia's second-half rally to hand the Cougars a 28-13 defeat, Saturday afternoon.

Tom Stelzer and Sam Gillison both scored for the Cougars, who battled back from an early 21-0 deficit.

The Cougars took advantage of a Mustangs' turnover when Alec Rhoads recovered a mishandled punt in midway through the third quarter.

Jeff Puckett hit Mark McMaster for eight yards and a personal foul penalty moved the ball to the Stevenson 18 yard line.

Gillison took a shovel pass around the end on second down for 15 yards and his first career TD to cut the deficit to 21-7 with 6:24 to play.

After Stevenson opened the fourth quarter with an eight-play 64-yard scoring drive to make it 28-7, the Cougars quickly moved back into the red zone on the ensuing drive.

A pass interference penalty gave MU a first down near midfield and Gillison took a shovel pass around the right end for a 15 yard gain to the 38.

Puckett connected with McMaster for 12 yards and a first down at the 26, but Stevenson stopped the drive with an interception inside its own 10 yard line on the next play.

The Cougars defense forced a three-and-out and MU took over at its own 29 with 9:01 to play.

Ryan Kurtz picked seven yards on first down and McMaster made a seven-yard grab for a first down.

Puckett rambled for 19 yards for a first down at the Stevenson 35 and found Gillison for nine yards near the right sideline and another first down at the 19.

Facing fourth-and-four, Puckett found Stelzer across the middle and he broke two tackles and powered his way into the end zone for his first career touchdown.

MU's onside kick failed and Stevenson ran nearly three minutes off the clock before turning the ball over on downs with less than a minute remaining.

Gabe Pompette led the MU defense with 10 tackles while Tyler Collins added eight stops.  Rob Hart, Jared Harris and Jordan Aquino all had six tackles.

Stevenson entered the game atop the national statistics with 18 sacks, but was limited to one late sack by the MU offensive line.

MU is 0-4 (0-3 MAC) and will host Albright for Homecoming, Saturday at 1:00.