With tight end Oronde Gadsden II releasing a statement before Saturday night’s game at Purdue that the injury he suffered last week would end his season, a lot of the offensive burden for Syracuse shifted onto the shoulders of quarterback Garrett Shrader. As he has often done while for the Orange, Shrader accepted the challenge. The defense did, too.

Shrader posted four rushing touchdowns, the second on a pretty 35-yard scramble and the last on a 28-yard scamper to ice the game with 3:19 remaining, while LeQuint Allen added a fifth. Those two combined for enough points to provide SU (3-0) with a 35-20 victory at Purdue (1-2).

The Orange defense was productively hard-hitting, forcing seven fumbles, and stuffed the Boilermaker ground game throughout the contest, limiting the hosts to 80 yards on 25 carries. SU pounced on three of those loose balls and their offensive mates converted all three of those fumble recoveries into touchdowns.

Add in an interception and two other turnovers on downs (one of the fumble recoveries also came on fourth down), and it was a banner night for the Syracuse defense.

The rushing touchdowns were not it for Shrader, as he topped the Syracuse ground game, amassing 191 yards on 25 carries, and completed 14-of-28 passes for 156 yards with an interception. Allen had 80 rushing yards and a team-high six receptions for 62 more.

The Orange opened the scoring when Shrader capped a 94-yard drive on their second possession by scoring untouched from three yards out following a beautiful play fake. Shrader’s second score came just over 90 seconds into the second period, stretching the SU lead to 14-0.

Purdue responded with a touchdown drive to halve the margin, but Allen scored from two yards to reinstate the 14-point lead shortly before half at 21-7. The Boilermakers found the end zone on their second possession of the third quarter, but Syracuse responded with a 75-yard scoring drive capped by Shrader’s third trip to the end zone and a 28-14 edge.

The hosts replied once more, but a missed extra point kept the Syracuse lead at 28-20 with 8:38 to play. The Orange defense stopped Purdue on fourth down on their next possession and Shrader turned that opportunity into his fourth score three plays later.

The Orange defense generated three turnovers in the first half and four overall. Marlowe Wax had a monster game, getting an interception off a deflection by Alijah Clark and also had a strip-sack for one of his two forced fumbles. Terry Lockett had a pair of fumble recoveries while Leon Lowery collected one. Justin Barron, Kevon Darton, and Anwar Sparrow were each credited with a forced fumble, as well.

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