NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. – Mount Union opened its 124^th football season with a 48-7 victory at Westminster (Pa.) Saturday at Burry Stadium in New Wilmington, Pa.

Running back Josh Petruccelli (Perry) had three rushing touchdowns and the defense held the Titans to four first downs in a first have that saw Mount Union run out to a 35-7 lead. Petruccelli put one more score on the board in the second half to give him four for the day and 49 for his career.

Quarterback Braxton Plunk (Plant City, Fla.) threw for over 300 yards with touchdown passes to Derrick Harvey, Jr. (Akron / Buchtel) and Ulice Gillard (Orlando, Fla. / Lake Nona).

The Raiders held Westminster to a three and out on the game's first possession with two of those plays being a tackle for loss and a sack by Duke Hill (Memphis, Tenn. / Germantown). After a short punt from the Titans, Mount Union took over on the Westminster 42-yard line and quickly drove down and scored on a Josh Petruccelli 21-yard run. Westminster got just one first down on its next drive and Raiders turned around and marched down the field in seven plays capped by an eight-yard touchdown run from DeAndre Parker made it 14-0.

It appeared the Mount Union defense had forced another three-and-out but the Titans ran a fake punt on fourth down and got into Raider territory. The defense held again but the Raiders first play of the ensuing drive resulted in Plunk's second career interception which gave the Titans the ball at the Mount Union 26-yard line. Westminster again had to go for it on fourth down and this time Cole Konieczka threw a 28-yard strike to Chevy Dawson to make it 14-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Petruccelli had a three-yard scoring dive on the Raiders first drive of the second quarter to push the lead to 21-7. The defense did its job again and Mount Union finished off the next drive with a Plunk to Harvey 13-yard TD pass to push the lead to 28-7.

Both teams exchanged turnovers late in the quarter as Westminster's Nicholas Treloar had a sack and fumble then returned it to the Raiders' 19-yard line but two plays later Jevanni Witter (Miramar, Fla. / Everglades) got an interception to give the ball back to Mount Union.

Petruccelli finished off the half for the Raiders with his third TD rush of the game and Mount Union led 35-7 at the break.

Both teams traded punts to start the third quarter before the Raiders before Petruccelli barreled in for his fourth rushing touchdown of the day that pushed the Mount Union advantage to 41-7.

The Raiders tacked on one more score before the end of the quarter as Plunk found Gillard on a 13-yard touchdown pass and it was 48-7 after three quarters.

Mount Union finished the game with an Aaron Hawk (Lakewood, Calif. / Gahr) interception and an Elijah Burch (Warren / Warren Harding) fumble recovery.