David Bostic is Edinboro's leading receiver./Photo by Christopher Millette/Erie Times-News

In spring ball before the 2011 season, David Bostic fully embraced the idea of being a receiver – and it’s paid dividends for himself and Edinboro.

Leading the Scots (7-2, 4-2 PSAC West) in catches (39), receiving yards (613) and touchdown catches (seven), Bostic is coming off a career game last week against Lock Haven.

The senior receiver set a single-season school record for receptions (13), receiving yards (255) and tied the school record for receiving touchdowns (three) in Edinboro’s 42-7 win against the winless Bald Eagles (0-8, 0-5).

“Whenever you can break a record at Edinboro, that’s a great thing,” Edinboro junior cornerback Branden Williams said. “A lot of the times he got the ball early and then broke a lot of tackles and broke out. He did an awesome job.”

With two games left in the regular season, the 5-foot, 10-inch, 187-pound Bostic is five catches shy of breaking the school’s all-time record for career receptions. Gary Nolen (2007-10) is first with 149 catches.

The Tavares, Fla., native came to Edinboro as a tailback, but was switched to receiver in his junior season in 2010. That year, he was the team’s second-leaidng receiver with 34 catches for 373 yards and two touchdowns.

The following spring, Bostic began liking the idea of playing receiver.

“I started understanding the defense and understanding the coverages,” Bostic said. “I told (Edinboro coach Scott Browning) before we went home for summer that I’m a receiver.”

So when Browning came to Bostic and his high school teammate, sophomore tailback D’Andrea Vaughn, about switching positions, they were steadfast on staying put.

“They both came in my office, sat down, looked me square in the eyes and said, ‘Coach, this is where we really belong,’” Browning said. “‘That’s where we feel the most comfortable at. That’s where we can be the most productive.’ Sometimes you got to just sit back and listen.”

First-year Lock Haven head coach John Allen/LHU

Seeing is believing.

It’s easy to judge a team by its record, especially when it’s winless like Lock Haven (0-8, 0-6 PSAC West) is.

Add the fact Lock Haven lost its 40th consecutive game today at Edinboro by 35 points, 42-7, and it’s even easier to think the Bald Eagles are a joke of a program.

The Eagles have the NCAA’s longest active losing skid regardless of division and set a PSAC record for most consecutive losses.

However, I can say with conviction after watching Lock Haven play today in person that it’s not nearly as bad as all losing suggests.

First off, the Eagles have a very good tailback in sophomore Brandon Brader, who rushed for a career-high 168 yards against Edinboro, which by the way has a defense ranked second in the nation in total defense.

The guy runs hard, always keeps his legs going, has some shake in his game as well and is a player a team can build around.

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Travis Rearick made the game-winning, two-point conversion pass to beat Edinboro last season./ETN file photo.

Last season, Mercyhurst beat Edinboro in overtime 22-21 at Sox Harrison Stadium on a two-point conversion pass from Travis Rearick to Trevor Kennedy. It was a tremendous finish to an incredible game.

Here are links to the first and second half/overtime of that game in Edinboro. Image Sports did the broadcast.

FYI. Hit the pause button and give it time to load before playing the videos to avoid stops and starts.

On Saturday, the Scots and Lakers will renew their PSAC West rivalry in a noon game at Tullio Field. Image Sports is broadcasting it live again.

In the last three years since Mercyhurst has joined the PSAC, the road team has won each game between the Lakers and Scots.

In a game that had a ton of big plays, none were bigger than Mercyhurst senior defensive end Dan Kruper forcing Edinboro senior David Bostic to fumble and senior safety Bryant Kimball recovering the ball at the Edinboro 31 in the fourth quarter with the Scots leading, 14-7. The Lakers scored on the ensuing drive to tie the game with 59 seconds left in the fourth quarter when Gerald Anderson scored on a 9-yard touchdown run.

In overtime, Edinboro scored first on a 1-yard run by sophomore quarterback Cody Harris. The Lakers responded with Rearick finding sophomore Terrence Coon for an 11-yard touchdown pass.

The Lakers decided to go for two instead of kick a PAT to tie the game and go into a second overtime session.

So they sent Kennedy in motion from left to right. Rearick took the shotgun snap, rolled to his right and hit Kennedy for the two-point conversion to win the game for Mercyhurst.

Drew Herrell rushed for a game-high 76 yards to help No. 19 Edinboro win 27-0 at Gannon./Photo by Christopher Millette of the Erie Times-News.

Sophomores Drew Herrell, D’Andrea Vaughn and senior Brian Davis all had their moments in Edinboro’s 27-0 win at Gannon today.

Herrell had a game-high 76 yards on 10 carries, Davis had 61 yards on 12 carries in mostly relief duty and Vaughn, who started the game, had 52 yards on 11 rushes. Together, they accounted for 189 of the team’s 193 rushing yards to help the No. 19-ranked Scots (4-0, 1-0) stay perfect and open PSAC West play with a win.

The Knights (1-3, 0-1) were without junior defensive tackle Ian Jeffers and junior defensive end Matt Jones, whom were both injured. Senior Wesley Smith had six total tackles in place of Jones and redshirt freshman Sean Herron, a Strong Vincent graduate who is 6-3 and weighs a whopping 360 pounds, had two assisted stops in place of Jeffers.

So Gannon’s defensive unit wasn’t full strength, but it may have struggled to stop Herrell, Vaughn and Davis running behind a veteran offensive line even if it was.

Herrell broke the longest run of 45 yards on a play in which he hid behind the lineman as if someone was trying to get him across the kitchen table, moved left and then roared to the right for the long gainer.

Vaughn brought his usual spin moves and elusiveness to his runs while Davis just plows people with power, but sophomore quarterback Cody Harris had his wheels going, too particularly early in the game.

On the game’s first drive, Harris had five rushes for 29 yards and capped it with an 8-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver David Bostic. Now Harris just had a net six yards rushing because he was sacked three times, but his ability to run kept Gannon off balance early.