Bloomsburg’s Monaco makes the trip home

Kaleb Monaco will have additional friends and family in the crowd Saturday when he makes his return trip to the Poconos.

He hopes to treat them to something that has evaded the Bloomsburg University football team this season: a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Division win.

Monaco, a Pocono Mountain West graduate and junior running back, knows he and the Huskies (1-6, 0-4 PSAC East) won’t have it easy. East Stroudsburg (6-1, 3-1) ranks at or near the top of the league in a host of categories — scoring offense, scoring defense, rushing offense and rushing defense, to name four.

Monaco and Bloomsburg also feel they’re close to breaking through.

The Huskies are 0-4 in one-score games, including three division losses. Ill-timed turnovers and kicking-game lapses have been the main culprits.

“It’s mostly just self-inflicted wounds like penalties, getting behind the sticks on good drives, fumbling the ball,” Monaco said by phone Tuesday.

“It’s just shooting ourselves in the foot when we’ve got something going. We can play with or beat anybody we go against as long as we play disciplined football for the whole hour we’re out there.”

While Bloomsburg has struggled to secure wins, Monaco has excelled with a heavy workload.

He ranks second in the PSAC with 679 rushing yards and 97 rushing yards per game. Monaco has also averaged 5.7 yards per carry while accounting for 72.3% of the Huskies’ rushing offense.

As well as he has run the ball, Monaco said he’s most pleased with his improvement as a pass blocker. He spent additional time this offseason working on his hand strength and technique to become a more well-rounded back after earning second-team All-PSAC East honors as a freshman and sophomore.

“Everybody knows he has great feet and he’s fast, but I don’t think people give him the credit for the physical strength he has and the amount of yards he gains after contact,” Bloomsburg coach Frank Sheptock said.

“You go down to that weight room, and he’s a dude. Whether it’s squat or clean or deadlift or bench, he does it all.”

Monaco and Bloomsburg’s rushing attack will be paramount to the Huskies’ chances at upsetting the Warriors. Bloomsburg has run fewer plays than its opponent in six of its seven games. The Huskies want to win time of possession against an ESU team averaging 36.9 points per game.

Bloomsburg also needs to finish more drives with touchdowns to keep pace with ESU.

The Warriors have scored almost three times as many TDs (37) as the Huskies (13).

“It’s always good to play against a team that has a lot of popularity around them,” Monaco said. “It’ll be fun to see what they’ve got.

“With the run, I think we’ll still be able to push the ball against them.

That’s what we do.

“We’re not going to try to change up what we do just because it’s a different team. It would be a good team to have a good rushing performance against as a team.

“So hopefully we’ll be able to do that this week.”

Here’s a look at this week’s games.