A PItt runner (in navy blue and light gold) eludes the grasp of a Toledo player (white jersey, yellow pants)

The University of Pittsburgh Panther Football team raced to another victory today, torpedoing the Toledo Rockets 45-3. Pitt now takes a 4-1 record into next week's game at Syracuse, their second Big East opponent this season. Toledo, a member of the MAC conference (the same conference Ben Rothlisberger played in during college), falls to 2-3 for the year.

Pitt's Tyler Palko (#3, left) blocks for Dorian Dickerson (behind Palko), who ran the ball into the end zone on the play for his first career TD.

The Panthers were piloted by Tyler Palko at quarterback who had 172 yards for the game and completed 12-of-15 pass attempts. Two of the completed passes were for touchdowns. Tyler only needed 113 yards today to take over third place on Pitt's all-time career passing yardage list from Rod Rutherford, but will need a little less than 1900 yards in the next 7 or 8 games to whisk away Dan Marino's second place spot before the season ends. Alex Van Pelt owns first place with 11,267 yards and Marino has 8,597 yards.

Pitt in navy blue jerseys, Toledo in white jerseys

Meanwhile, senior H.B. Blades (11 tackles today) is now tied for ninth place on Pitt's all-time career tackles list with 344 career tackles. Kiski Area grad Scott McKillop had 6 tackles today, third highest on the team. Chris McKillop, who has moved into a starting position at Defensive End, had 1 tackle and 3 quarterback hurries (not a final stat.) Adam Gunn, special teams starter, also had 1 tackle. Pat Dawson, former Greensburg Catholic standout and a Vandergrift native, is a sophomore offensive lineman for the Toledo Rockets but did not see playing time today.

Toledo's Pat Dawson, son of Dave Dawson of Vandergrift

"As I told our players in the locker room," said Pitt Coach Dave Wannstedt, "I don't care who you are playing or where you are playing, when you win a football game and do some good things you never take it lightly...It's easy to rise up against Syracuse and West Virginia. I really think that playing games like this and last week define what type of team you are."

4th-quarter action

Highly-regarded freshman Dorin Dickerson saw play during the third quarter and turned heads almost immediately. There'd been speculation that Dickerson, a West Allegheny grad from Imperial, PA, would be redshirted due to an injury in the pre-season. Wannstedt spoke with the player and his dad earlier in the day about both possibilities of redshirting and playing time. Dickerson, though anxious to play, had set himself to accept whatever the coach's decision was. "As long as I can help the team, that's the best thing I can do. I felt good about it and if I was going to be red-shirted then that was ok too," said Dickerson. "Whatever the coach wanted to do I was going to do, as long as I can help the team."

The Toledo Rocket mascot

Wannstedt put him in.

Dickerson returned a punt for six yards in his first time on the field. But a few plays later, his number was called again. "When the call came in to the huddle my heart dropped a little bit but I was ready to go." Dorian said. On the 14-yard line, he swept around the right end, aided by a Tyler Palko block, to score his first career touchdown on a 14-yard third quarter reverse play. It was the first rush of his career. "I was really excited and I got a lot off my shoulders. I felt a lot of pressure to play and to play well."

Pitt plays at Syracuse next Saturday.