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HAMILTON – A tight football game turned into a second-half runaway, and Colgate rolled past Sacred Heart 35-14 in the home opener at Andy Kerr Stadium.

Colgate's best half of football this season saw the Raiders pour three touchdowns on the board in the third quarter to break a 14-all tie. This despite the Raiders allowing a second blocked punt of the game and fourth of the season.

Yet Colgate completely shut down the Sacred Heart offense, outgaining the Pioneers in total offense 292-17 in the second half.

“Our defense really stepped it up,” Colgate head coach Dick Biddle said. “And our offense got back to the running game, which left a few passes wide open. The second half is the way we need to play football.”

Quarterback Gavin McCarney hit wide receiver Chris Looney for a pair of fourth-down TD passes to spark the offense. McCarney also scored once – his third rushing TD of the year.

Patriot League Leader
But it was Jordan McCord who really put it into high gear after the break.

McCord led the Colgate rushing attack, finishing with 167 yards on 28 carries. The Patriot League's rushing leader gained 133 of those yards after halftime and boosted his season average to 143.0 per game.

“You can't say enough about Jordan McCord,” Biddle said. “He's rushed and done as well as some of the best backs we've had at Colgate these first three games. The line helped, but he's pretty good.”

Both teams scored their first touchdowns thanks to turnovers. Safety Mike Armiento picked off his second pass of the year for Colgate to halt Sacred Heart's opening march. The Raiders went 65 yards in 11 plays, with McCarney scoring from the 1.

But McCarney was sacked on Colgate's next possession, and his fumble set the Pioneers up at the CU 33. Five plays later, Greg Moore plowed in from the 1 to tie the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter.

Colgate answered midway through the period when McCarney found Looney for the first of their fourth-down hookups. This one covered 22 yards on fourth-and-19, with Biddle deciding it was the best course of action.

“Sometimes I don't want to kick a field goal because of the wind,” he said. “I don't want punt because we're having trouble with protection and we've got to get it straightened out. So we've done that a lot in my career, gone for it on fourth down.”

Looney said the play was not originally designed for him.

“The first one, the play was designed to go to the right side and Gavin came back to me,” Looney said. “He scrambled around and then found me with a great ball.

“It was a great feeling to come through on fourth down.”

Defensive Gem
Sacred Heart scored right before halftime to tie the game 14-14 at intermission, and the Pioneers appeared to keep the momentum going in the second half with a blocked punt on Colgate's first possession. But the Raiders held on a fourth-and-1 inside their 10-yard line to turn the game completely around.

“Coach Biddle challenged us to shut them out in the second half,” said linebacker Patrick Friel, who led the Raiders with nine tackles and a sack. “We got off to a rough start with the blocked punt, but we were able to stuff them on the fourth-and-1 and it was basically all downhill from there.

“We were fired up and ready to play.”

From that point on, it was all Raiders.

Multi-purpose threat Jimmy DeCicco began the onslaught when he took a handoff and raced 61 yards to the Sacred Heart 8-yard line. Two plays later, McCord was in from five yards out for Colgate's third lead of the game.

“He's the fastest guy on our team and we ask a lot of him,” Biddle said of DeCicco. “He's on special teams, he plays receiver, he plays running back and he plays some nickel defensive back. He's our Jordan McCord from last year.

“But he's going to be a heck of a football player.”

A defensive three-and-out and short Sacred Heart punt set the Raiders up at the Pioneers 27. And McCord handled most of the load again, scoring from 2 yards out for a 28-14 advantage.

“We just stayed with our game plan,” McCord said. “The line was blocking and I was finally able to get through some of those holes. It's a good feeling when things start clicking like they did in the second half.”

Colgate marched 57 yards in seven plays for its final touchdown of the day and third of the third quarter.

Fourth-Down Magic
McCarney found Looney on fourth down again, this time on fourth-and-4 from the Pioneers 27.

“The second one was an out route and he sat me down,” Looney said. “He made me stop when he threw it and the safety over-pursued, which allowed me to cut back.”

Looney did just that and then leaped head-first into the end zone to make the final score 35-14.

McCarney finished 10-of-19 passing for 141 yards and the two scores to Looney, who led all receivers with four catches for 73 yards. The Raiders sacked Sacred Heart quarterback Tim Little four times and held him to 14-of-24 passing for 145 yards. Mike Armiento also had an interception for Colgate.

“Our third-down package was awesome this week,” Friel said. “We wanted to stop them on first down and make them throw the football. After that, we could get into our odd fronts and put on a bunch of stunts and get after the passer.”

Sacred Heart's Justin Sexton led all players with 16 tackles, to go with 1½ sacks and a fumble recovery. Robert Dim blocked two punts for the Pioneers (0-2).

Colgate (1-2) plays next Saturday at Stony Brook, which lost 28-17 this week at Syracuse. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.