EASTON, Pa. – Colgate's defense came to play here Saturday and posted the first Raider shutout in three years with a 27-0 whitewash of Lafayette.
Nick Ioanilli returned an interception for his first career TD to cap a series of three big defensive and special teams contributions in the third quarter. The Raiders turned an interception and blocked field goal into field goals of their own before Ioanilli iced Colgate's fourth straight win with his 33-yard pick six.
The other two big plays also were collegiate firsts.
Aidan Gaertner returned his first career interception 63 yards to tee up a
Chris Puzzi field goal. And
Abu Daramy-Swaray swooped around end for his first collegiate blocked kick to result in another Puzzi three-pointer.
Daramy-Swaray led the Raiders with seven tackles and a career-high three pass breakups.
Nick Wheeler finished with 1½ sacks,
Connor Buck added one and
Pat Afriyie contributed a half-sack as Colgate upped its league-leading total to 28.
Lafayette's defense frustrated the Raiders for most of the day, but Colgate did put 14 big points on the board in the second quarter.
Owen Rockett scored on a 17-yard double-reverse and
Grant Breneman ran in his sixth TD of the season from 1 yard out.
Colgate remains in a tie at the top of the Patriot League standings with Lehigh, which defeated Holy Cross 34-21. The Raiders cap their season next Saturday at Georgetown, while Lehigh hosts Lafayette.
Bottom Line
• Colgate 27, Lafayette 0
Won-Lost Records
• Colgate won its fourth straight and improved to 6-4 overall, 4-1 in the Patriot League.
• Lafayette is now 3-7 and 3-2.
Game Recap
• Colgate's longest pass play of the afternoon, 33 yards from Breneman to
James Holland Jr., set up Rockett one play later for his double-reverse scamper. The Raiders led 7-0.
• Colgate's next drive saw the Raiders go 80 yards in 12 plays and take 7:03 off the second-quarter clock. Breneman's TD run made it 14-0 at halftime.
• Puzzi's field goals from 24 and 37 yards made it 20-0 before Ioanilli's house call put the icing on the cake.
Stats of the Game
• Wheeler has at least one sack in seven consecutive games and leads the team with 10½ for the season.
• Holland saw his three-game streak of 100-yard rushing games come to an end, but his 94 yards pushed his career total to 1,902 heading to Georgetown.
• Colgate held Lafayette to 18 rushing yards on 18 attempts.
• Colgate's 258 total yards on offense were its fewest since gaining 223 at Buffalo.
• The Raider defense was really tough when it mattered because statistics showed a game that should have been close.
• First downs finished 16 apiece, Colgate outgained Lafayette in total yards just 258-213, and time of possession went only slightly in Colgate's favor by 30:51 to 29:09.
• But the Raiders scored on all four trips into the red zone, while Lafayette was 0-of-1. Colgate also held the Leopards to 4-of-13 on third down and 0-of-3 on fourth down.
Notables
• Gaertner's 63-yard interception return was Colgate's longest since Kyle Diener returned a pick 74 yards at Delaware in 2014. Diener was among a contingent of Colgate Football alumni in attendance Saturday.
• Puzzi improved to 9-of-11 on field goal attempts in his first season handling those duties. He leads the team with 60 points.
•
Trent Williams added six tackles, including two for lost yardage.
• Afriyie was next with five tackles. His half-sack gives the senior All-American 26½ for his career, trailing program leader Kelly Robinson (1979-81) by two.
• Colgate in its four-game winning streak has allowed 12, seven, three and now zero points. The Raiders in that stretch have outscored the opposition 150-22, or an average of 37.5 to 5.5.
•
Tyler Castillo intercepted his second pass of the season and seventh of his career. The junior cornerback posted two additional pass breakups and was on the spot for an 18-yard return of the blocked field goal.
• Gaertner, Ioanilli and
Dillon DeIuliis also had pass breakups.
From the Sources
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Colgate head coach Dan Hunt: (On the defense) "They earned the goose egg and they earned a lot of our points, so that's a great day at the office. When Lafayette was able to get into our territory, the defense really did a nice job of stepping up and making plays. It's a great feeling when your defense has control of a game.
"We were able to get the two touchdowns in the second quarter, and that really set the tone for what we wanted to do the rest of the game. It wasn't pretty offensively, at times, but that's a good defensive football team we played. We did enough to get the lead where it needed to be and then we let our defense take over."
Listen to the rest of Coach Hunt's comments here.
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Colgate defensive back Abu Daramy-Swaray: (On the blocked field field) "Coach Knowles has been harping on it all week, saying these guys weren't going to touch me off the edge. He said I had blocked a couple of ours (in practice) so he knew I could block one of theirs. I came off the edge really hard and saw the ball hadn't been kicked, so I just jumped out and it hit me right in the stomach."
Listen to the rest of Daramy-Swaray's comments here.
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Colgate linebacker Nick Ioanilli: (On the defense) "We really wanted to put up a goose egg and that's what we got. We worked hard these last two weeks to prepare, and everyone got healthy. Then we came out here and executed. It was great."
Listen to the rest of Ioanilli's comments here.
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Colgate wide receiver Owen Rockett: (On his touchdown) "I can't really take too much credit. Jovaun (Woolford) was blocking in front of me and there was green everywhere. It worked just like in practice because everyone did a good job blocking for me."
Listen to the rest of Rockett's comments here.
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance at Fisher Stadium was 5,612.
Up Next
• Colgate wraps up the regular season next Saturday at Georgetown.
• The Hoyas are 1-9 overall and 0-5 in conference after Saturday's 12-0 loss at Bucknell.
• Kickoff is 12:30 p.m. from Washington. The game can be heard on WKXZ-FM 93.9 and wkxzfm.com.
Game Archive
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Game archive.
