HAMILTON – Colgate Football finally gave the home fans a healthy dose of Colgate Football. What a way to end Senior Day!
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The Raiders kept trending in the right direction here Saturday with a 24-13 victory over Fordham. That's three wins in the last four games heading into next week's finale at Lafayette.
Colgate (3-8, 2-3 Patriot) held the ball for the final 9 minutes of the game – 9:08 to be exact – driving from its own 2-yard line well into Fordham territory as the minutes and seconds milked away. It was the perfect ending to a home season that before Saturday had seen four losses without a win.
Grant Breneman during the drive eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark, the first Raider to do so this season. He finished with a career-high 105 yards on 16 rushing attempts and also threw for 195 yards and a TD.
Nick Diaco was on the receiving end of that touchdown catch, hauling in the 23-yarder with 4:06 showing in the third quarter to make it 21-13 Raiders. That was Diaco's fifth career touchdown catch and second this season.
But it wasn't his play of the game.
That goes to Diaco's 4-yard TD toss out of the Wildcat package to fellow tight end
Michael Kane.
With just 17 seconds left before halftime, Diaco took the direct snap, tucked the ball and headed right only to stop and flip a pass in the direction of Kane. Fordham's James Biggs-Frazier got a few fingertips on the ball but Kane stayed focused and cradled the carom with plenty of room to spare in the back of the end zone.
Colgate went into the half leading 14-10.
Alex Mathews opened the scoring and capped Colgate's first drive of the game with a 10-yard TD run for a 7-0 lead.
Chris Puzzi's 23-yard field goal in the four quarter provided the final margin.
Nick Wheeler posted two shared sacks in the game, increasing his career total to 31½ and moving him into sole possession of third place on the Patriot League's all-time chart.
Fordham's Ryan Greenhagen was the defensive star of the game, finishing with 19 tackles. The sophomore entered Saturday's play second in the Patriot League in tackles and now has 110 this season for the Rams (3-7, 1-3 Patriot).
Bottom Line
• Colgate 24, Fordham 13
From the Sources
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Colgate head coach Dan Hunt: (On the game-ending drive) "When we got the ball, we talked about going on that classic old-school Colgate drive and ending the game. And we did that. There was a lot of great running of the football on that drive but there were a couple of huge passes to keep it going. That's one of those drives that energizes your program."
(On the offensive mix) "Grant did a really nice job in the run game of getting us in the right plays. And in the pass game, just taking what was there. When you can stay balanced and run the ball with the quarterback and the running back, it makes it tough to defend.
"For the most part too, we didn't have as many negative plays that we've been having. Offensively, that was our most complete game."
(On the tight end to tight end TD) "That's been a really nice little package for us with Nick at quarterback. We've had that pass play kind of holstered for the goal line for the last three weeks, so when we got down there we thought it would be a great chance to pull it out and hopefully gain a little momentum going into the half with a play like that. And it worked.
"Kaner made a great catch on it. That was a great play."
(On next week at Lafayette) "Lafayette controls its own destiny, which is good on them. We have a chance to play the spoiler – not a role we are used to. But our motivation needs to be to continue to improve. We talked about finishing this season the right way, for both the seniors to go out on the right note and for the guys coming back to set a tone of positivity."
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Colgate tight end Michael Kane: (On his touchdown) "It was out of the Raider Package, just a little pop pass to me. The tight ends throwing it to each other, getting that connection going, was great. It got tipped and kind of just popped up, and I reached my hands out and grabbed it."
(On his senior year) "These last four or five games I've definitely played my best football. I'm looking to continue that and send the underclassmen off into next season on a good note."
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Colgate linebacker Nicholas Ioanilli: (On the team) "We're really just trying to piece it all together and play all three phases. We're grinding each and every day at practice, not overlooking anything. Just working hard and trying to have fun with it at this point. The whole team has done a great job of trying to push the seniors out the right way, and today was another step in that process."
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Colgate offensive lineman Jovaun Woolford: (On the closing drive) "Whoooo, man! That's what we talk about all the time, having a Colgate drive. Real physical, run the ball – it's a great feeling to go out like that on Senior Day. It couldn't get any better."
Stats of the Game
• Breneman more than doubled his rushing total for the season in one afternoon.
• He entered with 91 rushing yards in eight games, thanks mainly to having been sacked 32 times in seven full games plus the one series at William & Mary.
• Breneman was not sacked Saturday for Colgate's first clean sheet of the season. Raider quarterbacks had been sacked 47 times in the first 10 games.
• Breneman's previous career rushing high was 76 yards against Bucknell in 2017.
• He moved into the Colgate career top 10 in total offense with 5,562 yards, passing
Jake Melville (2013-16) at 5,513.
• Breneman also jumped to ninth on the all-time passing chart at 4,658. Next on the list is
Greg Sullivan (2007-10) at 4,996.
• Diaco's 73 receiving yards were a career high.
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Abu Daramy-Swaray,
J.C. Gaughan and
Nicholas Ioanilli were the Colgate tackle leaders at six apiece. Ioanilli had one sack, one additional TFL and three quarterback hurries.
• Colgate posted season highs in first downs (25), rushing yards (252), total plays (76), total offense (451) and time of possession (37:16).
• The Mathews rushing TD was the 16th of his career, tops among active Raiders.
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Malik Twyman rushed six times for 51 yards and needs just 24 yards next week at Lafayette to become Colgate's 35th member of the career 1,000 club.
• Puzzi's field goal was the 29th of his career, moving him into a tie for fourth all-time.
• The Raiders had a season-low two penalties for 25 yards.
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance on Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium was 1,406.
• Colgate Football recognized 23 seniors in both a pregame ceremony and a postgame meal.
• Saturday's win improved this class to 25-19 overall and 17-6 against the Patriot League.
Up Next
• Colgate caps the 2019 season next Saturday at Lafayette.
• The Leopards knocked off Holy Cross 23-20 Saturday in Worcester to maintain control of their destiny for the Patriot League championship. Lafayette is 3-7 overall but 3-1 in the Patriot League.
• Kickoff from Easton is 12:30 p.m., with PLN carrying the livestream. Catch the home play-by-play call from 94 WKXZ-FM.
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