HAMILTON – Senior quarterback
Zach Osborne threw a career-high three touchdown passes and senior running back
Marco Maldonado ran for a collegiate-best 120 yards in sending Colgate Football out with a 38-19 win over Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at Andy Kerr Stadium.
Colgate celebrated Senior Day with 451 yards of total offense – led by 244 through the air from Osborne and 120 on the ground from Maldonado. The duo combined for 422 yards and five touchdowns. Reed Swanson had nine catches for 133 yards and a TD.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Colgate's offense came out firing with Osborne leading the charge under center. In his second play back as the starting quarterback, he gunned a 67-yard bomb to Swanson who broke loose behind the defense for the score less than a minute into the contest.
Osborne went back to work on Colgate's third drive, accounting for all 62 yards with two rushes and two completions – the latter being a 37-yard over-the-shoulder cannon to Matt Fogler in the center of the end zone to extend the Raiders' lead to 14-0 in the first quarter.
Bucknell staged a 17-play drive that chewed the first 10 minutes of the second quarter. After two goal-to-go stops by the Colgate defense, Nicholas Penuvchev capped the drive with a 5-yard TD pass to Josh Gary to slice the deficit in half, 14-7, with 5:28 showing on the clock.
Osborne and the Raiders went right back to work – countering with a 62-yard drive that only took four plays and less than two minutes. The senior quarterback connected with Fogler again down the sideline for a 37-yard touchdown to open a 21-7 lead.
Dane Picariello drifted back into coverage and picked off Penuvchev on Bucknell's ensuing possession, setting up a 33-yard field goal from Luke Vogeler to build a 24-7 halftime lead. Osborne at the half had a career-high three TD passes and 225 passing yards.
Tymir Wynn set the stage with another interception on Bucknell's first play of the second half. He returned it deep into Bison territory and Osborne later plunged in from the 1-yard-line to extend Colgate's lead to 31-7 just over two minutes into the third term.
Colgate's defense blanked the Bison in the third quarter and Maldonado fittingly capped the Raider scoring with a 28-yard dart to pay dirt with 3:15 left in the third quarter. That run put him over 100 and his career high for the afternoon, extending the Raiders' lead to 38-13.
The Raider defense totaled eight TFLs including a season-high four sacks, with three in the fourth quarter from Elijah Hamilton, Picariello, and Joe Kelly. Bucknell scored in the final minute with the game far out of reach and the Raiders preserved the season-ending 38-19 victory.
NOTES
- Marco Maldonado's 120 rushing yards were a career-high, topping his previous best of 112 vs Georgetown (10/19/24).
- Reed Swanson went over 100 yards receiving for the fifth time this season. His 67-yard touchdown on the second play from scrimmage was his longest career reception.
- Zach Osborne threw a career-high three touchdown passes – all in the first half. He had previously struck for two TD passes six times during his Colgate career.
- Matt Fogler ended his first-year campaign with seven touchdown receptions over the last four games.
- Dane Picariello's interception late in the second quarter was his first career INT.
- Joe Kelly and Eli Hamilton had their first Colgate career sacks, leading the Raiders to a season-high four such TFLs.
- Zach Jones' 11 tackles were a personal-best, topping his previous high of eight at Holy Cross (10/25/25).
- Kenny Langston's nine tackles bested his previous career high of six at Georgetown (10/18/25).
- Brady Hutchison ends his Colgate career ninth all-time in receptions with 137.
SEASON HIGHIGHTS
- Colgate under first-year head coach and offensive guru Curt Fitzpatrick set a program record for passing touchdowns in a season with 29. The Raiders' 3,427 passing yards this season were their most in a decade, just shy of the program-record 3,427 from 1990.
- Colgate's defense finished the season with 15 interceptions this season, matching the total from 2018 for their most in a single-season this decade.
- The Raiders scored 40+ three times this season, most in a decade (6 times in 2012)
- Colgate racked up more than 400 yards of total offense six times, matching their best single-season offense production since 2016.
- Treyvhon Saunders became the program's all-time receptions leader with 230. He led the FCS in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns at the time of his injury.
