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Lafayette/Georgetown Matchup Highlights Saturday's Patriot League Football Slate
Sept. 11, 2009 Center Valley, Pa. - Five Patriot League football teams will get a chance to play under the lights on Saturday, with Lafayette visiting Georgetown in a League contest and the first-ever night game at the Hoyas' Multi-Sport Field. Colgate and Bucknell will also host non-League night games, while Lehigh has a huge test at No. 3/3 Villanova. Holy Cross is the only team with an afternoon kickoff, as the Crusaders host Sacred Heart. Holy Cross gets things started at 1 p.m., against Sacred Heart, while games kicking off at 6 p.m. include Lafayette at Georgetown, Stony Brook at Colgate and Robert Morris at Bucknell. Lehigh will have a 7 p.m. start time at Villanova. Fordham has its bye week on Saturday. Holy Cross and Colgate will each try to move their record to 2-0 with a victory, while every other Patriot League team goes in search of its first win of the 2009 campaign. Lafayette is playing its season opener, while Georgetown, Bucknell and Lehigh all fell last week. There will once again be plenty of ways to follow the weekend action. All live stat, audio and video links for each game are included in the Patriot League composite schedule, which will also include game recaps and statistics at the conclusion of the day. The Patriot League will continue to offer wall-to-wall coverage, with updates on the Gameday Blog and Twitter page, as well as a full recap at the end of the night on www.patriotleague.org. Also, talk about the action with other fans on the Patriot League Facebook page For more information on all of this week's games, read the Patriot League Football Release and check out the League notebook and game previews below, which include institutional game notes and access to any video, audio and live stat links. Patriot League Notebook
Holy Cross Opens League Schedule With a Win Colgate Claims First Night Game at Andy Kerr Stadium Lights, Patriot League Action at Georgetown Saturday Holy Cross' Randolph All Over the Record Book Now Patriot League Offensive Stars Among Nation's Best Holy Cross Remains at No. 25 Keep Track of the Patriot League Through Social Media Patriot League Teams Hit the Airwaves Home Cooking on Non-League Schedule Under the Lights Former Lafayette Star Costanzo Active with Cleveland Browns This Week in the Patriot League
Lafayette (0-0, 0-0) at Georgetown (0-1, 0-1) Series Lafayette, 9-3 TV Lafayette Sports Network Lafayette Head Coach Frank Tavani, Lebanon Valley, 1976 Georgetown Head Coach Kevin Kelly, Springfield, 1982 Lafayette opens its season by traveling to Georgetown for a Patriot League contest, where the Hoyas will play the first night game at Multi-Sport Field in their home opener...The Leopards have opened their Patriot League schedule with a win over Georgetown for the past two seasons, and have not dropped a Patriot League opener since 2003...Lafayette has a seven-game winning streak in overall season openers on the line, with the last loss coming against Towson in 2001...Lafayette Head Coach Frank Tavani is 7-2 in season openers...Georgetown is trying to avoid starting 0-2 in League action for the fourth straight year. Lafayette The Leopards were idle for the first week of the season...Lafayette had a share of third place in the Patriot League preseason poll...The Leopards have 12 returning starters, with six on both offense and defense...Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Mark Leggiero is part of that group at linebacker...Leggiero, placekicker Davis Rodriguez, defensive lineman Andrew Poulson and offensive lineman Brian Wycinowski were all named preseason All-Americans...Leggiero and Rodriguez were also named All-Patriot League players last year, along with offensive lineman Ryan Hart-Predmore...The Leopards open their home schedule next week against Liberty. Georgetown The Hoyas took an early lead with upset on their mind, but gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns in a 20-7 loss to Holy Cross on Saturday...Georgetown went up, 7-0, by scoring on its opening drive, and held a 7-6 lead early in the fourth quarter...It was Georgetown's 10th straight loss to Holy Cross, including all nine in Patriot League play...The Hoyas dropped their League opener for the fourth year in a row...Wayne Heimuli had five tackles and three tackles for loss, while Rick Rattay had a pair of interceptions off Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph...The Hoyas are playing the first of a three-game homestand, with Yale coming next week and Howard in a cross-town matchup on Sept. 26. Lafayette Game Notes Sacred Heart (0-1, 0-0 NEC) at No. 25 Holy Cross (1-0, 1-0) Series Holy Cross, 1-0 Sacred Heart Head Coach Paul Gorham, New Hampshire, 1984 Holy Cross Head Coach Tom Gilmore, Penn, 1986 Holy Cross tries to get off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2005 when it hosts Sacred Heart in the second of a three-game homestand on Saturday...The 2-0 start in 2005 also came in home games against Sacred Heart and Georgetown, with the Crusaders winning the opener over Sacred Heart, 56-21, in the only all-time meeting between the schools...Holy Cross puts a four-game home winning streak on the line...Patriot League teams are 2-0 all-time against Sacred Heart, with Lafayette earning the other victory in 2006. Holy Cross The Crusaders trailed going into the fourth quarter at home against Georgetown, but Patriot League Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Dominic Randolph threw a pair of touchdown passes to lead the team to a 20-7 win...Randolph was 36-for-56 for 414 yards and two touchdowns, and set or tied five Patriot League career records in the game...He became the first player in League history with more than 10,000 passing yards (10,093), and also set career marks for total offense (10,415) and 400-yard total offense games (7) while tying marks for touchdowns responsible for (94) and 400-yard passing games (6)...The Crusaders had a 519-169 edge in total offense...Holy Cross won its 10th straight game against Georgetown, including all nine in League action...The Crusaders opened their Patriot League schedule with a win over Georgetown for the fifth straight year...It was the first season-opening win for the Crusaders since beating Georgetown in 2006...Holy Cross concludes its season-opening three-game homestand next week when it takes on Harvard. Holy Cross Game Notes Stony Brook (0-1, 0-0 Big South) at Colgate (1-0, 0-0) Series Stony Brook, 1-0 Stony Brook Head Coach Chuck Priore, Albany, 1982 Colgate Head Coach Dick Biddle, Duke, 1971 Colgate will attempt to earn payback for last year's loss and start the season with two wins for the first time since 2003 when it hosts Stony Brook on Saturday...The Raiders fell at Stony Brook, 42-26, in the 2008 season opener in the only prior meeting between the schools...Colgate's only 2-0 start in Head Coach Dick Biddle's previous 13 seasons came during the national runner-up season in 2003 when it opened 15-0...Patriot League teams are 4-3 all-time against Stony Brook. Colgate The Raiders started the season on a strong note in the first night game at Andy Kerr Stadium, scoring three straight second-half touchdowns to go on to a 35-23 win over Monmouth...Nate Eachus and Greg Sullivan each had big efforts on the ground, with Eachus rushing for 139 yards and three touchdowns and Sullivan running for 99 yards...Eachus went over the 1,000-yard rushing mark for his career in the first game of his sophomore season...He had two touchdown runs in a 45-second span in the third quarter...Sullivan was also 8-for-14 through the air for 136 yards and two touchdowns, both to Pat Simonds...Colgate and Monmouth were meeting for just the second time, with the Raiders earning payback for a 17-12 home loss in 2006...Colgate Head Coach Dick Biddle has a 4-10 record in season openers, but has won the first contest in two of the last three years...Colgate has four of its first five at home, but plays the road game in that period next week at Dartmouth. Colgate Game Notes Robert Morris (0-1, 0-0 NEC) at Bucknell (0-1, 0-0) Series Bucknell, 1-0 Robert Morris Head Coach Joe Walton, Pittsburgh, 1957 Bucknell Head Coach Tim Landis, Randolph-Macon, 1986 The Bison and Robert Morris meet for the second year in a row after Bucknell won in the final moments on the road last year...Sam Nana-Sinkam blocked a field goal with three seconds left as the Bison held on for the three-point win...Both teams are looking for their first victory of the season, as Bucknell lost at Duquesne and Robert Morris fell at VMI last week...The Bison are playing their home opener and are trying to avoid their first 0-2 start since 2005...Patriot League teams are 2-0 all-time against Robert Morris. Bucknell The Bison could not make it four years in a row with a season-opening win over Duquesne, as the Dukes pulled out a 24-19 victory in Pittsburgh...Bucknell had won five consecutive games in the series overall including the three-straight openers...Marcello Trigg accounted for all three Bison touchdowns, throwing for 154 yards and two scores and also running for a touchdown...He had a career-high 34 pass attempts, completing 18...C.J. Hopson had a career-high 136 yards on the ground...A.J. Kizekai had 182 all-purpose yards, including 107 yards on four kickoff returns...He broke a school record with 85 career kickoff returns...Kizekai has 4,548 all-purpose yards in his career, just 51 off the Patriot League career top 10...John von Paris had career highs with five tackles and two sacks...The Bison open a stretch of three of the next four games at home, but travel to Cornell next week. Bucknell Game Notes Lehigh (0-1, 0-0) at No. 3/3 Villanova (1-0, 0-0 CAA) Series Tied, 5-5 TV WFMZ-TV, Fox College Sports Atlantic, Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh (tape-delay) Lehigh Head Coach Andy Coen, Gettysburg, 1986 Villanova Head Coach Andy Talley, Southern Connecticut, 1967 Lehigh will take its crack against one of the top teams in the country when the Mountain Hawks visit No. 3/3 Villanova on Saturday night...The Mountain Hawks fell at Villanova, 33-14, last season, but the road team has won three of the four contests since the teams resumed the series in 2004...They are playing for the fifth time inthe last six years after not meeting since 1927...Lehigh's 31-28 win at Villanova in 2006 was the first career victory for Head Coach Andy Coen...Lehigh is trying to avoid its first 0-2 start since joining the Patriot League, with the last occurence coming in 1982..Villanova defeated FBS Temple in its opener..Patriot League teams are just 3-19 all-time against Villanova, with an 0-2 mark last year that included Lehigh's loss and a loss by Colgate in the NCAA Division I Football Championship first round. Lehigh The Mountain Hawks could not score the equalizer in a back-and-forth game with Central Connecticut State, and fell, 28-21, at Goodman Stadium on Saturday...Lehigh never led in the contest, but answered the first three CCSU touchdowns with a score of its own...The Mountain Hawks were shut out in the fourth quarter...Lehigh fell to 1-3 in season openers under Head Coach Andy Coen...John Kennedy had a 92-yard kickoff return for Lehigh's first touchdown...It was the first kickoff return for a score by a Mountain Hawk since Gerran Walker did it in 2004...B.J. Benning had a career-high 12 tackles to go with a sack and 1.5 tackles for loss...Lehigh allowed 228 rushing yards and nearly 44 minutes of time in possession to CCSU...The Mountain Hawks had the ball for just 2:12 in the fourth quarter...Lehigh will have its open date next week, then begin a four-game homestand from Sept. 26-Oct. 17. Lehigh Game Notes
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