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HAMILTON – Records continued to fall by the wayside Saturday as Colgate cleared another Patriot League hurdle and set up a showdown with Lehigh for the conference championship.

The Raiders dismantled visiting Lafayette 65-41, scoring the most points by a Colgate football squad in 71 years.

Among the other highlights was Gavin McCarney setting school records for total offensive yards in a game (512), rushing yards by a quarterback in a game (288) and a season (1,010), and consecutive games throwing a touchdown pass (12). McCarney also teamed with tailback Jordan McCord (203) to become Colgate's first pair of 200-yard rushers in the same game.

Colgate as a team toppled the total offense (755) and rushing (531) records both for the program and the Patriot League. The school's previous total offense mark of 707 lasted exactly 14 days – set Oct. 20 against Georgetown – while the rushing record of 501 dated to a 1975 win over Lafayette.

“I've never seen anything like it in my life,” head coach Dick Biddle said after coaching in his 100th Patriot League game, 76 of which have ended in wins. “It's hard to produce that many points, but our offense has been phenomenal the last two to three weeks. Plus we got two turnovers in the second half and that was a key.”

Colgate had 12 offensive possessions in the game and scored on 10 of them. The only blemishes were a McCarney interception late in the third quarter and a kneel-down to end the game.

Other than that, the Raiders tallied a school record-tying nine touchdowns along with a sparkling 39-yard field goal into the wind by Andrew Burgess to end the first half. The last time a Colgate team scored more points in a game was when the 1941 Raiders blanked St. Lawrence, 66-0.

No Rushing Losses
Only twice in the game were the Raiders involved in a play that lost them yardage of any kind: McCarney passed in the flat to Daniel Cason for a loss of 3, and Ryne Morrison returned a punt for another loss of 3.

Not a single one of the 54 rushing plays by Colgate went for negative yards.

“The coaches have done a great job, the kids believe in what we're doing and the quarterback is phenomenal,” Biddle said. “He's a Walter Payton (Award) candidate.”

Saturday's results pushed the Colgate (6-3, 4-0, Patriot) winning streak to five games and Lehigh's record (beat Holy Cross 36-35) to a perfect 9-0 overall and 3-0 in the Patriot League, setting up next Saturday's showdown in Bethlehem, Pa. Kickoff is 12:30 p.m., with CBS College Sports televising the game.

The winner is assured of the automatic berth into the NCAA championship playoffs.

“That's all you can ask for – a chance to control your own destiny,” Biddle said. “We've got to shore up on defense and it will be heck of a crowd. Lehigh's a great program but so is Colgate. They know how to play us and we know how to play them. It's a great thing for the Patriot League.”

Separate third-quarter injuries to Colgate's Patrick Friel and Lafayette's Dion King caused both players to carted off on stretchers and taken to the hospital as precautions, but were later released.

Defensive Spark Early
Colgate's defense started the game by forcing two straight three-and-outs in the first quarter. This after combining for only three such defensive stands over the season's first eight games.

Colgate, meanwhile, scored on its first two possessions, both covering 68 yards in length. The first drive took six plays and was capped when McCarney hit Chris Looney for a 27-yard touchdown pass. The second drive needed only four plays and McCarney did the honors himself, running it in from 4 yards out.

McCarney entered the weekend leading the nation in scoring. Saturday's three rushing touchdowns increased his point-total to 110 for an average of 12.2. In addition, he missed by only three yards of tying Nate Eachus' school record of 291 rushing yards in a game.

In addition, McCarney was 13-of-17 passing for 224 yards and two touchdowns against only the one interception. Those numbers lifted his pass efficiency rating to 162.45, which should land him inside the top five nationally when Sunday's updated numbers are released.

“I've said it the last three or four weeks – hats off to the offensive line,” McCarney said. “When they crowd the box with eight people and we're able to run for more than 500 yards, it's all them. When we get through the line, it's a clear path.”

McCord & McCarney, Again & Again
In the second quarter, McCord and McCarney each broke free for their longest rushing plays from scrimmage this season – and both runs set up the other person for short touchdown bursts.

First, McCord sprinted 40 yards to help set up McCarney for his second score of the game, this one from 13 yards out. Then McCarney busted loose for 54 yards to set McCord up for a 2-yard dive. McCarney later added a 75-yard TD scamper that was a career long.

McCord finished with four rushing touchdowns in a game for the second time this season, and topped the 200-yard rushing mark for the first time since 2009 when he had a pair in consecutive weeks. McCord leads the Patriot League with 1,368 rushing yards.

“The offensive line did a great job; opened up a lot of seams,” said McCord, who is now ninth on the Colgate career chart with 2,804 yards and eighth on the season list. “And Gavin is great. He's a great quarterback. When they key on me, he pulls it. And he's so fast, they can't catch him. And then I take some of the pressure off him as well.

“We just work off each other and love playing with each other. We've got a great offense going right now. Hopefully, we can keep in going against Lehigh.”

Morrison Makes Noise
Another bright spot for the Raiders was Morrison at the wide receiver position. The junior from Damien, Calif., had a career afternoon, catching five for a game-high 124 yards including a 64-yard TD pass from McCarney early in the fourth quarter.

Morrison's previous game-high in yardage was the result of a 43-yard reception last year against Fordham. This season, he had three games with at least three catches and topped out at 38 yards before his break-out Saturday.

“It's so much fun when the offense is clicking like that,” Morrison said. “It feels like one of those years. The talent we have and the chemistry that's here – a lot of good things are going our way. It makes it easy to play with these guys.

“And this was our goal the whole time. The three losses; they sting. But at the end of the day, our goals have always been to win the Patriot League, make it to the playoffs and make a little run. We've put ourselves in just that position.”

Colgate's 23 points in the second quarter was the sixth 20-point quarter this season. On the flip side, the defense allowed 20 points in that same quarter – the first time that had happened this season.

Lafayette scored its most points this year and finished the game with 542 yards of total offense. The two teams' combined yardage of total offense (1,297) and rushing (815) both set records for a Colgate game.

The Leopards' Ross Scheuerman rushed for 142 yards and Vaughn Hebron added 119. Quarterback Zach Zweizig completed 15 of 24 passes for 258 yards and three touchdowns, but was intercepted by Colgate's Kris Kent in the end zone to thwart Lafayette's final possession.

Lafayette was led in tackles by Shane Black with 16 and Mike Boles with 11. Black also had the interception on McCarney along with another pass breakup.

Mike Armiento was Colgate's tackle leader with eight to go with two more pass breakups (nine for the season), followed by Kent and Jonathan Mputu with six tackles apiece. Linebacker Tyler Butler contributed a sack that forced a fumble, which was recovered by Chris Horner and set up Colgate's final touchdown of the game.