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HAMILTON – Kyle Diener made sure Colgate's Halloween candy tasted just a little bit sweeter.
 
The junior linebacker batted down a Fordham two-point conversion pass on the last play of the game to cap Colgate's wild 31-29 victory here Saturday.

The win over the nation's No. 11 team catapults the Raiders (4-4) alone into first place in the Patriot League standings at 3-0. Fordham is now 7-2 and 3-1.

Colgate appeared to have the game in hand when James Holland scored on a 7-yard run that made it 31-16 with 6:06 remaining. And although Fordham scored with 27 seconds left to cut the gap to 31-23, Raider fans still were feeling confident.

But the Rams recovered an onside kick at their own 46-yard line and immediately advanced to the Colgate 20 on a 34-yard pass play. After one incompletion into the end zone, Fordham's Kevin Anderson lofted another pass into the corner where Corey Caddle emerged from a crowd with the football for a touchdown as the scoreboard clock showed 0:00.

That set up the crucial two-point conversion.
 
Colgate dodged the initial attempt on an incomplete pass, but the Raiders were called for pass interference. But with just 1½ yards separating Fordham from the end zone and overtime, Diener blitzed, read the pass attempt and batted it harmlessly to the ground as the celebrations began.
 

Colgate is at Lafayette next Saturday and then hosts Lehigh on Nov. 14 and Bucknell on Nov. 21.
 
Bottom Line
• Colgate 31, Fordham 29

Won-Lost Records
• Colgate improves to 4-4 overall and 3-0 in the Patriot League.
• Fordham is now 7-2 and 3-1.

Eight Sacks
• The Maroon dam showed some wear at the end, when Fordham scored two touchdowns in the last 27 seconds. But Colgate's defense for the first 59:33 held firm against a Rams squad averaging 41.4 points, 221.6 rushing yards and 477.6 yards of total offense.
• Fordham finished with 432 total yards, but only 54 of those came on the ground. The Rams passed for 168 yards during their furious fourth-quarter comeback attempt.
• All-America candidate Chase Edmonds rushed 18 times for a season-low 51 yards.
• Edmonds' previous low for the year was 16 carries for 74 yards in a 14-7 loss to Villanova back on Sept. 12.
• The Raiders sacked Fordham quarterback Kevin Anderson eight times for minus-41 yards.
• The Colgate sack breakdown went like this: Cameron Buttermore two for minus-10 yards, Alex Campbell 2-10, Curt Mitchell 1-9, Diener 1-5, Brett Field 1-4, with Christian Hardegree and Charles Cairnie sharing a sack for minus-3.
• Buttermore's two sacks and Diener's one were the first sacks of the season for both Raiders.
• Colgate's previous team season high for sacks was four for minus-23 yards against Yale.
 

Melville Tops 100 & 1,000
• Colgate set the tone on its first offensive play when Jake Melville broke loose on a 44-yard scamper.
• Melville on the play became the 31st Raider and sixth quarterback to top 1,000 rushing yards for his career.
• The junior finished the game with season-highs of 112 rushing yards and two touchdowns. For his career, Melville now has 1,111 rushing yards and nine TDs.
• This was Melville's fourth career 100-yard rushing game and the first since he posted three in a row early last season: 118 at Delaware, 113 vs. Cornell and 128 vs. Georgetown.
• The Raiders are 3-1 when Melville rushes for at least 100 yards.
• Melville through the air was 17-of-26 for 241 yards and a touchdown of 25 yards on the opening drive to John Maddaluna III. That fourth-and-9 completion saw Maddaluna perform a tumbling catch for his second TD of the season.
• Melville finished with 353 yards of total offense to just miss his season high (356 at Princeton).
• Melville for the season is completing 58.1 percent of his passes, with seven touchdowns against just one interception. He has thrown for 1,621 yards (1,305 his first two seasons combined).
 
More Key Info
• In addition to his two sacks, Buttermore finished as the Colgate tackle leader with 12. He added one additional TFL for a total of three for minus-11 yards.
• Chris Morgan pitched in 11 tackles – and a QB hurry – while Diener had 10. Campbell posted a career-high nine tackles, highlighted by his two sacks and a quarterback hurry.

• Ty McCollum registered two of Colgate's six pass breakups, and he nearly had a third. McCollum stopped the next-to-last throw into the end zone on Fordham's final drive, and he unofficially broke up the final pass as well except that the ball somehow landed on the intended receiver's leg and was grabbed for a Fordham touchdown by another Rams receiver.
• Melville scored on a pair of 2-yard runs, one late in the first quarter and one late in the second, to give Colgate a 21-3 lead.
• Fordham answered with its first touchdown of the game when Anderson found Caddle for the first time from 6 yards out. The Rams missed the PAT.
• Colgate then drove 64 yards in just five plays, taking 42 seconds, to set up Jonah Bowman for a 24-yards field goal that made it 24-9 at halftime.
• After a scoreless third quarter, the team's traded touchdowns early in the fourth quarter to set up the furious finish.
• Maddaluna led the Raiders with six catches for 111 yards and the first-quarter TD. It's the junior's second 100-yard game in the last four (138 at Cornell).
• He and John Quazza (50 yards) hauled in six catches apiece, while Connor Wingenroth added career highs of four catches for 70 yards.
• Saturday's Fordham loss snapped a 10-game Patriot League winning streak by the Rams, dating to 2013.
 
Turning Point
• Tough to pinpoint one from this game, but the Raider season may have turned around during the recent 3-1 road trip. Saturday was Colgate's first home victory and the Maroons suddenly have won four of their last five.
 

From the Sources
• Colgate head coach Dan Hunt: (On the game) "Fordham is a great team, so you knew until that clock had zeros on it that they were going to come back and make a play on us. I told the defense that they deserved to be on the field when this game was over because they played so well."
 
Listen to the rest of Hunt's comments HERE.
 
• Colgate wide receiver John Maddaluna III: (On his touchdown catch) "It was a great play call and the field was wide open, so Jake just threw it and I made the play."
 
Listen to the rest of Maddaluna's comments HERE.
 
• Colgate linebacker Kyle Diener: (On the final play) "I was blitzing so I was thinking blitz my gap. The whole game came down to executing the game plan that Coach Shaffner drew up for us, and we did that well."
 
Listen to the rest of Diener's comments HERE.
 
• Colgate quarterback Jake Melville: (On another thrilling finish) "That game went 60 minutes and came down to the last play again. Luckily, we were able to come out on top this time."
 
Listen to the rest of Melville's comments HERE.
 

• Colgate linebacker Cameron Buttermore: (On the defense) "The energy was contagious. We went out there with crazy energy and played with everything we had. We left it all on the field and that was the result."
 
Listen to the rest of Buttermore's comments HERE.
 
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance for Family Weekend inside Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium was 7,879.
• That's the largest crowd for a Colgate home game since 8,129 were on hand for Colgate-Lehigh on Oct. 29, 2005.
 
Up Next
• Colgate returns to the road for the final time in the regular season next Saturday at Lafayette.
• The Leopards (1-8, 0-4 Patriot) are coming off a 35-24 home loss this weekend to Bucknell.
• Kickoff from Fisher Stadium is 1 p.m.

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