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HUNTSVILLE, Texas – The second-best postseason run in Colgate football history came to an end here Saturday afternoon.
 
The Raiders fell 48-21 to No. 10 Sam Houston State in the NCAA Division I Football Championship quarterfinals. Colgate's season ends at 9-5, but not before the Raiders bagged an eighth Patriot League title along with multiple playoff victories for just the second time in program and league history.
 
Colgate's seven-game winning streak ended against a team that is advancing to the national semifinals for the fourth time since 2011.
 
Seven days after limiting last week's national top-ranked offense at James Madison to just 298 yards, Colgate couldn't slow this week's No. 1 offense in Sam Houston State. The Bearkats racked up 653 total yards for the third-best mark in program history.
 
They gained 270 yards rushing and 383 passing, while Colgate finished with 185 on the ground and 142 through the air for 327 total. Jake Melville, James Holland and Alex Greenawalt all registered touchdowns to lead the Raiders.
 
Colgate trailed 14-0 after the first quarter – the first points scored against the Raiders in the opening period in nearly a month. And despite cutting the edge in half early in the second, Colgate never could get closer than seven points.
 
Only Colgate's 2003 national championship finalist had a better postseason run than this year's edition, and that includes every Patriot League football program in history. The 2003 and 2015 Colgate teams are the only Patriot League squads to compile multiple victories in the same playoff run.
 
Bottom Line
• Sam Houston State 48, Colgate 21

Won-Lost Records
• Colgate's seven-game winning streak ended and the Raiders finished the year at 9-5.
• Sam Houston State improved to 11-3.

Quick Rundown
• Sam Houston scored on its first two possessions and led 14-0 with 7:59 still showing in the first quarter.
• The Raiders halved that deficit on their second drive, going 80 yards in 16 plays and taking 7:55 off the clock. Holland capped it with a 3-yard run on the first play of the second quarter.
• The scoring drive was Colgate's second-longest this season in terms of plays, and third longest by time.
• After Sam Houston put two more TDs on the board, Colgate pulled within 28-14 when Melville hit Greenawalt with a 31-yard TD pass down the left sideline with 48 seconds left before intermission.
• But that was just enough time for the Bearkats to drive into position for a short field goal. The Bearkats led 31-14 and reestablished momentum heading into halftime.
• Sam Houston State increased its lead to 48-14 before Melville scored late in the fourth quarter for the final margin.
 
Facts & Figures
• The last time Colgate allowed any first-quarter points was Nov. 14 against Lehigh. The Raiders since then held Bucknell, New Hampshire and James Madison scoreless in the opening period, but Sam Houston State struck for 14 Saturday.
• The Bearkats racked up a school-record 37 first downs and finished with 653 yards of total offense. Those numbers were both season highs against Colgate.
• The 48 points tied for most allowed by the Raiders this season, matching Navy's total in the Sept. 5 opener.
• Colgate didn't register a sack or tackle for lost yardage for the first time all season. The previous TFL game low was two at Cornell, and the previous sack low was one at New Hampshire two weeks ago.
• Sam Houston State, on the other hand, put three sacks on Raider quarterbacks. That equaled the most allowed by Colgate this season.
• Colgate finished 3-of-4 on fourth-down conversions to cap its season success rate on fourth down at 67.4 percent. The only miss Saturday was when the Raiders trailed late and were forced to go on fourth-and-13.
• One of the fourth-down conversions was a nifty fake punt that kept alive Colgate's initial scoring drive. Dillon DeIuliis took the handoff and plowed ahead just enough to make the two yards.
• The last two punts of Nikko Armiento's Colgate career went for 63 and 59 yards. The 63-yarder was a season-high, and he finished with a 47.0-yard game average that broke his previous career best of 45.8 two years ago against Lehigh.
• Armiento finished with a 39.6-yard season average. His collegiate average ends at 39.8.
 
Russell Tops 2,000; Holland Joins 1,000 Group
• Demetrius Russell on Saturday became the 19th player in Colgate history to reach 2,000 rushing yards. He carried for a team-high 77 yards in the game to finish his Raider career with 2,006.
• Russell, Melville, Holland and John Wilkins made up the first Colgate quartet of career 1,000-yard rushers on the same team.
• Holland joined the club Saturday, carrying for 35 yards to push his two-year total to 1,014.
• Melville gained 73 Saturday to push his season total to a team-leading 1,073. He's at 1,656 for his career. And Wilkins gained eight yards Saturday before an injury sidelined him with 1,043 for his career.
• Holland also led the Raiders with 16 touchdowns, including seven in the playoffs. He scored 96 total points.
• Holland, Melville and Wilkins all return next season.
 
More Key Info
• Melville was 12-of-25 passing for 142 yards and a touchdown. The junior finished the year with 2,552 passing yards, good for fifth on the all-time Raider season chart.
• He also threw for 11 touchdowns against just two interceptions and completed 55 percent of his passes.
• Charles Cairnie led the Raiders in tackles with a career-high 13.
• Keyon Washington added nine tackles, while Kyle Diener and Joe Figueroa contributed eight apiece.
• Diener's season total of 129 led the team. Chris Morgan was next with 93, with Cameron Buttermore (82), Cairnie (79) and Christian Hardegree (74) rounding out the top five.
• John Maddaluna III was Colgate's top receiver Saturday and for the season. He caught six for 56 yards against the Bearkats, and finished the year with 62 for 910.
• Greenawalt's TD reception was his team-leading fifth of the year. He finished second on the team with 40 receptions for 598 yards.
• Although Sam Houston State was unseeded like Colgate, the Bearkats ended the season ranked sixth in the STATS FCS Poll and 10th in the NCAA Coaches Poll.
• This was Colgate's fourth ranked FCS opponent on the 2015 schedule.
• Sam Houston accumulated 653 yards of total offense in the game. The previous Bearkat season high was 579 two weeks ago against Southern Utah in the opening round of the playoffs, so the Bearkats are getting hot at the right time.
 
Turning Point
• Colgate pulled within 28-14 of Sam Houston State with a touchdown just 48 seconds before halftime.
• The Raiders were receiving the second-half kickoff and seemed to have some momentum.
• But Sam Houston's quick-strike offense was able to drive into field-goal range and add three points on the final play of the half.
• The Bearkats led 31-14 and Colgate never drew any closer.
 
From the Sources
• Colgate head coach Dan Hunt: (Press conference statement) "That's a good football team. We knew offensively that they were going to present us with struggles and they certainly did. We didn't do enough defensively early in the game to stop the run, and the bubble screens hurt us.
 
"But I'm proud of my team right now. That's really what I'm here to say. These guys fought all year through a slow start, through adversity and they never quit. They didn't quit in the game. We just couldn't get off the field enough on third down is really what it came down to defensively.
 
"And offensively, we had a chance. The three points they got right before the half was huge. If we could have kept the momentum going after that score, it might have been a little bit different situation coming out. We lost a little wind in our sails when they got that field goal.
 
"Hats off to Sam Houston, but I'm just here to tell you how proud I am of these guys."
 
• Colgate quarterback Jake Melville: (On third-down plays) "They had a very good defense. We struggled getting movement and they just made plays all over the field all game. It was tough.
 
"They were big and they were fast; they are an athletic defense. It brought us some problems. Once we started figuring it out, it was a little bit too late."
 
• Colgate linebacker Cameron Buttermore: (On the defense) "I'm proud of the way our defense played. It comes down to tackling was our biggest issue today. They did a great job stretching us to the sideline, getting us with the play-action and throwing the bubble (screen).
 
"It was tough to make tackles out there. We just had to rally to the football. That's what it came down to."
 
Listen to the entire Colgate postgame press conference HERE.
 
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance at Bowers Stadium was 5,074.
• Next weekend's semifinal matchups are Sam Houston State at Jacksonville State, and Richmond at North Dakota State.
 
Up Next
• Colgate's season is complete. The Raiders open the 2016 campaign Sept. 3 at Syracuse.