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HAMILTON – Colgate Football had a really good day Saturday – all across the Empire State.
 
While the Raiders were taking care of business against Bucknell to the tune of a 40-3 Senior Day thumping, Fordham vaulted Colgate back into the Patriot League championship picture with a 45-35 upset of Lehigh in the Bronx.
 
The Raiders heading into a bye week are now 3-1 in conference play, a half-game ahead of both Lehigh and Lafayette at 2-1.
 
Ever since that bitter Oct. 7 loss to Lehigh, Colgate has been biding its time and doing its part to stay focused should the Mountain Hawks stumble. All the Raiders have done is play their best month of football since November 2015, the last time Colgate was in the title hunt.
 
Colgate's three-game winning streak features victories of 26, 38 and now 37 points. And one week after posting the largest win over Holy Cross in 100 years of series history, the Raiders put the third-largest win on Bucknell in a series that dates to 1894.
 
Colgate's defense played a huge role Saturday. The three points allowed were the fewest since a 19-0 shutout of Georgetown back in 2014, and the fewest by a Bucknell team against Colgate since a 20-2 Raiders victory back in 1979.
 
Nick Ioanilli intercepted two passes and Pat Afriyie led the team with eight tackles. The Raiders put three more sacks on the board – one apiece by Connor Buck, Nick Wheeler and Abu Daramy-Swaray.
 
The offense was lights out in the first half, and especially during a 27-point second quarter. Colgate by intermission had accumulated 293 of its 386 total yards and 15 of its 19 first downs before cooling the jets in the second half.
 
Thomas Ives caught two touchdown passes for the first time in his career and Nick Diaco added another, while James Holland Jr., Grant Breneman and Alex Mathews all ran for scores. Breneman tied his season high with the three TD completions.
 
Bottom Line
• Colgate 40, Bucknell 3

Won-Lost Records
• Colgate won its third straight game to improve to 5-4 overall and 3-1 in the Patriot League.
• Bucknell is now 4-4 and 1-2.

Game Recap
• Wind played a factor all afternoon, but the Raiders survived going against the breeze in the first quarter by taking a 6-3 lead.
• That's when Colgate turned on the jet stream.
• The Raiders in five second-quarter possessions went TD, TD, TD, punt, TD.
• Colgate led 33-3 at intermission.
• The only scoring of the second half came on Colgate's final drive of the game, culminating in Mathews' 3-yard run.
• The Bison drove to the Colgate 5 to end the afternoon but came up empty in the red zone for the third time in four trips.
 
Stats of the Game
• Breneman tied his season high with three touchdown passes, giving him 15 for the season and 14 over his last six games.
• He did see his streak of passes without an interception end at 170.
• Breneman's first attempt of the second half was batted into the air by Bucknell's Mark Pyles and picked off by Abdullah Anderson.
• Colgate forced three Bucknell turnovers that resulted in a 21-point scoring difference.
• Both of Ioanilli's interceptions led to scores, and the Raiders recovered a Bucknell fumble on first-and-goal from the Colgate 1.
• Ives led all receivers with four catches for 82 yards and the two TDs. Over his last two games, Ives has seven receptions for 174 yards and three touchdowns.
• Holland topped the 100-yard rushing mark for the third straight game. He also moved into 23rd place on the Colgate career rushing list with 1,808 yards.
 
Notables
• Afriyie led the Colgate tacklers with a season-high eight, including 1½ behind the line.
• Wheeler's sack marked his sixth straight game with a quarterback takedown. He leads the team with 11½ tackles for loss and nine sacks.
• Buck posted a career-high 2½ TFLs, accounting for minus-11 yards.
• Aidan Gaertner contributed a career-high seven tackles.
• The Raiders lead the Patriot League with 12 interceptions by the defense.
 
From the Sources
• Colgate head coach Dan Hunt: (On the winning streak) "We talked about that after the Lehigh game. We said we've got to win three going into the bye week, whatever it takes. One of the good things is we went 3-0 and we played better each week. To win three convincing games in the conference is always good, especially today. To score like we did against Bucknell – that's something we can hang our hat on.
 
"It's nice to have the bye week now to get healthy. We have a couple of guys who we'll probably get back by our next game, and then we've got a two-week season."
 
Listen to the rest of Coach Hunt's comments HERE.
 
• Colgate wide receiver Thomas Ives: (On the second-quarter flurry) "It was nice to get out to a hot start. We wanted to make a statement that we've still got a chance to win this league and we're the best team in the league, and we proved that. Three wins in a row, putting up some points, and the defense is playing great. We're getting guys healthy coming into the bye week. We'll be ready to get back after it."
 
Listen to the rest of Ives' comments HERE.
 
• Colgate linebacker Nick Ioanilli: (On the defense) "Coach Shaff just prides us every week on bend-not-break fundamental football, and that's pretty much what we played. Credit to all the defense -- we all played great. This bye week is going to give us time to get all the soreness out. Then we've got Lafayette and Georgetown. We've got to focus on those two weeks and not take anyone lightly."
 
Listen to the rest of Ioanilli's comments HERE.
 
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance inside Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium was a season-high 7,218.
• Zach Alsharif was promoted to game captain and joined the season captains for the pregame coin toss.
• Colgate recognized 16 seniors before the game and then again during a postgame dinner inside Sanford Fieldhouse.
 
Up Next
• Colgate is off next weekend and returns to action Nov. 11 at Lafayette.
• The Leopards are 2-6 overall and 2-1 in conference. They were idle Saturday.
• Kickoff is 12:30 p.m. from Easton. The game can be streamed on the Patriot League Network and heard on WKXZ-FM 93.9.