HAMILTON – Owen Buscaglia's name kept popping up. When talking Colgate Football during the recently completed training camp, the senior wide receiver was turning heads.
"Watch out for 82."
"He makes at least one big play every practice."
So it's little surprise that Buscaglia made a
BIG PLAY when the Raiders needed it most to seal Saturday's 24-17 home victory over Holy Cross.
Colgate had seen its 24-0 halftime lead nearly evaporate, and the Raiders faced fourth-and-10 at the Holy Cross 35 with still 2:38 remaining. One more stop and the Crusaders had plenty of time to mount a third consecutive TD scoring drive.
But Raiders quarterback
Grant Breneman called Buscaglia's number and the senior wideout responded with a terrific sideline catch that iced the Patriot League opener.
Defense Strikes First
Senior linebacker
John Steffen scored the season's first touchdown on Holy Cross' opening drive when he scooped up a Crusaders fumble and waltzed 7 yards into the end zone.
T.J. Holl forced the miscue and the Raiders led 7-0.
After another Holy Cross turnover,
James Holland Jr., caught his first career touchdown pass to make it 14-0. Breneman found Holland over the middle and the senior tailback put the moves on the purple defenders to glide unscathed into the end zone from 24 yards out.
The Raiders scored again early in the second quarter. Breneman found
Owen Rockett for a 9-yard strike to cap a 13-play, 73-yard march. It was 24-0 at halftime after
Chris Puzzi clanked home a 36-yard field goal off the left upright.
But Holy Cross found a lifeline midway in the third quarter when Colgate fumbled a punt return, leading to a 28-yard Derek Ng field goal. After that, the Crusaders seized momentum and scored on consecutive fourth-quarter scoring drives to narrow the margin to 24-17 with still 6:59 remaining.
Colgate's clinching drive began when Rockett returned the kickoff 32 yards. After a first down, Rockett put the Raiders into Holy Cross territory with a 22-yard reception on third-and-10 as the clocked ticked toward 4 minutes.
Three rushing attempts left the Raiders facing fourth-and-9 at the Holy Cross 35. The Crusaders called their final timeout with 2:38 remaining but they couldn't contain the speedy Buscaglia as Breneman hit him for first down at the 7.
Bottom Line
• Colgate 24, Holy Cross 17
Won-Lost Records
• This was the season opener for both teams.
Stats of the Game
• Colgate scored 17 points off three Holy Cross turnovers.
• In addition to the Holl-Steffen TD,
Chuck Moore forced a fumble that
Aidan Gaertner recovered midway in the first quarter.
• The Raiders responded with a three-play, 56-yard TD drive for a 14-0 lead.
•
Tyler Castillo then intercepted his eighth career pass and the Raiders drove for the Puzzi field goal.
• Castillo is the Patriot League's active career leader in interceptions.
• He needs two more to join the Colgate career top 10.
• The Raiders has scoring drives of 6:43, 7:24 and then then closing march of 6:52.
• Colgate defeated Holy Cross for the seventh consecutive time, marking the longest such Raider streak in the series that dates to 1917. The previous best was six in a row from 2001-06.
• Colgate extended its current winning streak to six games. Only North Carolina A&T (13) and North Dakota State (7) have longer active streaks.
• Holland pushed his career rushing total to 1,992 yards.
From the Sources
•
Colgate head coach Dan Hunt: (On the closing drive) "We had struggled offensively all the second half, for sure. The mark of a good team is when you can pull a drive out with five minutes to go in the game and end the game. That's positive. Grant had a couple of nice throws on that drive and that's going to be who we are. That drive I'm very happy about.
"Obviously, we need to improve on our execution from the second half. But when you've been struggling and you come out when the game's on the line and not give the hot team the ball back, that's what good teams do."
Listen to the rest of Coach Hunt's comments HERE.
•
Colgate wide receiver Owen Rockett: (On the final kickoff return) "My thought process was completely go down to a knee until I heard Abu kind of under his breath saying, 'Go, go, go!' From there, I bolted and found a seam, luckily, to put us in better position."
Listen to the rest of Rockett's comments HERE.
•
Colgate safety Alec Wisniewski: (On the game) "Any time you win a game, you win a game. They are a good team you can't take anything for granted. We had some adversity in the second half but a win's a win. There are things we can improve upon, without question, but we'll look at the film and make adjustments."
Listen to the rest of Wisniewski's comments HERE.
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Colgate linebacker John Steffen: (On his touchdown) "I whiffed, big time, on the quarterback. So I have to thank
T.J. Holl for having my back on that play. I owe him big time.
"I whiffed and then I was so mad at myself that I got up and sprinted back to the play. Then the ball was just lying there for me and I thought OK and just picked it up."
Listen to the rest of Steffen's comments HERE.
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Colgate wide receiver Owen Buscaglia: (On his late-game catch) "We've run it pretty consistently in practice. They gave me a shot and we just needed a play. Grant threw it up there and it worked out. We got it done."
Listen to the rest of Buscaglia's comments HERE.
•
Colgate quarterback Grant Breneman: (On the game) "We came out firing on all cylinders in the first half. The defense got a huge touchdown for us that helped us settle in. In the second half, Holy Cross did a great job adjusting. They threw some different stuff at us and it took us a little while to adjust. But we were able to get that drive to seal it."
Listen to the rest of Breneman's comments HERE.
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance inside Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium was 5,304.
Up Next
• Colgate hits the road next Saturday to take on New Hampshire.
• The Wildcats were ranked among the preseason top 10 nationally but lost 35-7 Thursday night in their opener at Maine.
• Kickoff from Durham is 6 p.m., with WKXZ-FM 93.9 carrying the radio call.
