HAMILTON – Another tough day on the gridiron led Colgate to drop its seventh game of the season, a 32-14 setback to Bucknell here Saturday.

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The Raiders trailed 20-7 at halftime but took the opening drive of the second half 74 yards in nine plays. Malik Twyman scored from 2 yards out and Colgate was within a touchdown.
 
Bucknell answered with a TD march of its own to reassume a two-score lead at 26-14 midway in the third. The teams twice traded punts before Colgate put together its best drive of the game.
 
The Raiders (0-7, 0-2 Patriot) took over at their own 30 with 12:25 remaining and marched 12 plays in 6 minutes time, gaining first-and-goal at the Bucknell 6. But the Raiders then threw incomplete, lost a yard rushing, lost 14 on a quarterback sack and threw incomplete on fourth-and-goal from 21 – thus ending Colgate's last best hope with 5:43 remaining.
 
In desperation mode, quarterback Grant Breneman was stripped and fumbled at his own 5-yard line in the closing seconds and Bucknell's Simeon Page trotted home with a 12-yard TD return.
 


Lost in the despair of falling to 0-7 were Nick Wheeler's two sacks in the game, breaking a 38-year-old Colgate career record. Wheeler bumped his sack total to six for the season and 29½ for his career, passing Kelly Robinson, who tallied 28½ from 1979-81.

Wheeler with Saturday's performance takes over the NCAA FCS lead among active career sack leaders. He's one better than Sully Laiche of Nicholls State (28½) and 1½ ahead of Wagner's Cameron Gill (28).
 
Bucknell (1-5, 1-1 Patriot) won its first game of the season behind quarterback Logan Bitikofer, who completed 18-of-29 passing for 250 yards and two touchdowns without an interception.
 
Bottom Line
• Bucknell 32, Colgate 14



From the Source
• Colgate head coach Dan Hunt: (On the game) "It's getting to be the same conversation after every game. Mistakes we are doing to ourselves that are putting us into situations to not win football games. Offensively, we are making mistakes that get us into third-and-long and taking away positive plays with penalties and sacks. Defensively, we are having a couple of assignments blows that are giving easy plays to the other team. Couple that with special teams error and, again, that's a formula to lose football games.
 
"We have to find a way to come out and improve during the week. I don't know if we're getting any better right now, and that's on me. We have to find a way to be better tomorrow than we were today and, hopefully, keep clawing just to win a game here and see what happens. I told the team that there were lessons that you learn last year when you win every game, and there are lessons that you learn this year. In some ways, you find out more about yourself now. And we're going to see what we have individually as coaches and as players and as seniors. It's an opportunity to still write a good story, but we have to start being accountable to the improvements we need to make."
 
(On Nick Wheeler breaking the career sack record) "He certainly has proven to be one of the best pass-rushers we've had. He deserves the record; he's worked hard for it. When I think of all the D-linemen we've had, that's an impressive accomplishment to be No. 1 all time.
 
"I'm happy for him. I wish it had come in a better situation for the team, but he can look back and be proud of this. That's the hallmark of a good career."


 
Stats of the Game
• Colgate matched its season high with nine penalties for 71 yards.
• Alex Mathews rushed for 17 yards to reach 1,100 for his career. Twyman led the Raiders with 55 and needs just 175 more to reach 1,000 for his career.
• Breneman finished 17-of-28 passing for 202 yards, marking his 11th career game over 200 yards. That ties for seventh in Colgate history.
• Breneman is at 3,898 passing yards for his career and needs just 252 more to reach the Raider top 10.
• Colgate quarterback have been sacked 26 times in the last four games.
• Offensive tackle Ben Bohnenberger and defensive back William Gruber both earned their first starts Saturday.
• Nicholas Ioanilli once again led the Raiders with nine tackles. Bucknell's Rick Mottram also had nine.
• Marques Bruce broke up two passes and Jordan Jefferson one.
• First-year Raider Arthur Hamlin set up Colgate's first touchdown by recovering a muffed punt that inadvertently struck a downfield Bucknell blocker.


 
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance inside Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium was 2,386.
 
Up Next
• Colgate steps out of Patriot League competition for one week, visiting CNY rival Cornell next Saturday.
• The Big Red lost 35-22 Saturday at Harvard to fall to 1-3 overall.
• Kickoff from Ithaca is 1:30 p.m., with ESPN+ carrying the livestream. Catch the home play-by-play call from 94 WKXZ-FM.