EASTON, Pa. – Colgate won its third game in a row and completed a third straight shutout of Lafayette with a 16-0 triumph here Saturday.
The Raiders (4-8, 3-3 Patriot) wrapped up their 2019 campaign with four wins in the last five and saved their best overall defensive effort for the stretch run. Colgate limited Fordham to 208 total yards last week and Lafayette to 242 here Saturday – the two lowest opponent figures of the season.
Colgate's offense, meanwhile, put just enough on the board and then controlled the clock in the second half. The Raiders had the ball for 11:08 of the third quarter and 11:07 of the fourth, after possessing it for just 10:59 of the entire first half yet somehow leading 6-0 at intermission.
Grant Breneman scored on a 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that was set up by
Malik Twyman through the air and on the ground. And then Twyman faked a reverse and found the end zone in the third quarter to make it 13-0.
Chris Puzzi's field goal with 4:32 left capped the scoring.
Puzzi's 3-pointer was the 30th of his career out of 38 attempts, leaving him as the all-time record-holder in field goal percentage at .789. He eclipsed
Jonah Bowman's .756 from 2013-16, capping a pretty salty seven years of placekicking for the Raiders.
Milton Braasch II posted 10 tackles and a pass breakup to lead the Colgate defense, while
Abu Daramy-Swaray finished with eight and two.
Seniors
Jacob Esarco and
Nick Wheeler contributed sacks. Esarco's was the second of his career and Wheeler the 33rd, with 9½ of those this season. Wheeler finishes as Colgate's all-time sack leader and the Patriot League's No. 3.
The Raiders blanked Lafayette for the third straight season, extending to 13 their streak of consecutive scoreless quarters over the Leopards. Colgate has outscored Lafayette 88-0 the last three years.
The last time a Raiders team posted shutout victories over the same opponent in three consecutive seasons was 1930-32 over Lafayette by scores of 41-0, 16-0 and 35-0 – the latter by Colgate's famous Undefeated, Untied, Unscored upon, and Uninvited team.
Bottom Line
• Colgate 16, Lafayette 0
From the Sources
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Colgate head coach Dan Hunt: (On the shutout) "Yeah, it was good. Kind of felt like last year a little bit. I'm really proud of the defense. They kept us in the game when offensively, particularly in the first half – we had one drive that was night – but we really couldn't get a lot going. The defense was back to having that feeling of confidence."
(On time of possession) "Whatever type of game it is, that's what we're going to play. If it became a time of possession, field position game, that what we would play and our guys knew that. The points and yards may not have been there but in the second half, we were able to control the time of possession, control the field position and get 10 points, which really made a big difference.
Listen to the rest of Coach Hunt's comments
HERE.
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Colgate defensive lineman Nick Wheeler: (On the defense) "We found ourselves in a lot of tough positions but we said we were going to fight through adversity and do everything we can to keep that zero on the board like we did."
(On rallying down the stretch) "Amazing. We started with some rough patches but then four of the last five. That's a really big accomplishment to come back from that type of (start to) a season. Coach Hunt says a lot of teams would have cashed it in and given up. But we came out every day in practice to give it our all and do what was right for the program."
Listen to the rest of Wheeler's comments
HERE.
•
Colgate quarterback Grant Breneman: (On the second half) "That was really just our O-line finding its groove. (Lafayette) was pretty strong up front, especially their pass rushers, so we were trying to take advantage of that and get us in good situations.
(On the defense) "The way the defense played all day kind of let us relax and know we could grind this one out. We could go for it on those fourth downs and trust our defense. They played awesome the whole day."
Listen to the rest of Breneman's comments
HERE.
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Colgate placekicker Chris Puzzi: (On his field goal record) "If you have a program as successful as Colgate has been over the years, you need to have a certain set of beliefs and ideology you go by. Obviously here, that means going for it on fourth down. We are very open about that. Coach Hunt and I both want to go for it in those situations. I want this offense to keep rolling.
"So with that, sometimes you are called upon more and sometimes like this season you are called upon a little bit less. Regardless, I try to do my job when I'm out there and we stick to what we're good at."
Listen to the rest of Puzzi's comments
HERE.
Stats of the Game
• Leading 6-0, the Raiders opened the second half with a 14-play, 68-yard drive that took 8:13 off the clock.
• But Twyman was stopped on fourth-and-goal at the 1 and the Raiders came up empty.
• Three plays later,
Collin Heard picked off his third pass of the season to set Colgate up at the Lafayette 13.
• One play later, Twyman faked a reverse handoff and strolled into the end zone from 11 yards out for a 13-0 lead.
• Impress your friends with this note: Colgate's two longest offensive drives of the season, by time, were 9:08 to end last week's win over Fordham and 8:13 to open the second half here Saturday.
• The Raider point total on those two drives? Zero.
• Puzzi with 30 field goals ties Lane Schwarzburg (2001-04) for third on the career made list. Mike Powers (1983-86) remains the record-holder with 35, followed by Bowman with 31.
•
Barney Amor at 42.1 on 63 punts breaks the Colgate season punting average for minimum 40 punts, topping
Nikko Armiento's 40.1 back in 2013.
• Breneman's enters his senior season ninth on the Colgate career chart in both passing yards with 4,787 and total offensive yards with 5,707.
• Colgate's defense intercepted four passes this season, and three were by Heard.
Aidan Gaertner against Cornell had the other.
• Daramy-Swaray led the team by reaching 10 pass breakups on the season, topping his previous season high of nine from 2017.
• Nick Ioanilli was the season tackle leader with 87.
• Twyman with 40 yards bumped his career total to 1,016, becoming the 35th player in Colgate history to reach the 1,000-yard milestone.
•
Alex Mathews rushed for 43 yards and finished as the season leader with 495. His career total of 1,380 places him 26th all-time.
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Garrett Oakey was the leader in both receptions and yards with 58 for 736.
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance at Fisher Stadium was 4,161.
Up Next
• Colgate's season is complete.
• The Raiders open their 2020 campaign Sept. 5 at Western Michigan.
