The football team played their last game at home on November 8 against Lafayette College. Colgate held a 16-0 lead into the third quarter, but lost momentum thereafter and watched the Leopards come back to grab 19-16 lead with 31-yard field goal as time expired. It was their first loss on Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium this season. The Lafayette win over the Raiders dropped their record on the season to 4-6 and 2-2 in the Patriot League.

The game’s highlights included first-year tailback James Holland’s first collegiate touchdown and three field goals by sophomore Jonah Bowman. 

“A culmination of hard work and repetition all week by the offense made the touchdown possible. The line did a great job blocking on the play and I just took what they gave me. It was a great feeling getting my first career touchdown off my back. I was all smiles after the play,” Holland said of his first trip to the end zone. 

Despite the loss, the seniors celebrated their Senior Day as well. The Raiders did this by honoring the seniors on the team with a ceremony before start of the game. 

“Senior Day motivated us. The opportunity to have your family out there with you before the game makes you put everything in perspective. You want to put everything on the line for yourself and your family, your teammates and coaches. It was a motivator,” senior defensive lineman Anto Almasian said. Almasian was one of the 14 Colgate seniors honored before their final home game and set a personal career record of seven tackles and two pass deflections.

“All the credit to Lafayette. We knew we turned too many of those drives into field goals. We made that last field goal and it was still a two-score game. We just didn’t do enough on offense in the second half after that field goal,” head coach Dan Hunt reflected on his team’s effort against the Leopards.

Aside from Holland’s score, the Raiders struggled to move the ball against the Leopards strong defensive front. The Raiders were successful in moving the ball on the ground, gaining 182 yards behind a strong effort from junior tailbacks Demetrius Russell and John Wilkins.

Through the air, however, first-year quarterback Bret Mooney lacked the big play that was necessary for the win. Mooney threw two interceptions and completed just 11 passes out of 27 attempts on the afternoon.

“We didn’t take advantage of field position the whole game,” Hunt said of what went wrong for the Raiders.

“We kicked too many field goals, turned the ball over too much and had blocked kicks – and that’s all on me. I didn’t have them ready to go and that will change. Hats off to Lafayette. They kept fighting and found a way to win. I feel bad because our defense played well. They’ve just got to make the play at the end of the game. We put them in bad situations all day and they fought hard. It’s not effort out of our guys. It’s just we weren’t executing and we have to get better.”

The team hopes to learn from their mistakes in the loss against Lafayette in hopes of a better result in their upcoming game. The Raiders travel to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on November 15 for their penultimate matchup of the season against another Patriot League foe in the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.