In front of a large homecoming crowd, Colgate football outscored Holy Cross 51- 35. The Holy Cross Crusaders were the first Patriot League opponents the Raiders have faced this season.

Colgate put points on the board in the first quarter on a 51-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Gavin McCar-ney. The run began with him leaping over a Crusader tackle. This was a personal best for McCarney; the run was one yard longer than his previous 50-yard record run last year against Bucknell.

The Crusaders came back from Col-gate’s initial lead with a touchdown less than three minutes later to even the score at 7-7. Colgate took back the lead when senior running back Jordan McCord ran the ball into the end zone from three yards out to make the score 13-7.

The momentum seemed to be in Colgate’s favor when they quickly got possession back and marched down the field to Holy Cross’ 10-yard line. Then McCarney fumbled after the snap, and it was regained by Holy Cross junior defen-sive end Mike Turner. This was the first lost fumble by the offense since the Sacred Heart matchup earlier in the season.

The Crusaders brought the ball down the field and took their first lead of the day at 14-13 after a three-yard scoring run by sophomore quarterback Steven Elder early in the second quarter. The play by Holy Cross was a 90-yard drive in just 10 plays.

Following the Holy Cross touchdown, junior kicker Andy Burgess connected on a 36-yard field goal for Colgate to bring the score to 16-14. Holy Cross responded with a 10-yard touchdown run by Elder putting Holy Cross back in the lead at 20- 16. Sophomore receiver Jimmy DeCicco returned the kick for 29-yards and the Raiders started out around midfield.

Eight plays later, Colgate went the remaining 54-yards. McCarney closed out the half with a 4-yard scoring run to place the Raiders up 23-20 at halftime.

The Raiders stopped Holy Cross on fourth-and-one from the Colgate 36-yard line in the beginning of the third quarter. This major defensive effort led to an of-fensive six-play touchdown drive with Mc-Cord taking the ball in from three-yards out giving Colgate a 30-20 advantage.

Holy Cross’s senior tailback Eddie Houghton scored a touchdown in the third quarter to lower the point margin to 30- 27. When the Raiders got the ball back they answered with a nine-play, 75-yard drive re-sulting in McCord’s second touchdown of the quarter making the score 37-27.

The gap was widened when Colgate added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter. McCarney passed to senior wide receiver Chris Looney for a fourth-down touchdown. Looney caught four passes for 49 yards and fellow receiver, junior Daniel Cason had two receptions for 85 yards.

McCord added another touchdown to make four for the game on an 8-yard run that made the score 51-27. Holy Cross put more points up after a 16-yard touchdown pass from Elder to senior wide receiver Gerald Mistretta but it was too late and the Raiders ended on top at 51-35.

Colgate’s 604 yards of total offense was the ninth-best mark in school his-tory. They ran for 407 yards and passed for 197. McCarney completed 10 of his 13 pass attempts for another 166 yards and a touchdown. This season, McCar-ney has passed for 1,097 yards and rushed for 468. He has accounted for 18 of the team’s 29 touchdowns, with 10 on the ground and eight thrown. Colgate fin-ished the game with four sacks of Elder, who completed 24 of 39 passes for 313 yards and two touchdowns.

Colgate senior Patrick Friel tied for game honors with a personal season-high 13 tackles, including 11 solo. Junior safety Chad Frey added eight tackles.

The Raiders are home again next week, hosting Georgetown in a 1 p.m. kick-off. The Hoyas lost their Patriot League opener 17-14 at home Saturday to Lehigh.

Contact Morgan Giordano at [email protected].