Football Continues to Show Big at Home:
This past weekend at Andy Kerr Stadium the Raiders broke the school’s yardage record pil-ing up 707 yards en route to a 57-36 victory over the Georgetown Hoyas.
With the former record be-ing 678 yards recorded in 1997 against Lehigh, the Raiders bal-anced attack of 377 yards through the air and 330 on the ground surpassed the previous record.
The scoring started early with junior quarterback Gavin McCa-rney throwing a 19-yard touch-down pass to sophomore tight end Kevin O’Connell.
After the Hoyas responded with a quick score, junior wide reciever Nat Bellamy took a hand-off from McCarney 47 yards for the touchdown.
After a stalemate through-out the rest of the first quarter, the Raiders blew open the game. Following a field goal by junior kicker Andrew Burgess and an-other touchdown by the Hoyas, the Raiders scored three straight touchdowns with McCarney running in from 41 yards out, senior tailback Jordan McCord rushing from 10 yards out, and O’Connell catching his second touchdown pass of the game as the half ended.
The third quarter began and the Hoyas scored two quick touchdowns within the first five minutes to pull the score to 37-29 in favor of Colgate, but the Raid-ers responded with a strong play, an 80 yard drive capped off by Mcord’s second rushing touch-down of the game.
McCarney would finish off the Hoyas in the fourth with a passing touchdown to sopho-more tight end CJ Stempeck and adding a 30-yard rushing touch-down. Helping out on the de-fensive side of the ball, first-year defensive back Anthony Or-lando, junior defensive back Wendell Lewis, and sophomore defensive back Mike Armiento all picked off Hoyas passes in the fourth quarter.
“The offensive line played unbe-lievable. They gave me to time to sit in the pocket and find my receivers who also played great. The offen-sive line also made running lanes for Jordan and myself that really al-lowed us to have a balanced attack,” McCarney said of the team’s effort.
McCarney picked up his second Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week honor in the last three games. His 510 yards of total offense to go along with five touchdowns also helped him FCS co-National Offensive Player of the Week.
Also putting in a strong game for the Raiders was junior Daniel Cason who caught nine passes for 173 yards.
“[McCarney] and I worked on our timing all week. We’ve been off and on all year and it was good to finally be on track,” Cason said.
McCord, who rushed for 154 yards, had another strong game to continue his strong season.
Having eclipsed 100 yards in every game this season, McCord leads the Patriot League in rushing, averaging 145.4 yards per game.
Improving their record to 2-0 in the Patriot League and 4-3 on the season, the Raiders look to build off the momentum they have going for them.
“We are taking each game one at a time and not looking forward to anything. We know that one slip up could cost us and we as a team are staying focused so that doesn’t happen,” McCarney said of the team’s goals for the rest of the season.
The Raiders will travel to Buck-nell next weekend to take on the Bison and their stifling rush defense.
Contact Spencer Serling at [email protected].