Radnor, PA: As we enter the 1st month of October, College Football closes out its non-conference schedule & that is what we saw on Saturday Afternoon as the Villanova Wildcats would do battle with Morgan State Bears at Villanova Stadium. The Wildcats come into the game with 2-3 record & off a loss to Colgate, while their opponent, Morgan State, made their way to the Main Line at 3-1 & off a win over Towson.

Villanova would win the toss & chose to receive & Morgan State to get the ball to start the 2nd half.

How the game went:
The Scoring would get started when Morgan State QB Cameron Edge would connect with Justin Perry for 79 yards & then a few plays later Edge would run it in from 5 yards out for the early 7-0 lead. The Wildcats would attempt to respond on their next drive as they drive down the field & the drive ended with Touchdown from Isaiah Ragland from 2 yards out to get things tied at 7 with 4:36 left in the 1^st quarter. The Bears would retake the lead at 14-7 on 45 yard TD to Keith Jenkins Jr & that would be the score at the end of the 1st quarter. The Wildcats’ first drive of the 2nd quarter would end with an INT, but the defense held the Bears to a FG for 17-7 lead. Villanova would respond on 44 yard catch by Brandon Binkowski & then Isaiah Ragland would score his 2nd TD of the game to cut the Morgan State lead to 17-14. The way Morgan State was moving the ball with their first 3 drive resulted in points, but their 4th drive went 3-and-out; before the half, the Bears would strike with 19 yard TD for a 24-14 lead. There were a good amount of BOOOO birds to Villanova going into the locker room.

 

Morgan State got the ball to begin the 3^rd quarter & they would go 3-and-out, and OUT & the Wildcats would take advantage of the 3-and-out by scoring a touchdown, and it was set up by a 42-yard pass to RB Ja’briel Mace, cutting the lead to 24-21

 

The Wildcats would be on the move down to the Morgan State 25 to close out the 3^rd quarter. As the 4^th quarter begins, the Wildcats picked up the 1^st down on 4^th down & the drive resulted in the 3^rd TD of the game by Isaiah Ragland for a 28-24 lead. The Touchdown drive by Villanova, which resulted in them retaking the lead, was a 97-yard TD drive.

Morgan State responded with a 64-yard TD to retake the lead at 31-28 with 13:27 left in the 4^th quarter. The Wildcats would answer the TD with 52 yard TD Run by Mace, which would be 2nd of the game for a 35-31 lead

Morgan State would drive down to the 13 & on 4^th down & the pass got picked off by Jamie Tyson in the endzone. When Villanova got the INT, everyone in the stadium thought this game was over. Not so fast. Morgan State would get the ball back with no timeout and down 35-31 & they would not waste any time as they drove down and scored the touchdown with 36 seconds left for a 38-35 lead.

The Wildcats would drive down to the Morgan State 31 & setting up a Dominic LeBlanc 47-yard FG with 2 seconds left & it would be NO GOOD

Morgan State would make their way to the Main Line and stun the Wildcats in a thrilling ending to this game. This was a tough one for the Wildcats to lose, as they had multiple chances to extend the lead but were unable to finish their opportunities

Postgame:

Villanova Coach Mark Ferrante:

Villanova QB Pat McQuaide

Final Numbers:

What is next:
With the loss, Villanova falls to 2-4 on the season; it’s concerning in how they have looked in some of their 1-score losses & now head into their Buy Week before heading back into conference play on October 17 vs. Fordham & their next home game is October 24 vs. undefeated Lehigh. The Morgan State Bears now go to 4-1 on the season & battle Robert Morris next week.