Oct. 28, 2014
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THE OPENING KICK
MATCH-UP: Lafayette (3-5, 1-2) travels to Bucknell (6-1, 2-0) to open the month of November. The Bison are receiving votes in both top 25 polls and have won their last two games, including a 45-24 thrashing of Lehigh on Oct. 11 and a 22-17 win at Georgetown last week. Lafayette, whose final three games of the season all occur away from Fisher Stadium, has lost two in a row for the first time this season and is coming off 24-14 setbacks against Holy Cross and No. 25/24 Harvard.
SERIES NOTES: Lafayette has won 11 of the last 12 meetings with Bucknell and two out of the last three. The Leopards have not lost in Lewisburg since Oct. 14, 2000. Lafayette leads the all-time series 52-33-6, winning 31-7 in 2013 and 20-14 in 2012 while losing 39-13 on Oct. 29, 2011. That decision snapped a series-long nine-game winning streak.
LAST TIME OUT: Holy Cross scored 21 points in the first half while running away to a 24-14 win at Fisher Stadium. The Crusaders ran for 269 yards and dominated time of possession, holding the ball for nearly 16 minutes more than the hosts on Senior Day.
QB SITUATION: Sophomore QB Drew Reed has been playing through a shoulder injury that forced him to miss the Fordham, Georgetown and most of the Wagner and Harvard games. At Harvard (10/18), he played the first two series before taking a hit directly to the shoulder while trying to run for a first down. Reed played the entire game vs. Holy Cross, completing 19-of-33 for 192 yards, with two touchdowns and a pair of interceptions.
Sophomore Blake Searfoss, who completed 23-of-42 for 274 yards and a touchdown in relief at Harvard, started vs. Fordham and Georgetown. The QBs' season numbers are comparable: Searfoss: 73-124-4 (58.9%), 5 TD • Reed: 82-140-7 (58.6%), 7 TD.
DUAL THREAT: Senior TB Ross Scheuerman continues to be the Leopards' top receiving threat. He has 38 catches for 402 yards and three touchdowns and is looking to be the first back since Joe McCourt '05 to lead the team in rushing and receiving in the same season. McCourt, then a junior, had 52 catches for 444 receiving yards and 245 carries for 1,157 yards on the ground in that 2003 season.
THREE GRAND FOR 29: With 78 rushing yards at Harvard, Ross Scheuerman moved into fourth place for career rushing yards at Lafayette. He currently has 3,083 yards, recently surpassing Tom Costello '91 (2,936) with Leonard Moore '99 (3,419) the possible next target. Scheuerman led the team in rushing the past three seasons and carried for 1,113 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2013 as the first player since 2006 to rush for 1,000 yards.
HOME AT HOME: All of Lafayette's wins in 2014 have come at Fisher Stadium.
150th MEETING: The 150th meeting of college's football's most-played and longest consecutive rivalry (Lafayette vs. Lehigh) will be contested on Nov. 22, 2014 at Yankee Stadium. More than 49,000 tickets have been sold to the game which will be played at a neutral site for just the second time in the series history.
ABOUT BUCKNELL: Bucknell enters the weekend with a 6-1 overall record and a 2-0 mark in Patriot League play. The Bison are off to their best seven-game start since 1997 and are coming off league wins over Lehigh (45-24) and Georgetown (22-17).
• The Bison return nine starters on offense and six on defense after finishing second in the Patriot League last season with a 6-5 overall mark and a 3-2 league record.
• Sophomore QB R.J. Nitti has started six games, completing 92-of-170 for 1301 yards, 11 touchdowns and six interceptions. Nitti missed the Lehigh game with injury but was at the helm in the Georgetown, throwing a 22-yard touchdown pass to classmate Will Carter in the fourth quarter to win the game. Carter leads the team with 28 receptions for 608 yards and eight touchdowns.
• Sophomore TB C.J. Williams is closing in on a 1,000-yard season, already with 817 yards on 143 carries (5.7 ypc) to go along with nine touchdowns.
• Defensively, seniors Evan Byers and Lee Marvel lead from the linebacker spot. Byers paces the team with 80 tackles and has 6.5 tackles for loss while Marvel has 49 tackles (5.5 TFL) with three interceptions.
• Joe Susan (Delaware '78) is in his fifth season at Bucknell and holds a 22-29 record.
