The Match-Up: Coming off a 24-14 win over Bucknell to open Patriot League play, Lafayette will finish off its non-conference slate on Saturday. The Leopards host Princeton at 12:30 p.m. on First Responders Day and Breast Cancer Awareness Day at Fisher Stadium.

Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week: Junior DB A.T. Ntantang played a key role in the Patriot League-opening win at Bucknell. Ntantang intercepted the first two passes of his career. His pick near midfield in the third quarter led to a Leopards' offensive score and a 17-6 lead. The Lawrenceville, Ga. native put the game out of reach with an 80-yard pick-six with eight minutes left in the game. 

Turnover Battle at Bucknell: Lafayette forced three turnovers on a wet day at Bucknell. In addition to Ntantang's two interceptions, DaRon Gilbert, picked off another pass while the Leopards only gave up one fumble on a punt return. 

Leading the League: Through five games, Lafayette's defense is leading the Patriot League in scoring (18.0 ppg) and red-zone defense (68.4%) while also ranking second in yards allowed (353.4) and net kickoffs (40.1 ypk)

A Little Bit of a Run: It's no secret that Lafayette head coach John Troxell wants to be able to run the ball, but an inexperienced and banged up offensive line has limited those opportunities thus far.
The Leopards showed some glimpses of an improving run game at Bucknell, rushing for a season-high 137 yards. Freshman Jamar Curtis  finished the day with 17 carries for 56 yards while sophomore Jermaine Conyers added 13 for 46. QB Rent Montie netted 34 rushing yards, including a 42-yard scoring run on a QB draw, the Leopards' longest running play in 2022. Montie also added a one-yard score on a QB sneak just before halftime. 

Upcoming: The Leopards will get a brief respite from the grind of the football season and an opportunity to get a little healthier with the bye week slated for Oct. 15. The bye week also coincides with fall break on the College Hill campus. From there, it will be Patriot League play the rest of the way, starting with reigning conference champ and current No. 10 Holy Cross on Oct. 22.  

Opponent: Princeton comes into Saturday's matchup at 3-0 with wins over Stetson (39-14), Lehigh (29-17) and Columbia (24-6) to open the season. The Tigers are receiving votes in the AFCA FCS Coaches' Top 25 poll. Princeton is coming off an Ivy League title in 2021 after posting a 9-1 record with its only loss to Dartmouth. The Princeton offense is led by junior QB Blake Stenstrom who has thrown for 804 yards and four touchdowns in the first three games with a QB rating of 142.88. Seniors Dylan Classi and Andrei Iosivas have been Stenstrom's favorite targets, each  accumulating more than 250 receiving yards with Iosivas pulling down three touchdowns. On the ground, freshman Ryan Butler is averaging 5.1 yards per carry and has four touchdowns through three games.
Defensively, the Tigers feature Preseason All-American senior DL Uche Ndukwe who leads the team with two sacks and junior Liam Johnson who has a team-high 20 total tackles from his linebacker spot. Princeton is coached by Bob Surace (Princeton '90) who is in his 13th season and was the Ivy League Coach of the Year in the 2016 and 2018. He spent nine years in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Ringing The Bell: Among many changes for the John Troxell era is addition of a bell on the sideline. In lieu of a turnover chain, title belt, etc., Troxell has brought in the bell which a player will ring after securing a turnover or scoring a touchdown or a field goal. Troxell said that it symbolizes the "hard-fought battle" that is football. Senior WR Joe Gillette, who finished cancer treatment this past summer, was the first to ring the bell on the Friday walk through before the season opener. For those undergoing cancer treatment, ringing a bell at the hospital is symbolic of part of ending cancer treatment or portions of it, which Gillette had done and why he was chosen to be the first to ring the bell.  "There wasn't one time he ever thought of quitting. No matter how bad it got, he never thought of it. He was here every single day," Troxell told the team. "So when you ring that bell, no matter if it's week 11, 10, 9, it's because you're not going to quit on each other. We'll keep fighting to the end."

Now Under Center: With Ryan Schuster currently out due to injury, sophomore Ah-Shaun Davis and junior Rent Montie will step in under center. Davis started eight games for the Leopards in 2021, completing 59 percent of his passes. Injury knocked him from the lineup in the season finale at Lehigh. When Schuster was injured in the Penn game, junior Rent Montie came on to play the final three series (all in the fourth quarter). Montie completed 8-of-18 for 74 yards at Penn. At Bucknell, John Troxell and offensive coordinator T.J. DiMuzio went to Montie, and the junior from Florida completed 16-of-21 for 122 yards and also ran for 34 yards and two touchdowns. In 2021, Montie played in the first two games of the season, splitting time with Aaron Angelos. 

Reaching a Milestone: Senior DL Malik Hamm chiseled his name into the Lafayette records books in the first quarter of the Penn game on Sept. 24, registering the 26th sack of his career to become the program's all-time leader. The 13-yard TFL pushed him out of a first-place tie with Harrison Bailey '95, each with 25 sacks. Hamm added another half sack later in the game to nudge his career total to 26.5. Hamm tied the record in the season-opening victory over Sacred Heart. He now ranks tied for eighth for career sacks in the Patriot League history. Hamm already ranked ninth and 10th in single-season sacks at Lafayette with 8.0 in 2018, and 8.5 in 2019, respectively.