Complete Game Notes

Matchup: Rested and ready, the Leopards emerge from their bye week to continue Patriot League play. Lafayette takes the two-hour trip to Bucknell for a late afternoon (3 p.m.) kickoff in Lewisburg. The Leopards will play Patriot League games the next six weeks.  

CP Catching Up: Senior WR Carson Persing continues to ascend the career receiving lists, making four catches for 49 yards vs. Richmond to move to 164 catches for his career. He currently ranks fourth for career receptions, needing five more to move into third place (occupied by Matt Mrazek '18) and 34 grabs to become the school's all-time leader (Mark Ross '14). Persing also moved into the top 10 for career receiving yards (1,703), requiring 77 more yards to climb to ninth place (Mark Layton '11, 1,780).

100+ for 5: Junior Jakyre Henley churned out a career-best 152 rushing yards against No. 17 Richmond. He managed the yardage on just eight carries, breaking away for scoring runs of 72 and 74 yards (the Leopards' longest plays from scrimmage in 2026). Henley's first 100-yard rushing game of the season came at Columbia when he ran for 127 yards on 17 carries with a touchdown. His first 100-yard rushing game was Oct. 11, 2025 when he had five carries for 107 yards vs. Bucknell. 

Career Days for Kuehner and Lipovski vs. Holy Cross: Junior WR Mason Kuehner and senior QB Daniel Lipovski turned in career games vs. Holy Cross. Kuehner reeled in 10 catches (one short of his career high) for 152 yards and three touchdowns (both career bests). It was the first three-touchdown game for a Leopard receiver in a decade, as Matt Mrazek caught three vs. Holy Cross on Oct. 1, 2016. Kuehner followed with a five-catch, 108-yard performance against Richmond. 

On the other end of the connection was Lipovski who completed 21-of-39 for 306 yards and four touchdowns (all career highs).

Simonetta Getting His Kicks: Senior K Jack Simonetta is 6-of-7 on field goal opportunities in 2026 and has converted all 13 PAT. The Gotha, Fla. native made a pair of field goals at Columbia, booting the Leopards' first (40-yarder in the first quarter) and last scores of the game (31-yarder with 1:03 left to send the contest to overtime). He holds Lafayette's career PAT record (150) and the single-season mark (53 in 2025). Last season he was 6-for-6 in field goal tries and booted a 49-yard field goal against Colgate (the longest of his career and the fourth-longest in school history). 

With a Win on Saturday, Lafayette would: 

• notch program win No. 716

• win its second-straight series matchup over Bucknell and fifth of the last six meetings

• avoid losing four-straight for the first time since 2019

• improve to 4-1 coming off the bye week in John Troxell's tenure as head coach

Big Boot: Christian Bush's career-long 70-yard punt against Richmond was the first 70-yard plus punt for the Leopards since 2008 (Tom Kondash, 2008).

Rookie QB: Freshman quarterback Eddie Jordan made the most of his debut, completing 3-of-5 passes for 75 yards against Richmond. Jordan's first attempt came on the first drive of the fourth quarter, when he zipped a 43-yard pass to Mason Kuehner. Jordan remained in the game on the Leopards' remaining drives.   

Early Returns From N.C.: The Leopards currently have two of the top kick returners in the Patriot League. Rookie Kameron Vance is currently 10th in the Patriot League, averaging 14.0 yards per return. Against Marist, the Charlotte, N.C. native had returns of 48 (career-long) and 22 yards and had two returns for 24 yards at Columbia. Soph. Nick Bierman, a native of Marvin, N.C. is averaging 28.0 yards per return, but missed the last three games. 

Last Time Out: No. 17/24 Richmond scored 31 unanswered points at the end of the first half and into the fourth quarter to claim a 40-31 win over the Leopards on Oct. 3. Junior Jakyre Henley ran to a career-best performance, churning out 152 yards that included touchdowns of 72 and 74 yards. Seven different players scored for Richmond led by QB Ashten Snelsire who threw three touchdowns and ran for another. Aziz Foster-Powell finished the day with 113 rushing yards and a TD for the Spiders.

All-Time Series: Lafayette and Bucknell have squared off on the gridiron 103 times with the Leopards holding a 58-38-6 mark in the all-time series that dates back to 1883. The teams have split the last two meetings, but Lafayette has won five of the last six Saturday series soirees. Bucknell is Lafayette's second-most frequent opponent (behind only team brown).

Last Time They Met | Nov. 11, 2025: The Leopards piled up nine touchdowns to run past Bucknell, 62-24. It was a day of stellar individual performances at Fisher Stadium that led to Lafayette's highest scoring output since a 64-0 win over Lehigh to close out the 1944 season. Lafayette racked up a school-record of 670 offensive yards (348 rushing, 322 passing). RB Ethan Weber churned out his first career 100-yard rushing game (139 yards) as did Jakyre Henley (5-107, TD). Senior WR Elijah Steward reeled in two TD passes to finish with 116 yards. QB Dean DeNobile was 26-of-34 for 316 yards with a career-high five TD passes while fellow QB Jason Penza ran for 94 yards, ripping off a 79-yard touchdown. 

Long & Short of It: Lafayette's game vs. Holy Cross featured the longest (5:26 during the third quarter) and the shortest (1:00 in the fourth quarter) scoring drives of the season. Lafayette has since had a shorter drive, finding paydirt in 45 seconds vs. Richmond on a 72-yard Jakyre Henley run. 

Scoop and Score: In the fourth quarter at Columbia, the defense snatched the momentum when Joey Shimko sacked the QB and Sean Curtis was on hand to scoop and score on a 23-yard fumble return that tied the game at 31-31. It was the Leopards' first fumble return for a touchdown since Nov. 23, 2013, when James Coscia ran back a 40-yard score. That score helped pushed the Leopards to a 50-28 victory over No. 15/17 Lehigh in Rivalry 149 and handed the Leopards a Patriot League title.  

Running The Ball?: With the departure of a 1,000-yard rusher, opportunities have emerged in the run game. Junior Jakyre Henley had 49 carries for 194 yards and two touchdowns in 2025, making two starts and playing in all 12 games. Henley has handled the bulk of the carries as the starter through five games, running for 379 yards on 57 carries with three touchdowns. 

Senior Ethan Weber is the most experienced of the running backs, having played in 29 games with two starts over three seasons. He finished 2025 with 107 carries for 570 yards and eight TDs before a knee injury ended his season in week 10. He made his 2026 season debut with two carries vs. Marist and added five each vs. Columbia and Holy Cross. Rookie Malachi Gamble is pushing for more carries after leading the team in rushing at Connecticut. He had four carries for 25 yards at Columbia and seven for 61 vs. Richmond. Soph. Koven Smith is also vying for carries after playing in four games (primarily on special teams) in 2025 without a carry. He had three carries for 17 yards against Marist and five for 15 at Columbia.

D Was the Key: Lafayette's defense came through when it was needed most in the win over Marist (9/12), shutting out the visitors in the second half. Despite allowing 359 total yards, Lafayette limited the Red Foxes to just nine points on five red-zone possessions and stopped them on 4-of-5 fourth downs. 

Draw It Up: The go-ahead 38-yard touchdown in Lafayette's win over Marist came via QB Jason Penza. An accurate passer who has completed 75 percent of his career attempts, Penza does the bulk of his damage on the ground, where he averages 6.0 yards per carry and 20.6 rushing yards per game during his career. Penza has missed the last two games.

On the Sideline: John Troxell '94 is in his fifth season at the helm, a tenure that includes a Patriot League title and an NCAA playoff berth in his second season and the best three-year run for the program since 1901-03. Lafayette finished 8-4 overall in 2025, and won a program-record six conference games. In 2023, Lafayette posted the most wins in a campaign in more than 40 years (9), winning the conference championship and advancing to the NCAA Playoffs. The team went from 4-7 (3-3) in 2022 to 9-3 (5-1) in year two (2023). Both seasons were capped by wins over archrival Lehigh. During his time on College Hill, Troxell's teams have finished .500 or better in four of five seasons. Troxell was named the Patriot League Coach of the Year in 2023 and was a finalist for Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year honors. 

Mother Nature 1, Lafayette and Georgetown 0: Lafayette and Georgetown tried to kick off the 2026 season on Thursday, Aug. 27. The teams played 30 minutes before Mother Nature delivered continuous lightning strikes in and around the Washington, D.C. campus. After several hours waiting out the weather, the game was declared a no-contest by Patriot League officials who had consulted with game officials and institutional representatives. The game does not count toward the Patriot League standings nor do the statistics. 

The scheduled season opener was slated to be the earliest in program history. It was also the first season opener since 2010 (excluding the 2021 pandemic spring season) that was also the conference lid-lifter (when Lafayette and Georgetown met). 

Good Things in Threes: Over the last three seasons, Lafayette has won 23 games, going 9-3 in 2023, 6-6 in 2024 and 8-4 in 2025. It's the most wins in a three-year span since 1901-03 when Lafayette was 9-3, 8-3 and 7-3 for 24 victories. Lafayette began two of its last three seasons with a 3-1 mark, with the loss in each of those campaigns (2023, 2025) coming at the hands of an FBS foe.

The Opponent: Bucknell comes into its fourth Patriot League matchup of the season, sporting a 1-5 overall record and a 0-3 mark in conference clashes. The Bison win came over VMI (14-13) in week three, with losses to Richmond (35-14), Villanova (17-16), Penn (20-7), Pitt (59-0) and Georgetown (21-14).

Junior Christopher Dietrich has taken the bulk of the snaps for Bucknell, completing 74-of-115 for 685 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions in five games. Rookie Emmett Dowling has played in three games, completing 55 percent with a touchdown and three picks. Dowling was 17-of-22 with a TD and two interceptions in a start at Georgetown.  

Bucknell is averaging just 60.7 rushing yards per game with junior Michael Cadden contributing 218 yards (3.9 ypc) on 56 carries with two touchdowns.   

Defensively, junior OLB Brandon Biagiarelli leads the team with 37 tackles while senior LB Nick Hoying has 35 stops and a team-best 3.5 tackles for loss.

Jeff Behrman (John Carroll '95) is in his first season as the head coach at Bucknell after coaching three seasons at his alma mater with a 29-7 mark.