Complete Game Notes
Matchup: The Leopards return home to open Patriot League play on Saturday vs. Holy Cross. It is conference action the rest of the way for Lafayette which finished its non-league slate with a 1-2 mark, coming off the overtime loss at Columbia.
Patriot League Opener (Part 2): Saturday's matchup with Holy Cross will serve as Lafayette's Patriot League opener, as the original season opener on Aug. 27 was ruled a no contest after an interminable lightning delay on a Thursday night in D.C. Lafayette is 23-17 in conference openers, with play beginning in 1986 as the Colonial League, and
21-15 since 1990 when the league took its current name. Since 2000, the Leopards are 14-11 in Patriot League openers, having won the last five: 42-37 at Georgetown in 2025, 28-23 at Fordham in 2024, 56-22 vs. Bucknell in 2023, 24-14 at Bucknell in 2022 and 24-10 vs. Colgate in the spring 2021 season.
5 For 100: Junior Jakyre Henley turned in the Leopards' first 100-yard rushing game of the season and the second of his career with 17 carries for 125 yards and a touchdown at Columbia on Sept. 19.
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.
CP Catching Up: Senior WR Carson Persing continues to ascend the career catches list, making four catches vs. Marist and one at Columbia to move to 154 for his career. He currently ranks sixth, needing six more receptions to move into fifth place (occupied by Phil Yarberough '01) and 44 grabs to become the school's all-time leader (Mark Ross '14).
Early Returns from North Carolina: The Leopards currently have two of the top four kick returners in the Patriot League. Soph. Nick Bierman, a native of Marvin, N.C. is leading the circuit, averaging 28.0 yards per return. He did not play at Columbia. Rookie teammate Kameron Vance is currently fourth in the Patriot League, averaging 18.7 yards per return. Against Marist, Vance, a Charlotte, N.C. native, had returns of 48 (career-long) and 22 yards and had two more returns at Columbia for 24 yards.
Simonetta Steps Up: Senior K Jack Simonetta converted a pair of field goals at Columbia. He booted the Leopards' first (40-yard field goal in the first quarter) and last scores of the game (31-yard field goal with 1:03 to send the game to overtime) and is 4-of-5 this season.
Last Time Out: Lafayette erased a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to force overtime in the Leopards' non-league finale at Columbia. Just two plays into the extra session, Columbia QB Chase Goodwin threw a 25-yard TD to end the game with a 40-34 final.
All-Time Series: Lafayette and Holy Cross have met 39 times in the all-time series, dating to 1986. The Leopards lead the series 20-19, splitting the last eight matchups.
Last Time They Met: Lafayette and Holy Cross last played Nov. 1, 2025. The Leopards' defense forced four turnovers and Kente Edwards ran for two touchdowns as Lafayette claimed a 21-13 victory. Ethan Weber also contributed 67 rushing yards and a touchdown. The win improved Lafayette to 4-0 in Patriot League play for the first time since 2009.
With a Win on Saturday, Lafayette would:
• notch program win No. 716
• capture a win in its sixth-straight Patriot League opener
• win two-straight over Holy Cross for the first time since 2012-13
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 three games, running for 210 yards on 37 carries.
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.
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 at Columbia. 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.
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.
Long Drive: Lafayette's final scoring drive vs. Marist matched the longest scoring march of 2025 (97 yards) and the 15-play drive surpassed the six, 14-play drives from last season.
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 accumulated.
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).
Patriot, Past, Present, Future: Lafayette finished 6-1 in Patriot League play in 2025, winning six games for the first time in program history. The Leopards finished league action 5-0 in 1994, 1992 and 1988, only playing five league games for the season. Lafayette is scheduled to play nine league contests in 2026 with Villanova and William & Mary joining 2025 addition Richmond to stretch the league ranks to 10 institutions.
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.
More of Threes: Lafayette has been ranked in the Top 25 in the last three seasons. The Leopards were ranked as high as 16th in 2023, 14th in 2024 and 24th in 2025.
The Opponent: Holy Cross enters the week with a 0-4 mark and 0-2 clip in Patriot League play after a 3-9, 3-4 campaign in 2025. This season, the Crusaders' record doesn't quite tell the entire story, as two losses have come to FCS Top 25 teams (No. 11 Lehigh and No. 19 Yale) while a third was at the hands of FBS foe Miami-Ohio in week three.
Junior David Lynch is holding down the starting quarterback spot, completing 73-of-138 for 862 yards with four touchdowns and six interceptions. On the receiving end, four players have 100 or more receiving yards, led by junior WR Ty Curran with 17 catches and soph. WR Lincoln Fisher with three touchdowns.
On the ground, soph. Joseph Williams has taken the bulk of the carries, running 54 times for 216 yards and a score.
Defensively, senior LB Adam Due has 44 tackles to lead the team and has one of the squad's three sacks.
Dan Curran (New Hampshire '99) is in the midst of his third season on the Holy Cross sidelines after spending 2013-23 as the head coach at Merrimack.
