Complete Game Notes

Matchup: Lafayette stays on College Hill for the second straight week, hosting No. 17/24 Richmond in a Saturday 12:30 p.m. matchup. Following this weekend's conference game against the second-year Patriot League member, Lafayette will have a bye week before playing the final six weeks of the season against Patriot League foes (two of which are currently ranked in the Top 25).  

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

CP Catching Up: Senior WR Carson Persing continues to ascend the career receiving lists, making six catches for 96 yards vs. Holy Cross to move to 160 for his career. He currently ranks fifth for career receptions, needing two more to move into fourth place (occupied by John Weyrauch '04) and 38 grabs to become the school's all-time leader (Mark Ross '14). With 1,654 career receiving yards, Persing needs 27 more yards to crack the top 10 on Lafayette's career lists.

5 For 100: Junior Jakyre Henley turned in the first 100-yard rushing game of the season and the second of his career with 17 carries for 125 yards and a TD at Columbia (9/19). 

Simonetta Getting His Kicks: Senior K Jack Simonetta is 5-of-6 on field goal opportunities in 2026. The Gotha, Fla. native converted 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 game to overtime). He holds Lafayette's career PAT record (142) 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 that was the longest of his career and the fourth-longest in school history. 

Virginia is For Lovers Football: Lafayette has four players on its roster from Virginia, including starting running back Jakyre Henley (King William/Highland Springs) and quarterback Daniel Lipovski (Burke, Va./Lake Braddock), backup running back Koven Smith (Gainesville, Va./Gainesville) and linebacker Micah Smith (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) who is missing the season due to injury.

Early Returns From N.C.: The Leopards currently have two of the top kick returners in the Patriot League. Rookie Kameron Vance is currently fourth in the Patriot League, averaging 18.7 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 two games. 

With a Win on Saturday, Lafayette would: 

• notch program win No. 716
• win its fifth-straight series matchup over Richmond and second-straight as PL opponents
• register its first win over a Top-25 team since 2023 (No. 11/15 Holy Cross, 38-35)
• avoid losing three-straight for the first time since 2022, John Troxell's first season
• enter the bye week fresh off a win in three out of the last four seasons

Last Time Out: Holy Cross snapped Lafayette's streak of five-straight victories in Patriot League openers with a 38-30 final on Sept. 26. The Crusaders turned a pair of Lafayette special teams miscues into 14 points in a 30-point first half and held on. The Leopards were forced to play from behind the entire game and were limited on the ground. Daniel Lipovski churned out the first four-touchdown, 300-yard passing game of his career (306), with nearly half of those yards going to Mason Kuehner (10 rec., 152 yards, 3 TD). 

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. 

All-Time Series: Lafayette and Richmond have met just four times in the all-time series, dating to the first meeting in Easton in 1922. After that initial engagement, the schools took an eight-decade hiatus before a home-and-home series in 2004-05 and last season's inaugural Patriot League meeting.  

Last Time They Met | Nov. 15, 2025: No. 25 Lafayette remained undefeated in Patriot League play via a 35-28 final at Richmond. Lafayette improved to 6-0 for the first time ever in Patriot League play. Kente Edwards rushed for a career-high 265 yards and two touchdowns (61 and 70 yards) to capture the single-season rushing touchdowns record. The Leopards weathered a potential game-tying drive in the game's final second, as the Spiders drove all the way to the Lafayette 16-yard line before a pass went incomplete.  

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.  

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 did not play vs. Holy Cross.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

The Opponent: Richmond enters the week 4-1 overall,  2-0 in Patriot League action. The Spiders claim wins over Bucknell, Howard, Georgetown and Furman, with the lone loss coming to FBS foe N.C. State on Sept. 11. The Spiders are ranked 17th in the AFCA Coaches Poll and 24th in the Stats Perform poll, coming off a 13-9 home win over Furman.

Senior Ashten Snelsire is calling the signals, completing 92-of-175 for 1,025 yards with eight touchdowns and four interceptions. Wide receivers freshman Bryce Allen and senior Quanye Veney have combined for 34 catches, 521 yards and four TDs. 

On the ground, Richmond has averaged 117.6 yards per game led by Senior Aziz Foster-Powell who has 353 rushing yards to go along with five touchdowns. 

Defensively, junior LB Blake Houser has a team-best 38 tackles with 2.5 sacks through five games. Defensive linemen Daniel Sellers and DL Camden Byrd each have 5.5 sacks for a unit that leads the Patriot League with 19, six more than any other team.

Russ Huesman (Chattanooga '83) is in his 10th season as the Spiders' head coach.