University of Richmond Athletics
Defense Steals The Show In 23-0 Homecoming Win Over #13 Villanova
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – Sold out game, check. Two nationally-ranked teams, check. Two of the top three scoring teams in the CAA, check.
Saturday’s Homecoming game for the University of Richmond had all the billings of a primetime game.
The Spiders (6-1, 3-1 CAA) defense were the ones who stole the stole the show, posting its second shutout of the season and gave the Villanova Wildcats (5-2, 3-1 CAA) their first shutout since Sept. 18, 2004 in a 23-0 dogfight on Saturday afternoon at Robins Stadium.
“I’m really proud of this team and the fight they showed today. Our guys did a tremendous job of staying focused after fighting through triple overtime last weekend,” Head Coach Danny Rocco said.
For the second straight week, the Spiders limited their opponents to under 100 yards rushing on the day and just 222 total. Richmond piled up four sacks, two interceptions and one fumble in a dominant effort.
Senior Winston Craig added to his CAA-leading sack total with 1.5 on the day to push his season total to seven, while Brendan Coniker posted yet another big day with a team-high eight tackles.
“Our defense was absolutely lights out against one of the most dynamic offenses in the league,” Rocco added.
Offensively, senior Brian Brown once again was outstanding for the Spiders with his 16th 100-plus yard performance with a seven catch, 120 yard performance, along with his 18th career TD reception, which moved him into a tie for second all-time in career TDs.
“Credit goes the defense today, they continually gave us opportunities to put together drives and we couldn’t get in a rhythm because Villanova is a tough defensive team,” Brown said. “We got the big play early and our defense did the rest.”
The Spider defense flexed its muscle early, thwarting a Wildcat drive with an interception from Justin Rubin. Two drives later, Kyle Lauletta launched a bomb to Brown for a 58-yard score and a 7-0 Richmond lead.
Villanova tried to get an offensive spark going, driving inside the Spider Red Zone, but Billy Caughell came up with his first career INT to stifle the scoring chance for the Wildcats. VU would not see the Richmond side of the field for the rest of the first half.
Griffin Trau lined up and booted home a 30-yard field goal to round out the scoring in the first half and send Richmond into the locker room with a 10-0 lead.
The defense would ratchet up their performance even more in the second half, holding the Wildcats to just 84 yards total in the second half, while piling up three sacks and four tackles for a loss.
Richmond’s offense would continue to methodically move down the field, setting up Trau for two more field goals, both from 33 yards out to push their lead to 16-0 entering the final quarter.
Redshirt freshman Deontez Thompson and redshirt senior David Broadus would carry the load in the fourth quarter and put an exclamation point on the victory with a Thompson six-yard TD run with under a minute to play to seal the 23-0 victory.
Richmond hits the road next week when they travel to CAA foe Elon on Saturday. Game time is set for 3:30 p.m.