University of Richmond Athletics
Brown, Goodall Lead #7 Spiders Past #23 Colgate, 38-31
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – The city of Richmond has long been hailed as a hotbed for high school football.
Two of RVA’s best were on display on Saturday afternoon at Robins Stadium as Brian Brown and Xavier Goodall helped lead the seventh-ranked Richmond Spiders to a thrilling 38-31 win over #21 Colgate in front of yet another sellout crowd.
Brown was the biggest star on the day, breaking the program’s all-time receiving yards record with his go-ahead touchdown catch in the third quarter. He finished the day with seven catches, 148 yards and two TDs. He now has 3,178 career yards, 77 more than Tre Gray, who held the record for five seasons. He also pushed his program record for 100-plus yard receiving games to 15, four more than any other player in Spider history.
“It’s really humbling to accomplish such a feat in this program, there has been so many great receivers that have come before me and to break the record means a lot,” Brown said.
Goodall became the first freshman since Uly Scott in 1991 to rush for over 100 yards, carrying the ball 20 times for 127 yards and his second career TD. His first 100-yard game came in his fourth career game, the quickest of any player in program history.
“It all started with my line. They kept telling me to trust the process and follow their leads. Those guys believe in me and I just wanted to do my best to come through for them,” Goodall said.
The Spiders jumped out of the gates with David Jones setting up the offense early in the first quarter with his first interception of the season, which was followed by a career-long field goal by Griffin Trau, who knocked it in from 45 yards out.
Three minutes later, Richmond was back on offense and Goodall ignited the crowd with a 45-yard run to set the stage for a one-yard TD run, his second of the season and gave the Spiders a 10-0 advantage.
Colgate wouldn’t go quietly, scoring on their next offensive drive and followed that by blocking a punt for a TD to close out the first quarter and take a 14-10 lead.
The Raiders would add a field goal, but a long drive by the Spiders capped off by a eight-yard TD catch by Jarmal Bevels sent the teams into the locker room deadlocked at 17-17.
Brown and the Spiders would quickly take command of the game in the third quarter, driving 68 yards down the field for a 23-yard touchdown by Brown, which broke the program record and gave Richmond a 24-17 lead, a lead in which they would never relinquish.
After the Richmond defense force a second straight three-and-out by Colgate, the Spiders once against drove down the field with an 11-play, 70-yard drive that finished with a six-yard TD catch by Garrett Hudson to push the lead to 31-17 with just over two minutes to play in the third quarter.
Junior Tafon Mainsah stepped up with his second interception of the year to start the fourth quarter, which quickly turned into another seven points for the Spiders with a long pitch-and-catch from Kyle Lauletta to Brown to make it 38-17.
The 21st-ranked Raiders would flex their muscles with back-to-back TD drives, but another pick from Mainsah would secure the game for the Spiders and move them to 3-1 on the season.
Richmond is back in action next week when they host Towson in a critical CAA matchup. Game time on CSN Mid-Atlantic is set for 3:30 p.m. Limited tickets still remain available through the Richmond Ticket Office.
Spiders 38, Colgate 31 by Richmond Athletics on Exposure