Villanova Hosts Richmond In CAA Battle Saturday
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It will be a battle of two of the best 4-4 teams you will ever come across on Saturday at Villanova Stadium as Villanova hosts Richmond in a Colonial Athletic Association match-up.
The Wildcats are coming off a 19-14 loss to Elon last time out on the Main Line. The Wildcats had a 14-10 lead after three quarters, but couldn't hold on as Elon improved to 7-1 on the season.
Freshman quarterback Kyle McCloskey made his first collegiate start and completed 9 of 20 passes for 137 yards and two scores. He also rushed for 65 yards and did not turn the football over.
"He made some nice improvement from the second-half of JMU [when he came in at halftime] to the Elon game," Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante tells KYW Newsradio.
"He threw some really nice passes," Ferrante continues. "The touchdown he threw to [running back] Aaron Forbes for our first score was a great pass. We had a third down conversion, he threw a corner route to [wide receiver] Taurus Phillips, it was a great pass. Then he threw the touchdown to Taurus in the third quarter to put us ahead 14-10 at the time. So he's made some good progress, he's a competitor, he's intense."
Richmond has dropped two straight coming into this one. They lost two weeks ago in double-overtime at Delaware and then last week they fell at home to Stony Brook, 27-24.
"They are very explosive offensively," Ferrante says. "Kyle Lauletta, their quarterback, who happens to to be about half-hour away from here from Downingtown East High School, has been playing there for a long, long time. He's a very experienced quarterback. He knows where to go with the football. He has a very good group of wide receivers that he delivers the ball to. So we're going to have our work cut out for us as far as stopping the passing game."
Lauletta, a redshirt senior, has thrown for 2,643 yards and 23 touchdowns this season with just eight interceptions.
Last season these two teams met down in Virginia with the Spiders winning, 23-0. Both teams are 2-3 in CAA action heading into this game.
Saturday's game will start at 1:00pm.