Colgate Shuts Out William & Mary 37-0 as Peyton Way Catches Two Touchdowns

Three straight losses had turned Colgate's season into a question. On Halloween afternoon in Hamilton, N.Y., the Raiders answered it about as loudly as a team can.

Colgate shut out William & Mary 37-0 on Saturday, Oct. 31, outgaining the Tribe 519 yards to 142 and holding the ball for 38:55. Jake Stearney threw three touchdown passes, Peyton Way caught 10 balls for 141 yards and two of those scores, and Luke Vogeler kicked three field goals. Colgate improved to 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the Patriot League. William & Mary fell to 3-6 and 1-5.

The defense was the headline. William & Mary managed seven first downs, went 2 for 11 on third down, failed on both fourth-down tries and was sacked five times.

A slow, scoreless start

For more than a quarter, this looked like a very different game. William & Mary opened with Andrew King runs of 7 and 22 yards to reach Colgate territory, but a holding penalty wiped out a 12-yard completion and a false start on fourth-and-2 at the Colgate 40 pushed the Tribe back into punt formation.

Colgate's first possession ended in a gamble that did not pay off. Facing fourth-and-1 at its own 41, Stearney was stopped for no gain by Ryan Matheny and Stephon Hicks, and William & Mary took over in plus territory with 7:37 left in the first quarter.

The Tribe could not do anything with the short field. Winston Watkins hit Jackson Blee twice for 7 yards, a deep shot to Alfred Honesty was broken up by Tymir Wynn, and a 33-yard punt pinned Colgate at its own 1. A pass interference penalty helped the Raiders escape, but they punted again, and the first quarter ended scoreless.

Colgate breaks through before halftime

The drive that changed everything started at the Colgate 10 late in the first quarter. It nearly died early, when a fumbled play lost 6 yards before Stearney recovered the loose ball. On third-and-10, Stearney ran right for 11 yards and a first down.

From there, the Raiders kept moving the chains. Way picked up 11 yards on a run, and on third-and-7 Stearney found Cole Fulton for a 33-yard gain into William & Mary territory. Fulton converted a third-and-1 with a 7-yard run, Aleks Sitkowski caught a 12-yard pass to the 4, and O'Shea Faison ran it in from there with 11:17 left in the half. The drive covered 90 yards in 13 plays and took 5:48.

That opened the floodgates. William & Mary went three plays for minus-8 yards on its next series, a stretch that included a sack shared by Justin Tedim and Dawson Rodd, and Colgate needed only five plays and 2:18 to go 55 yards for a second touchdown. Stearney hit Way for 27 yards and a 14-0 lead with 7:22 left in the half.

Vogeler added a 23-yard field goal with 1:57 left to cap a nine-play, 65-yard drive. William & Mary then went for it on fourth-and-2 from its own 49 with 31 seconds left, and Isaiah French's pass for Sean McElwain was broken up by Trooper Price. Colgate took over and moved 32 yards in five plays, and Vogeler hit from 34 yards with 13 seconds left. The Raiders went into halftime up 20-0 after scoring 20 points in a span of about 11 minutes.

Two long drives put it away

Colgate opened the second half with its most methodical march of the day. The Raiders went 75 yards in 15 plays and burned 8:38 off the clock, and Stearney finished it with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Way. At 27-0, the outcome was no longer in doubt.

The Raiders kept going anyway. Early in the fourth quarter, they went 90 yards in nine plays over 4:19, and Stearney found P.J. Holmes for a 9-yard touchdown with 14:03 left. Vogeler closed the scoring with a 27-yard field goal at the 5:02 mark, ending a nine-play, 53-yard drive that ate another 5:18.

A late William & Mary drive ended on fourth down, with Brock Winsett sacking French for a 4-yard loss at the Tribe 35. Colgate's final possession then ended on downs at the William & Mary 18, when VJ Bullard was stopped after a 3-yard run.

By the numbers

Stearney completed 16 of 25 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Stearney also ran 11 times for 69 yards, making the quarterback Colgate's second-leading rusher. Jackson Kilburg came on in relief and completed both of his throws for 23 yards.

Fulton led the ground game with 89 yards on 18 carries and added two catches for 49 yards. Faison ran 14 times for 58 yards and the opening touchdown. As a team, Colgate rushed 52 times for 262 yards and threw for 257 more.

Way was the best player on the field. Along with 10 catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns, Way added 14 yards on two carries and fair-caught a punt at the Colgate 10 that set up the first scoring drive. Holmes caught three passes for 48 yards and a touchdown.

The Colgate defense spread the work around. Christian Magliacano led the team with eight tackles and had a sack. Price, Winsett and Joe Kelly each recorded a sack as well, with Kelly making two tackles for loss, while Tedim and Rodd split another. Wynn finished with five tackles and a pass breakup.

Colgate converted 10 of 15 third downs and finished with 30 first downs. Neither team turned the ball over, and Colgate was flagged just four times for 20 yards.

A long day for the Tribe

William & Mary's offense never found a rhythm. King ran 15 times for 71 yards, but the rest of the Tribe rushers combined for 1 yard once sacks were counted, and the team finished with 72 rushing yards on 26 attempts. Watkins completed 7 of 12 passes for 42 yards before French took over and went 3 for 8 for 28 yards. Blee caught four passes for 20 yards and Honesty had three for 24.

Cade Ellis led the defense with 10 tackles, eight of them solo, and broke up a pass. The Tribe defense held up for most of the first quarter and stopped Colgate on fourth down, but it spent nearly 39 minutes on the field and wore down as the afternoon went on.

The loss comes a week after a painful one. William & Mary fell 28-27 to Georgetown on a fourth-down touchdown pass in the final minute of its Homecoming game in Williamsburg.

What it means

For Colgate, this was a needed reset. The Raiders had lost to Harvard, Georgetown and, last week, at Richmond, where Richmond sacked Colgate eight times in a 13-6 win. The offense that managed six points in Virginia put up 37 on Saturday without a turnover.

At 4-2 in the Patriot League, Colgate sits one game behind Lehigh, which is 5-1 in league play. That makes next week's trip to Lehigh on Saturday, Nov. 7, the biggest game left on the Colgate schedule. The Raiders then host Lafayette on Nov. 14 and close the regular season at Bucknell on Nov. 21.

William & Mary is 1-5 in league play with three games to go. The Tribe host Lafayette on Nov. 7, then Bucknell, before finishing the regular season at Richmond.

The last word

A conference shutout is a statement, and this one came from a team that had been stuck in neutral for most of October. Colgate dominated the line of scrimmage, kept the ball out of William & Mary's hands and got big plays from Stearney and Way when it needed them. If the Raiders can carry that into Bethlehem next week, the Patriot League race could get very interesting.

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, ESPN team schedules. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Trevor Cokley/U.S. Air Force.