Villanova Beats Lafayette 44-21 Behind Omari Bursey Pick-Six

Thirty-eight seconds. That is how long the first quarter had left when Omari Bursey stepped in front of an Eddie Jordan throw and turned a tight Halloween afternoon in Easton into a Villanova party.

Villanova beat Lafayette 44-21 at Fisher Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 31, and the linebacker's 27-yard interception return was the swing that the rest of the game hung on. Pat McQuaide threw two touchdown passes, Dom LeBlanc kicked three field goals, and the Wildcats did not turn the ball over once. Villanova moved to 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the Patriot League with its third straight win. Lafayette fell to 3-5 and 2-3.

Bursey was everywhere. Along with the pick six, he ended a Lafayette drive at the start of the fourth quarter with a fourth-down sack at the Villanova 35, and finished with nine tackles.

A quick trade, then a takeaway

Villanova opened like a team that wanted to take the air out of the building. The first drive went 13 plays and 62 yards over 5:57 and ended with a 30-yard LeBlanc field goal at the 9:03 mark of the first quarter.

Lafayette hit back fast. Jason Penza broke a 31-yard touchdown run to cap a seven-play, 83-yard march, and the Leopards led 7-3 with 5:18 left in the quarter.

McQuaide needed just six plays to flip it. His 49-yard strike to Brandon Binkowski put Villanova back on top 10-7 with 2:12 left in the first. Three plays into the next Lafayette series, Jordan, the freshman who completed all 13 of his passes in last week's win at Fordham, threw one that Bursey read the whole way. Twenty-seven yards later it was 17-7.

Villanova bookends the second quarter

The Wildcats' best drive of the day came next. They went 88 yards in 11 plays and took 6:09 off the clock before Ja'briel Mace plunged in from 1 yard out with 4:49 left in the half. That made it 24-7.

To Lafayette's credit, it did not fold. The Leopards answered with a 10-play, 75-yard drive and Malachi Gamble scored on a 4-yard run with 1:05 to go. A 10-point game at the half would have been a perfectly reasonable outcome.

Villanova did not allow it. McQuaide went 57 yards in five plays and 36 seconds, finishing the drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Chris Colby with 29 seconds left. The Wildcats went into the locker room up 31-14, having scored 14 points in the last 2:12 of the first quarter and 14 more in the last 4:49 of the second.

The turning point

If Bursey's interception built the lead, the start of the third quarter protected it. Lafayette began the second half pinned deep after a holding penalty and went three-and-out from its own 9. On its next possession, Gamble was stripped and AJ Koukou recovered at the Lafayette 38.

Villanova only got a 40-yard LeBlanc field goal out of it, but that made it 34-14 with 6:29 left in the third quarter, and it forced Lafayette to score three more times to win.

The Leopards got one of them. Zane Wooldridge returned the ensuing kickoff 44 yards, and Villanova helped with two pass interference penalties and a face mask call on the same drive. Penza finished it with a 3-yard touchdown run at the 3:37 mark, cutting the deficit to 34-21.

Villanova's answer was a nine-play, 55-yard drive that bled 4:26 and ended with LeBlanc's 27-yarder 49 seconds into the fourth quarter. When Wooldridge brought the next kickoff back 40 yards to the Villanova 49, Lafayette had one more real window. Seven plays later, on fourth-and-6 at the 35, Bursey got to Jordan for the sack and the turnover on downs.

Villanova then closed the door the way it had opened the day, with a long, patient drive. McQuaide hit Isaiah Ragland for 17 yards, a Lafayette pass interference flag moved the chains again, and backup Nolan DiLucia came in to convert a third-and-7 with an 8-yard throw. McQuaide found Ralee Stephens for 7 yards to set up first-and-goal at the 1, and Ragland punched it in with 5:27 remaining. The 10-play, 58-yard march made it 44-21.

Jordan was intercepted again on Lafayette's next series, and the Leopards turned to Daniel Lipovski, who had started the first half of the season before Jordan took over. Lipovski was picked off as well, Lafayette's fourth turnover of the afternoon.

The players who decided it

McQuaide was sharp from the opening drive. He finished 23 of 32 for 293 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, and he spread the ball to seven different receivers. Binkowski caught four passes for 103 yards, including the 49-yard score. Colby had two catches for 43 yards and the touchdown just before halftime, while Nolan Clayton, Stephens, Braden Reed, Andrew Esposito and Ragland each caught at least three passes.

Mace led the ground game with 88 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, a 5.9-yard average. Ragland did the short-yardage work, scoring from a yard out on a day he gained 11 yards on 12 carries. LeBlanc was perfect on field goals from 30, 40 and 27 yards.

Bursey was the best player on the field. The pick six, the fourth-down sack and nine tackles made for a complete afternoon from the linebacker.

For Lafayette, Penza was the most efficient weapon, scoring on two of his four carries and gaining 40 yards. Gamble ran for 27 yards and a touchdown and caught four passes for 41 yards. Mason Kuehner led the Leopards with six catches for 41 yards, and Ethan Hosak added four for 45. Jordan finished 17 of 30 for 144 yards with two interceptions, a long way from his perfect afternoon in the Bronx a week earlier. Wooldridge was a bright spot on special teams with 186 yards on seven kickoff returns.

The numbers that matter

Villanova outgained Lafayette 413 to 264 and won the turnover battle 4 to 0, and those two numbers explain most of the scoreboard. The Wildcats threw for 301 yards and ran for 112. Lafayette ran for 109 yards and three touchdowns but managed just 155 yards through the air across three quarterbacks.

Villanova had 24 first downs to Lafayette's 19 and held the ball for 34:25. Both teams converted at a similar rate on third down. The difference was what happened after the Leopards got the ball: three interceptions, a lost fumble and a turnover on downs. The 44 points were Villanova's most in a game this season, topping the 38 it scored at Fordham on Oct. 17.

What it means

Three weeks ago Villanova was 2-4 and coming off a 38-35 home loss to Morgan State. Since then, Mark Ferrante's team has won at Fordham, knocked off Lehigh 24-18 on a final-play stop, and now handled Lafayette on the road. At 4-2 in the Patriot League, the Wildcats sit behind Lehigh, which improved to 5-1 with a 31-30 win over Bucknell on Saturday.

Villanova hosts Richmond on Saturday, Nov. 7, then travels to Holy Cross on Nov. 14 and closes the regular season at home against Georgetown on Nov. 21.

Lafayette's two-game winning streak is over, and the Leopards are 2-3 in league play with three games left. They travel to William & Mary on Nov. 7, visit Colgate on Nov. 14 and finish at home against Lehigh on Nov. 21.

The last word

Lafayette kept scoring at the right moments to stay within range, but every time it got close, Villanova had an answer, and most of those answers came from the defense. Four takeaways, a fourth-down stop and a quarterback who never gave the ball away is a formula that travels. If the Wildcats bring it home against Richmond next week, the race at the top of the Patriot League will look a lot more crowded than it did at the start of October.

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

Photos: Gplefka/Wikimedia Commons.