VILLANOVA, Pa.—Another strong performance on both sides of the ball sparked Villanova (6-4, 5-2 Patriot League) to a 30-0 shutout of Richmond (6-4, 4-3 Patriot League) in a pivotal conference matchup at Villanova Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The win is the fourth in a row for the Wildcats, who are now in a two-way tie for second place in the Patriot League standings going into a road matchup next week with fellow 5-2 team Holy Cross (5-5, 5-2).
Saturday's result is the first Villanova shutout since 2023 and came on a day in which the Wildcats allowed just 18 offensive plays to the Spiders for 20 total yards in the first half. Villanova had as many points by halftime as Richmond had yards and, until the final play of the half, even had as many first downs on offense as yards allowed on defense. The final tally was 417-140 in favor of the Wildcats for total yards, 67-46 in total plays and a season-high 38:38 Villanova time of possession.
Senior running back
Isaiah Ragland (Alexandria, Va.) became the 15
th player in school history to top 2,000 career rushing yards and notched his fourth career 100-yard game. He finished the day with 17 carries for a season-high 125 yards and now ranks 15
th in the Wildcats record book with 2,046 career rushing yards. He is less than 100 yards ahead of the likely next Villanova player to join the 2,000-yard club: senior running back
Ja'briel Mace (Somers Point, N.J.) who rushed 17 times for 77 yards and caught a 19-yard touchdown pass in Saturday's game.
Mace has 1,953 career rushing yards to rank 16
th in school history. He has scored a touchdown either on the ground or through the air in six consecutive games and leads the Wildcats with 11 total touchdowns on the season. Sixth year collegiate quarterback
Pat McQuaide (Solon, Ohio) was 11-of-17 for 163 yards and a season-high three touchdown passes to continue the run he has been on over what is now a five-game stretch.
McQuaide has gone 90-of-127 through the air (70.9%) with 1,058 passing yards, seven touchdowns and just one turnover over the last five games. Villanova has averaged 34.2 points per game in that stretch after averaging 20.6 points per game through the first five games of the season. During Saturday's game, McQuaide threw his 800
th career completion and increased his collegiate totals to 9,764 passing yards with 66 touchdowns.
The defense was only on the field for 46 plays from scrimmage in Saturday's win. Junior linebacker
Omari Bursey (Broomfield, Colo.) and junior defensive end
Ugo Nwotite (Linwood, N.J.) each had a sack and tied for the team lead with four tackles made along with sophomore linebacker
Walker Murray (Yardley, Pa.). The Wildcats defense forced three-and-outs by Richmond on three of the Spiders first four drives and four of nine possessions overall. Richmond ended its nine drives with six punts, two turnovers on downs and the end of the first half.
Villanova opened the scoring with 3:50 left in the first quarter when sophomore wide receiver
Brandon Binkowski (Haymarket, Va.) caught his second touchdown pass in as many games and third this season. The scoring play was a six-yard pass which capped an efficient seven-play, 57-yard drive after each team punted on their first possession of the day. Sophomore wide receiver
Braden Reed (Pottstown, Pa.) hauled in a 46-yard touchdown pass with 5:25 to go in the second quarter.
The game was another flawless one for junior kicker
Dominic LeBlanc (Dawsonville, Ga.) who tied a career high with three field goals for the second straight game. The best kicker in the Patriot League this season made all three of his field goal attempts from distances of 32 yards, 41 yards and 33 yards. He made all three of his PAT attempts as well and finished with 12 points for the day and 26 over his last two games. LeBlanc is 14-of-16 (87.5%) on field goals this season and moved to within three of the single season Villanova record of 17 makes which was set just last season by the now graduated
Jack Barnum. He ranks third in the Patriot League with 86 points, is first in the league in field goals made and will likely move up from his national ranks of 11
th in field goal percentage and 25
th in field goals per game when the new national stats are released on Sunday afternoon.
Villanova's first year in the Patriot League has featured one of the closest title races the conference has seen in many years. Saturday began with the top six teams in the standings separated by just 1.5 games and all playing against each other in three key matchups during the day. Some clarity came to the standings as a result of Saturday's action, with Lehigh (6-1) remaining in sole possession of first place and one game ahead of Villanova and Holy Cross. The Crusaders were a late 27-24 winner over Georgetown on Saturday.
Next week's game between the Wildcats and Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Kicks off at 12 p.m. It will be the first trip to Worcester for Villanova since a 1989 regular season game. The Wildcats and the Crusaders have met relatively recently in the FCS playoffs (2009, 2021), with the 2009 game being a first round matchup at Villanova Stadium which kicked off the Wildcats national championship run.
