Holy Cross Football Visits Bucknell to Open Patriot League Play

Saturday, September 09, 2017
GoLocalWorcester Sports Team

Tom Gilmore

The Holy Cross Crusaders football team opens Patriot League play on Saturday when they visit Bucknell at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium in Pennsylvania.

The Crusaders enter the game with an 0-1 record following last week’s 27-20 loss to Connecticut.

“Entering Patriot League play, it is imperative that we clean up our mistakes from last week. It is always a challenge to go into Lewisburg, and Bucknell was extremely impressive against Marist in their opener. They consistently have one of the top rated defenses in the Patriot League and their offense was very productive in the Marist game,” said Holy Cross head coach Tom Gilmore.

Kick off is set for 12 p.m.

Holy Cross vs Bucknell

Saturday’s game will mark the 34th all-time meeting between the two teams with Holy Cross leading the series 21-12.

Bucknell has won two of the last three games overall.

Holy Cross Offense

The offense will be led by 5th year senior quarterback Peter Pujals.

Last week against UConn, Pujals completed 33 of 56 passes for 358 yards and a touchdown in the loss.

At wide receiver, Holy Cross will look to junior Richie DeNicola and Blaise Bell to continue pick up where he left off against Connecticut.

DeNicola hauled in 10 passes for 87 yards last week while Bell caught 10 passes for 129 yards.

Holy Cross will look to establish a running attack this week. Last week, running back Domenic Cozier led the team with just 42 yards rushing on four carries.

Holy Cross Defense

The Holy Cross defense gave up 20 straight points in the second half of last week’s loss to UConn.

On defense, the Crusaders will turn to junior linebacker Ryan Brady, who is coming off a career-high 14 tackles against the Huskies.

They will also look to senior linebacker Nick MacBeath, who was named preseason All-Patriot League.

Bucknell

The Bison are coming off a 45-6 win over Marist last Saturday and enter the game with a 1-0 records.

Bucknell is led by senior quarterback Matt Muh, who last week connected on 16 of 24 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns.

Running the ball for Bucknell will be Chad Freshnock, who recorded two rushing touchdowns last week.

On defense, Bucknell is led by senior linebacker Mark Pyles, who recorded two tackles for a loss last week and eight tackles overall.

Cornerback Colin Jonov had an interception return for a touchdown.