Bison travel to DC to face the Hoyas today

This year has been up and down for Bucknell’s football team. The Bison had back-to-back wins over Marist (34-18) and Lehigh (38-35, overtime), but that winning streak was snapped with two straight losses to Penn (31-21) and Cornell (34-21) entering today’s games.

Bucknell will look to avoid falling into a three-game skid as the Bison head to Georgetown today for a 2 p.m. game.

Cornell put Bucknell into a big hole early last week, falling behind 21-0 after the first quarter. Bucknell cut the deficit to 27-14 going into the half with two second-quarter touchdowns, but that would be the closest Bucknell came to rallying back.

Michael Hardyway threw for 214 yards of 21 for 39 passing and threw for two touchdowns while Tariq Thomas ran for 94 yards, averaging 10.4 per carry on nine attempts. Defensively, Bucknell picked off Jameson Wang twice and recorded a sack.

Thomas has rushed for 357 yards this year and Paul Neel has run for 200. Both backs have averaged 4.4 yards per carry as well.

Ralph Rucker IV has thrown for 1,266 yards through six games and has 11 touchdowns to just four interceptions.

On defense, Bucknell has a number of playmakers. Gavin Willis has a team-high 71 tackles, John Schlendorf has 54 and Nick Hoying has 53. TerianG Williams also has recorded 42.

Georgetown enters Saturday with a 4-3 record after last week’s 38-28 loss to Colgate on the road. Colgate pulled away in the second half, outscoring Georgetown 24-14 in the final two quarters to secure the win. Last week’s loss snapped a two-game win streak for Georgetown in which the Hoyas beat Columbia in a close game, 20-17, before blanking Lafayette on the road, 17-0.

Danny Lauter threw for 272 yards for the Hoyas in the loss while Savion Hart ran for 84 yards.

Georgetown’s running game hasn’t been a huge threat so far this year as Naleem Kearney has just 269 rushing yards this year, averaging only 59.2 per game. While the run game hasn’t been dominant, the passing game has worked well. Lauter has thrown for 1,518 yards with nine touchdowns, averaging 216.86 per game.