Rushing

Passing

Points

TO’s

220

33

3

112

275

26

3

This is the first meeting between these two teams. Villanova is the defending FCS Champion and since the return of their all-purp star Matt Szczur have again been acting like it. Szczur had 3 rushing, 1 passing & 1 receiving TD vs Appalachian St. The Wildcats led #1 seed App St 28-10 at half and never led by less then 11 but were outgained 461-449. Eastern Washington led North Dakota St 14-0 in the 1Q and RB Taiwan Jones had 203 of his career high 230 yds in the 1H but suffered a fracture in his foot in the 2H. EW allowed a pick-6 in the 3Q that allowed NDSU to tie it at 24 and fell behind 31-24 in the 4Q. EW need a TD with :23 left to force OT. They scored a TD on their first play and recoverd a NDSU fumble in the EZ for the win. EW is 7-0 on their new Red turf this year. However they will be without RB Jones who is 2nd in the FCS with 1,742 (7.9, 14 TD) here and his 2 back-ups are true frosh Mario Brown (216, 3.5, 1 TD) and JR Darriell Beaumonte (216, 2.7, 2 TD). The Eagles are led by former SMU transfer QB Bo Levi Mitchell, who is avg 223 ypg (57.5%) with a 30-14 ratio. EW is only outgaining opp 402-387 on the season. Villanova in their last 3 games have defeated #1 Delaware, #3 Stephen F. Austin and #1 App St. QB Chris Whitney is avg 165 ypg (66%) with a 22-5 ratio and is the #2 rusher with 584 (3.7, 11 TD). They are led by RB’s Aaron Ball (776, 4.9, 5 TD) and Angelo Babbaro (486, 4.9, 5 TD). While WR Szczur has 332 (6.1, 3 TD) in just 7 games. They are holding opp to just 318 ypg. Without RB Jones the Eagles will need some red turf magic to win here and I’ll call for Villanova with playmaker Szczur to return to the Championship game.