Richmond’s Lauletta, locals enjoy trip home
RADNOR » Four guys with local ties put helped squelch the last of Villanova’s postseason hopes Saturday.
Quarterback Kyle Lauletta (Dowingtown East), defensive end Brandon Waller (Haverford High All-Delco), linebacker Justin Rubin (Archbishop Wood) and defensive tackle Maurice Jackson (Harry S Truman) scarfed up most of the tickets allotted to Richmond for its Colonial Athletic Conference showdown on the Main Line.
When you go away to college, as Lauletta, Waller, Rubin and Jackson chose to do, you don’t get to play close to home often, so there is a heavy demand from family and friends. Lauletta, who was celebrating his mother’s birthday, estimated he and Waller wound up with about 30 tickets each.
It was worth all the bartering the senior duo had to do to convince their teammates to give up their tickets, as the Spiders kept their FCS playoff hopes alive with a 22-0 victory over the No. 20 Wildcats at Villanova Stadium.
“It’s just great to get a win,” Lauletta said. “Villanova’s a great team and we needed this one bad, really bad.”
This amounted to an elimination game as both teams entered the contest with their playoff hopes on life support. Richmond (5-4 overall, 3-3 CAA) got to live another day because Lauletta engineered a pair of long scoring drive in the second half while the defense posted its second straight shutout against the Wildcats (4-5, 2-4). Richmond blanked Villanova 23-0 last season in Richmond.
That was the only time the Wildcats have been shut out in the last 164 games until Saturday’s Richmond encore. The shutout also extended Villanova’s losing streak to three games.
Lauletta directed drives of 81 and 80 yards on Richmond’s first two possessions of the second half to break open an 8-0 game. Xavier Goodall (19 carries, 116 yards) capped the first march with a four-yard scoring run. Lauletta, who amassed 305 yards of total offense, scrambled in from two yards out to seal the victory.
“We left a lot of points on the board and the defense kind of bailed us out,” said Lauletta, who completed 25 of 32 passes for 259 yards. “When we went into the locker room we just felt as an offense that we had to put some points on the board.”
Scoring has been Villanova’s problem and those offensive woes continued against a Richmond defense that has been struggling. The Spiders came into the game last in the CAA in scoring, rushing and total defense. Yet the Wildcats could not move the ball.
Richmond limited the Wildcats to nine first downs and 163 yards of total offense, and 60 of those yards came on a hookup between freshman quarterback Kyle McCloskey and tight end Simon Bingelis in the first quarter.
Still, Villanova had chances. The Wildcats had an opportunity to go in front after Griffin Trau booted the first of his two field goals, only to come up empty when McCloskey was stripped at the Richmond two-yard line.
Drew Kresge had a chance to get the Wildcats on the board with a 47-yard field goal with 4:22 to go in the half, but his attempt was well short and the Wildcats went into the locker room trailing, 8-0.
It did not get any better as the Spiders held the Wildcats to five first downs and 55 yards in the second half.
“It’s pretty frustrating that we can’t keep the defense off the field because they’re playing so well,” said Villanova center Matt Donoghue, an All-Delco out of Garnet Valley. “You want to give it everything you have for those guys because they’re playing so well.”
As good as Villanova’s defense has been, the Wildcats could not stop Richmond on its first two possessions of the second half. Lauletta’s fingerprints were all over both drives. He had 82 of his passing yards and 29 of his rushing yards on those two back-breaking drives.
“Getting that first drive for a touchdown was huge for us,” Lauletta said. “From there, I just think it was too tough for Villanova to overcome.”
And that made his family and the families of teammates Brandon Waller, Justin Rubin and Maurice Jackson very happy.