{"id":921625,"date":"2026-10-09T08:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T08:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/921625\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T08:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T08:30:21","slug":"football-collapses-to-no-17-richmond-after-hot-start-the-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/921625\/","title":{"rendered":"Football collapses to No. 17 Richmond after hot start \u2013 The Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sophomore<\/a> <\/p>\n

Photo by Lauren Kim<\/a> for The Lafayette <\/p>\n

Sophomore running back Cam Azodeh returning a punt against the University of Richmond on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n

The football team surrendered a 17-point first-half lead to the No. 17 University of Richmond, falling 40-31 on Saturday at Fisher Stadium and extending its losing streak to three.<\/p>\n

Richmond (3-0 Patriot League, 5-1 overall) possessed the ball for nearly 42 minutes compared to the Leopards\u2019 (0-2 Patriot League, 1-4 overall) 18, and went 10-of-16 on third-down conversions while the hosts managed one in nine attempts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we played almost two different halves,\u201d head coach John Troxell<\/a> said. \u201cIf you want to beat a top 25 team, you got to do everything almost perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophomore defensive back Christian Watson got the Leopard defense to a flying start, intercepting Richmond on its second play from scrimmage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had a good disguise,\u201d Watson said. \u201cWe got good pressure on the quarterback. He overthrew a little bit and I went under.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior quarterback Daniel Lipovski was picked off three plays later, but redeemed himself with a four-yard rushing touchdown on the Leopards\u2019 next drive to go up 7-0. The Spiders responded with a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in seven minutes.<\/p>\n

Two plays later, junior running back Jakyre Henley took advantage of the gaping hole set up by the Leopard offensive line, sprinting a career-long 72 yards for the touchdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw green grass,\u201d Henley said. \u201cThe O-line kicked out both leads, left and right, and down the seams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richmond took a 10-play drive into the red zone to start the second quarter, but junior defensive back Xavier Johnson forced a fumble at the Leopards\u2019 8-yard line, which was recovered by junior linebacker Paul Widerman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can fly around,\u201d Watson said. \u201cWe took real pride in this week to really show up and force turnovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior kicker Jack Simonetta booted a 21-yard field goal after the Leopards forced pressure on a shanked Richmond punt. On the next drive, Henley broke the career high he set one quarter earlier, scampering 74 yards and putting the Leopards up 24-7.<\/p>\n

The Leopards stumbled in the half\u2019s last two minutes, allowing a field goal before Lipovski lost the ball on a strip sack, setting up a short-field Richmond touchdown drive to cut the lead to 24-17.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take full responsibility for that,\u201d Troxell said about the decision to pass. \u201cWe should have went in up two scores.\u201d<\/p>\n

The momentum carried into the second half for the Spiders, who rattled off three straight touchdown drives to jump ahead 38-24. To make matters worse for the Leopards, Lipovski suffered a rib injury on a third-down sack, putting freshman quarterback Eddie Jordan under center for the rest of the game.<\/p>\n

Jordan connected with junior wide receiver Mason Kuehner<\/a> for 43 yards on his first play from scrimmage, and freshman running back Malachi Gamble scored from 10 yards out three plays later, pulling the Leopards within a touchdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a baller,\u201d Henley said about Jordan. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting nothing less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior defensive back Dhonte Jackson followed up with the second Leopard interception of the day, giving the Maroon and White offense a chance to knot things up. However, on fourth-and-five at the Spider 8-yard line, Jordan kept the ball and was stuffed on the rush attempt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Richmond punt gave the Leopards one final possession starting at their own 2-yard line, but Jordan was sacked in the end zone for a safety, ultimately icing the game for the Spiders.<\/p>\n

Lipovski finished 7-of-16 passing with 101 yards and an interception before being taken out. Troxell said Lipovski\u2019s X-rays came back negative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jordan finished 3-of-5 passing with 75 yards in relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed he can play football,\u201d Troxell said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a great arm and commands the field, and he did a good job managing the game in the fourth quarter to give us a chance to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Leopards will take their bye week to recover and reassess before resuming their season at Bucknell University (0-2 Patriot League, 1-4 overall) on Oct. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be critical that we fix what\u2019s broken,\u201d Troxell said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Lauren Kim for The Lafayette Sophomore running back Cam Azodeh returning a punt against the University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-921625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}