Villanova<\/a>\u2019s football season has been revived with the help of a Garrett Rogan sack on the 2-yard line to seal a 24-18 win against No. 12 Lehigh on Saturday.<\/p>\nVillanova (4-4, 3-2 Patriot League) picked up its first home win since November 2025, defeating Lehigh, 24-18. The Mountain Hawks converted two fourth-down conversions on their final drive to set up a possible game-tying touchdown from the 2-yard line with seconds left on the clock. Rogan was able to break through the line and sack Lehigh\u2019s Derek Morgan as time expired.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to be on the winning side of a last-possession game,\u201d Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t had the opportunity to do that too many times, a couple times. However, games always come down to the last possession. <\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully, this one worked out in our favor. So we\u2019re excited; we\u2019ll enjoy it for 24 hours, get back to work tomorrow and fix things that need fixing because there\u2019s going to be correctables regardless of the result, regardless of the outcome, there\u2019s always correctables.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wildcats put up 337 yards of total offense, rushing for 136 and passing for 201.<\/p>\n
Villanova graduate quarterback Pat McQuaide was 15-for-25 . He is now 55-for-77 (71.4) over his last three games. McQuaide added a 7-yard rushing touchdown for Villanova\u2019s first score.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that was big,\u201d McQuaide said of scoring on the opening possession. \u201cI think we talked all week about just focusing on us and taking care of our business, being physical, and winning the first game of every series. I thought we did a good job in the first half. Obviously, [Lehigh] made some adjustments. They had a better plan in the second half. They did some good things. That\u2019s stuff that we have to overcome, put more points on the board in the second half so that the game doesn\u2019t come down to the last possession. \u2026 Obviously, with how the season\u2019s gone, it\u2019s been pretty crazy up and down. So to finish with a win, obviously, like you said, it\u2019s always great to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rogan and Villanova defense powers<\/p>\n
Rogan switched from safety to linebacker this offseason and has been finding success. He totaled 13 total tackles (11 solo). It was the first sack of his season and second in his entire career.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s fortunate enough to come off and get to the quarterback, come off the edge and get to the quarterback,\u201d Ferrante said. \u201cSo we\u2019re excited. He\u2019s learning a new position. He\u2019s been a safety his whole career, and this year he\u2019s forced to play linebacker. So I think he\u2019s still growing with the position, and he\u2019s been stepping up and making some good plays and opportunities he\u2019s had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through eight games, Rogan has 39 total tackles (25 solo).<\/p>\n
Villanova\u2019s defense was able to hold Lehigh to a scoreless first half and 82 total yards of offense. The Mountaineers were 1-for-6 on first-half third downs.<\/p>\n
The Wildcat defense forced Lehigh to settle for a field goal while in the red zone at the end of the third quarter. On the game\u2019s final drive, they kept them from scoring a touchdown on the 2-yard-line that could have led to a game-winning extra point.<\/p>\n
Running back success continues<\/p>\n
Villanova\u2019s offense was led by the running back duo of Ja\u2019briel Mace and Isaiah Ragland. Mace had 17 carries for 91 yards and a touchdown. It was his third consecutive game with a score. Ragland rushed for 44 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n
Mace has rushed for a team-high 594 yards this season. Ragland leads the team with eight rushing touchdowns. Both running backs are averaging five yards per carry. <\/p>\n
Villanova limits penalties<\/p>\n
Villanova\u2019s biggest struggle earlier in the season was penalties. The Wildcats averaged 8.8 penalties over their first five games. Through its last three, Villanova has only averaged five per contest.<\/p>\n
Against Lehigh, the Wildcats had five penalties for 58 yards.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Villanova will travel to Lafayette (3-4, 2-2 Patriot League) next Saturday for a conference matchup (12:30 p.m., ESPN+). Villanova has lost the last two matchups against Lafayette in 2016 and 2017. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Villanova\u2019s football season has been revived with the help of a Garrett Rogan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,128211],"class_list":["post-314223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-villanova-football-lehigh-patriot-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}