The Rhode Island football team (1-5, 0-3 CAA Football) visited Villanova Stadium where they were blanked 35-0 by Villanova (5-1, 3-0 CAA Football), who remain tied for the top spot in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Villanova scored on four consecutive drives in the first half, with three touchdowns occurring in the first quarter alone, and entered the second quarter with a 21-0 lead. One highlight for the Rams in the first quarter was a 41-yard kick return from redshirt senior wide receiver Sam Benjamin as he took a reverse from junior running back Harold Cooper. The Rams were unable to take advantage of the good field position.
Rhode Island was only able to manage two first downs the entire first half, one of them due to a personal foul call on the Wildcats. The Rams defense held Villanova to one touchdown in the second quarter, one in the third quarter and allowed zero points in the fourth to bring the final score to 35-0.
“I give great credit to our opponent,” said head coach Jim Fleming in his weekly conference call with the CAA. “I thought they played very well while we did not match or even come close. A 21-point first quarter was really atrocious for us on defense, but I think we settled in after that point.”
Redshirt freshman quarterback Jordan Vazzano completed 14 of 30 passes for 75 yards with one interception during his third game of action this season. Fellow redshirt freshman punter Oliver Graybar showed off his talents averaging 40.6 yards on 11 punts that were good for an overall of 477 yards, the second most punts and punt yardage in a game in program history. Sophomore safety Nas Jones led the Rams with nine tackles in the game.
Rhode Island will next visit another tough conference opponent in Stony Brook University this upcoming Saturday.
“You look at them and it’s been a weird up and down,” Fleming said. “I know they have been having some great success and then they came back and stubbed their toe against Sacred Heart followed by a nice win against Towson. So their message down there will be that they ready for each and every opponent. They have a solid defense who are physical, and a two-back, run-oriented team on offense.”