The Spire

Brendan Grudberg ’28

Staff Writer

It was a crisp fall Saturday when the Lafayette Leopards (5-3, 4-0) came into Worcester to face the Crusaders (1-7, 1-2) in front of a packed house at Fitton Field. Many students’ families were in town for Holy Cross Family Weekend, which created a crowded atmosphere for the Crusaders to build off of.  

The game did not start well for Holy Cross, as starting quarterback Braden Graham left the game with an injury. 

Prior to Graham’s injury, both teams started the game turnover-prone. Graham threw an interception on the first drive of the game, followed by fumbles lost by each team towards the end of the first quarter. 

The latter of those two fumbles, a strip sack by Lafayette defensive lineman Jaylon Joseph, led to Graham’s injury and subsequent replacement by First-Year quarterback Dominic Campanile.

Following the strip sack, Lafayette capitalized on their field position with a 10-yard touchdown run from Junior running back Kente Edwards. Edwards had a monster day running the football, finishing with 146 net rushing yards and a second score later in the game.

The teams traded punts to start the second quarter, and on the Crusaders’ next possession they committed their third turnover of the young game, this time a fumble from Senior wide receiver and punt returner Max Mosey. 

The playcall was full of creativity—they called up a direct snap to star wide receiver and former quarterback Mosey, sending the athletic Campanile into motion at receiver. Mosey easily gained the yardage necessary for the first down, but the ball security struggles prevailed, once again setting up great field position for Lafayette.

The Crusader defense responded in a big way, causing Lafayette to leave their drive starting at the Holy Cross 24-yard line empty-handed. Junior linebacker Cam Santee made a big pressure on third-and-4, forcing an incompletion, and Junior defensive back Cam Jones made a textbook pass breakup on fourth-and-4 to force the turnover on downs (the fifth turnover of the game for those counting at home). 

Following a Holy Cross punt, the defense made another fourth down stop on their next drive, with Senior defensive lineman Colin Reynolds and Sophomore defensive lineman Jordan Pritchard-Sewell wrapping up Lafayette’s Edwards in the backfield.

The Holy Cross offense capitalized on this turnover for their first points of the game, leading a 57-yard drive that saw them on the doorstep of the end zone, but ultimately ended in a field goal as time expired, making the halftime score 7-3 in Lafayette’s favor.

The Crusaders’ first offensive drive of the second half saw their biggest play of the day, a 67-yard marathon run from Junior running back Jayden Clerveaux, who finished with his third highest rushing yard total in his career (135), and the most he’s had in a game this season. 

Holy Cross’ red zone struggles continued though, as the career-long 67-yard run from Clerveaux ultimately led to another field goal to cut the deficit to 1. 

The defense continued to shine, forcing a three-and-out on Lafayette’s next series. The ensuing punt was nearly blocked for the third time in the game, and Mosey appeared to let the short kick roll for a dead play, but instead spontaneously picked it up, shook off the only tackler near him, and returned it all the way for a 59-yard touchdown. 

The play sent Fitton Field into a frenzy, as the momentum Holy Cross seemed to be building had finally culminated in this one play, giving them the lead and giving Mosey his second punt return touchdown in as many weeks. 

Lafayette did not trail for long, though. 147 seconds of game time was all they needed for a six-play, 75-yard touchdown drive highlighted by two deep passes by Dean DeNobile and a rushing score from Ethan Weber, making it 14-13. The latter of the two deep passes was simply bad luck for the Crusaders–Caiden Newsome was step-for-step with Lafayette first-year wide receiver Matthew Scerbo. Newsome forced a bobbled pass and presumably an incompletion, but the bobbled ball fell right into the hands of the fallen Scerbo for a completed pass. 

That seemed to be the turning point for Holy Cross. The momentum they had built in the second and third quarters had seemingly disappeared. The offense struggled to get much going and while the defense held off the Lafayette offense for long, they surrendered a touchdown drive with four minutes remaining to put the Crusaders down by eight.

Holy Cross played the “two-minute drill” beautifully following the touchdown. First-year running back Joseph Williams kickstarted the drive with a kick return down to their own 37-yard line. Campanile followed with a 26-yard pass to Alijah Cason to put Holy Cross in scoring range. Unfortunately, this last minute surge proved to be insufficient, as a turnover on downs ended the game in a 13-21 Holy Cross defeat.

Campanile looked comfortable in his first game as the every-down quarterback, finishing 17-for-22 passing for 127 yards and gaining 13 yards with his legs. The offense and special teams had more “explosive plays” than we’ve seen recently, and the defense held up for large chunks of the game. Improvements in late game execution and more consistent offensive output will bring this young core more wins in the future.

With the loss, Holy Cross falls to 1-8, and 1-3 in-conference. Lafayette improves to 6-3, and 4-0 in Patriot League play. 

The Crusaders are back on the road this weekend, facing off against Patriot League titan and the nationally fourth-ranked Lehigh Mountain Hawks on Saturday at noon. There is no word on who will start at quarterback for the Crusaders, but regardless, it will be quite the test for a Holy Cross team who, despite the record, has competed to the final whistle in three straight weeks.

Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics