The Bison football team suffered a blowout loss to Villanova last Saturday, Sept. 11. The Wildcats put up 55 points on the Orange and Blue defense en route to the win.

The Bison defense came strong out of the gate, forcing Villanova to punt on their first possession. However, this opportunity for the Orange and Blue ended quickly with an interception by Villanova. The Bison offense struggled greatly this week, failing to capitalize on any of their possessions until scoring a field goal in the fourth quarter. The Orange and Blue lost the turnover battle as well, ending two drives with interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

It did not help that the Bison are still feeling the effects of a forbidding injury sustained in their season opener against Sacred Heart. Senior Quarterback Tarrin Earle ’22 was injured against Sacred Heart, leaving the quarterback duties this week to Nick Semptimphelter ’24 and Tyler Beverett ’24. Semptimphelter took over the lion’s share of snaps under center, with 20 attempts for 10 completions, but Beverett was able to lead the team in both passing and rushing yards against the Wildcats.

Senior Captain Tarrin Earle ‘22 spoke on the team’s competition this past weekend explaining, “It was obviously a rough game for us this weekend and it’s easy to look at the score and make assumptions. But with the amount of injuries we’ve had I thought of young guys showed up and played hard against a top 10 team in Villanova. It was a great wake up call for our team, and we now have a great opportunity to turn this season around going into Penn this weekend.”

As the Orange and Blue look to tighten up their performance on both sides of the ball, they hope to take their first win of the season at a Sept. 18 home opener against the Penn Quakers.