The Bucknell Football team pulled off a gritty win versus the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in a Patriot League battle this weekend, winning 19-17. 

The Bison put on a stellar defensive performance as they only allowed 10 points the entire game. This effort was spearheaded by captain Brent Jackson ’23, who contributed five tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and an interception. 

Jackson’s stellar performance earned him Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week as well as Bucknellian Athlete of the Week honors. Jackson and the team were extremely pleased with how they performed, as Jackson attributed much of their success to their preparation beforehand.

“We knew it was going to be a tough rivalry game and that we needed to execute for four quarters,” Jackson said. “We knew that we were going to have to fight, claw and scratch to get the victory, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Jackson’s effort set the tone for the Bison in the game as it generated timely momentum that propelled the group to the victory. Putting up these statistics is nothing new for the star senior, as he currently leads the Patriot League and ranks third in FCS in solo tackles. Jackson is also 19th in the country in total tackles. 

Jackson was named Team MVP for the 2021-2022 season, as well as an Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar and a member of Patriot League Academic Honor Roll. 

“Football is a team sport and one person’s individual success doesn’t make the team. I’m just trying to make sure I do my 1/11 part to make sure that my teammates are in the best positions to do their part so we can win more football games,” he said. 

The senior leader also stressed the importance of building off of what they learned from their game. Jackson sees plenty of opportunity to apply what they learned this weekend for the rest of the season and finish strong.

“We finally put all the pieces together and finished strong,” Jackson said. “I think going on for the rest of the year, we have to make sure to dig deep in those fourth quarters and do everything we need to do to ultimately get the win like we did this weekend.”

The Bison return to play on Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. to host Colgate at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.