The Bucknell football team had a tough match this Saturday against No. 18 Fordham University, losing 59–17. 

The Bison started the first quarter strong, holding the Rams off for the first nine minutes of play, stopping four of the their possessions.

Matt Schearer ’26 capitalized on a 31-yard field goal with only 12 seconds left in the quarter, putting the Bison up 3-0. 

The Rams responded to this play immediately in the beginning of the second quarter with a 14-play 57-yard drive, evening the score at 3-3.

Fordham then went on to connect on three touchdown passes in the last four minutes and 30 seconds of the first half, as the Orange and Blue were having difficulty maintaining possession of the ball. The first half ended with the Rams leading 24-3. 

The Bison came out hard in the beginning of the third quarter on the offensive side, starting with a 13-yard touchdown rush from Rushawn Baker ’25.

The Rams came back and scored on a 75-yard touchdown drive soon after. Bucknell was able to hold off the Rams from capitalizing on their next two touchdown attempts in the third quarter. 

The fourth quarter began with a career-first touchdown catch from Damian Harris ’24 as Nick Semptimphelter ’24 threw him a beautiful fade. This brought the Bison up to a score of 17-31 against the Rams.

This was the last of the points that the Bison would get up on the board for the game, while the Rams battered off 28 more points in the remaining minutes of the fourth quarter. 

Bucknell ended the game with 330 offensive yards after gaining only 58 yards in the first half. Semptimphelter threw for 158 yards on 12 of 25 completions, and freshman Alex Brown ‘26 had five completions for 58 yards. Tyler Alston ’24 and Brent Jackson ’23 each grabbed an interception, and Jackson finished with 10 tackles and three pass breakups. Gavin Pringle ’23 came up with four pass breakups while Blake Leake ’24 registered a game-high of 13 tackles. 

“We came out and dominated on the defensive side of the ball and were able to turn the ball over,” Cooper Kim ’23 said. “We needed to play 60 minutes of elite defense to give our team a shot to beat a high powered offense and one of the best teams in the FCS. We know we can compete with teams of that caliber and we are going to do everything we can to play at the highest level for these final two weeks.”

The Bison will compete at Georgetown in Washington, D.C. this coming Saturday Nov. 12. You can watch the game on ESPN+ and keep up to date on the live statistics on the Bucknell Athletics website.