VILLANOVA, Pa.—For the first time in a decade a Friday night football home game is on tap for No. 13 Villanova (7-3), which hosts LIU (0-8) for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Villanova Stadium this evening.  The last time the Wildcats played a home football game on a Friday night was in 2009 in the semifinal round of the FCS playoffs.  There hasn't been a scheduled regular season home game on a Friday night for 22 years.
 
The first-ever meeting on the gridiron between the Wildcats and the Sharks will air live on FloFootball, with the streaming video available across all screens by downloading the FloSports app on iOS, Roku or Apple TV 4.  Special pricing is available for CAA Football fans by visiting flosports.tv/caa, where a subscription allows access to live and on-demand games plus additional exclusive content. 
 
Nick Mantegna and Steve Pinone call the action on FloFootball, while Ryan Fannon and Kevin Reilly are in the booth for the radio broadcast on 610 ESPN.  Their call can also be heard on TuneIn.  The links at the top of this release can be used to access both broadcasts, along with live stats, game notes and other relevant game information. 
 
So it's the first Friday night home football game in 10 years?  It's not the only time this season that the 2009 team has been referenced.  Villanova celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its first national championship team last weekend.  More than 30 members of the 2009 squad were welcomed back by a fan base which still adores them, and then the national champions watched as the Wildcats overcame a fourth quarter deficit to surge to a 35-28 win over Richmond. 
 
The win snapped a three-game losing streak and has Villanova in position to contend for a postseason berth again this season.  Friday night's game against LIU is the middle contest in a three-game homestand to finish the regular season.  The finale is next Saturday afternoon against Delaware in the Battle of the Blue rivalry game. 
 
Junior safety Nowoola Awopetu (Staten Island, N.Y.) returned the opening kickoff last week 100 yards for a touchdown as the Wildcats got out to a fast start against the Spiders, who wound up giving Villanova all it could handle in a tightly contested battle.  After trailing 28-21 at halftime and being unable to make up any ground in a third quarter which was scoreless for both teams, the Wildcats dramatically turned the tables in the final period.  Villanova outgained Richmond by a margin of 181-3 in yards of total offense in the fourth quarter, and scored the game-tying and eventual game-winning touchdowns less than three minutes apart in the middle of the period. 
 
It marked only the second time in the last five seasons that the Wildcats won a game which they trailed after the third quarter.  Junior quarterback Daniel Smith (Leesburg, Va.) scored his second touchdown of the game with a nine-yard run that tied the score with 11:45 to play, while freshman running back TD Ayo-Durojaiye (Damascus, Md.) put Villanova ahead to stay with a 20-yard touchdown run at the 8:56 mark of the quarter.  Aptly named, 'TD' has scored a touchdown in three straight games. 
 
Smith threw for 235 yards and rushed for 105 yards with two touchdowns in last week's victory.  The versatile first-year member of the Wildcats roster continues to be one of the top offensive performers in the FCS, as he ranks fourth nationally with 192 points that he is responsible for in 10 games this season.  Smith has thrown 22 passing touchdowns, rushed for a team-high nine scores and also caught a 68-yard touchdown pass.  He has had a hand in better than half of the points Villanova has scored this season. 
 
The present and future look bright for the Wildcats, as a trio of true freshmen on this year's squad have accounted for more than a quarter of the team's all-purpose yards.  Rookie wide receiver Jaaron Hayek (Wayne, N.J.) and the freshman running back duo of DeeWil Barlee (Malvern, Pa.) and Ayo-Durojaiye have combined for 1,487 all-purpose yards on the year.  Hayek is Villanova's second-leading receiver with 553 receiving yards and six touchdowns, Barlee has rushed for 535 yards and has a pair of 100-yard games to his credit, and Ayo-Durojaiye has run for 155 yards in seven games played. 
 
Junior linebacker Forrest Rhyne (Waynesboro, Pa.), like may of his teammates on the offensive side of the ball, is another player stepping up big in his first year as a starter.  Rhyne, also one of the team's tri-captains, reached double figures in tackles last week for the fourth time in his last five outings and the fifth time this season.  He ranks fourth in the CAA with 89 total stops on the year, including 12,5 tackles for loss and a team-high 6.5 sacks.  Rhyne's particularly strong play of late has added up to 55 tackles (nine tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks) over the last five games. 
 
This is the third time in the last four weeks that the Wildcats will face a team coming off a bye week.  Villanova was coming off a bye itself when it hosted Stony Brook on October 26, then it traveled to New Hampshire to take on a rested Wildcats squad the week after. 
 
LIU last played on November 2 when it fell to Robert Morris, 28-17, in a Northeast Conference game.  Three of the Sharks seven conference losses this season have come by fewer than 10 points.  Tonight's game is the first of two scheduled in the newly created series between the teams.  Villanova is slated to make a visit to LIU in 2022.