VILLANOVA, Pa.—A strong effort by the defense and one of the best running games by a Wildcats quarterback in the past several seasons set the tone for Villanova (5-3, 3-2 CAA Football) as it grinded out a 24-10 victory over league newcomer Hampton (4-4, 1-4 CAA Football) at Villanova Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Junior quarterback Connor Watkins (Williamsport, Pa.) scored on the second play of the game when he sprinted down the field for a 75-yard touchdown and the Wildcats defense allowed season lows of 26 yards rushing and 163 yards of total offense in a comfortable yet hard-fought victory.
 
The 75-yard run by Watkins on the second play from scrimmage is the longest rush by a Villanova quarterback in school history, not including an 89-yard lateral play from Darryl Woodring to Mike Siani during the 1971 season. Watkins rushed 11 times for a career-high 130 yards and finished the day with 291 yards of total offense. The last time a Wildcats quarterback topped 130 yards on the ground was Zach Bednarczyk when he had 157 yards against James Madison on the final day of the 2015 regular season. Watkins was 14-of-31 for 161 yards and a touchdown through the air.
 
Villanova scored only three points the rest of the first half after Watkins' long touchdown just 18 seconds into the contest. The visiting Pirates trailed 10-3 at halftime and 17-10 until the 10:42 mark of the final period when Watkins closed the scoring with a 30-yard jaunt for his second touchdown of the game. In a span of 49 minutes in between the two touchdown runs, the only points for the Wildcats came on a 26-yard field goal by graduate kicker Matthew Mercurio (Salinas, Calif.) at the 3:35 mark of the second quarter and an 11-yard touchdown reception by senior receiver Jaaron Hayek (Wayne, Pa.) with 7:11 to play in the third period.
 
The defense was up for the challenge of containing an athletic Hampton offense, however. Sophomore safety Ty Trinh (Owings Mills, Md.) led Villanova with seven tackles, graduate linebacker Antonio Montero (Eden Prairie, Minn.) had an 18-yard sack and two total tackles for loss, and graduate linebacker Danny Abraham (Randolph, Mass.) recorded his second interception of the season on a drive that began after the Wildcats threw their only pick of the game.
 
"I am happy that we won the game," Wildcats head coach Mark Ferrante said. "Any time you can get a win you have to enjoy that. The previous two games we had started slowly in the third quarter, but they responded today with getting a three-and-out on defense and a nice, long drive on offense to put the touchdown in on our opening drive of the third quarter. The guys played hard, and we came out with a victory so that's always a plus. I thought our defense played well; happy with the defensive performance for sure."
 
Villanova led 10-3 when Watkins was picked off at the Pirates 47-yard line with only 29 seconds left in the second quarter. With a chance to get at least into field goal range before the end of half, Hampton ran three plays but saw its quarterback, Malcolm Mays, intercepted by Abraham at the Wildcats 33-yard line with eight seconds to play before the intermission. It was a big stop to end the half for Villanova before it had to kick off to the Pirates to open the second half.
 
Hampton picked up just four yards on three plays on that opening drive of the third quarter as the Wildcats defense once again stood strong. After the Pirates punted the ball to Villanova's 36-yard line, Watkins drove the Wildcats 64 yards on 10 plays culminating with Hayek's eighth receiving touchdown of the season. Hayek had four catches for 97 yards and the score to move up one spot into eighth place in school history with 2,287 career receiving yards.
 
Senior running back TD Ayo-Durojaiye (Damascus, Md.) went over the 100-yard rushing mark for the third straight game and the fourth time in his career (all this season). He wound up with a career-high 25 carries for 112 yards. Ayo-Durojaiye also became the 37^th player in school history to reach 1,000 career rushing yards during the game. The versatile jack-of-all-trades on the Wildcats roster has rushed for 1,090 yards in his career. In his last three games alone, Ayo-Durojaiye has 56 carries for 354 yards and a score.
 
Villanova has a two-game streak of having a player score a touchdown on a run of 70 yards or longer within the first two plays of the contest. On Saturday it was Watkins breaking away for 75 yards on the second play from scrimmage; last week Ayo-Durojaiye likewise scored on a 70-yard run on the second play of the day in a 31-29 win over UAlbany. Not only was Watkins' 75-yard run a school record for a quarterback on a single play, the only rush by a Wildcats single caller that even approaches that distance in recent memory was a 59-yard run by John Robertson against Maine on October 26, 2013.
 
Saturday's game was the second half of Villanova's only two-game homestand of the season. The Wildcats won both of their home games in the past two weeks against UAlbany and Hampton to move above .500 both for the season and in conference play. Next up for Villanova is a road game at Towson next Saturday (November 4) at 2 p.m.