VILLANOVA, Pa.—Second half magic struck again and #11 seed Villanova (10-3) now owns the longest home winning streak in program history after it outlasted Eastern Kentucky (8-5) in the first round of the Division I Football Championship on Saturday afternoon. Two field goals in the fourth quarter gave the Wildcats their only lead of the game in a 22-17 come-from-behind victory, the 16^th straight at Villanova Stadium since the middle of the 2022 season. The streak is now longer than two previous 15-game home win streaks.
 
In a game that featured a little bit of everything and felt like it had numerous momentum shifts throughout, the steadying presence was the second half success which is becoming a calling card for Villanova this season. Despite trailing 14-0 less than nine minutes into the game, the Wildcats trimmed the margin to eight points at halftime and outscored the Colonels by a 13-0 margin after the intermission. This is nothing new for Villanova, which has a minus-19 scoring margin in the first half of games this season and a plus-88 margin in the third and fourth quarters.
 
In his first career playoff game, veteran kicker Ethan Gettman (Daytona Beach, Fla.) kicked a 42-yard field goal into the wind in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter which gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game, 19-17, with 14:37 left. He made a 31-yarder with exactly a minute remaining to account for the final score and Villanova withstood a potential game-winning pass by Eastern Kentucky which was caught by a receiver who replay confirmed was just across the white line and outside the back of the end zone as time expired.
 
"Wow, I mean nailbiter," Wildcats head coach Mark Ferrante said to open his postgame press conference. "Thankfully that guy was standing on the white part of the field and not the green part of the field on that last play, and just really happy we have another opportunity to play another week thanks to the guys to my right [quarterback Connor Watkins, cornerback Tyrell Mims and tight end James Welde] and everybody down in the locker room. We will enjoy this one for 24 hours, then we'll clean up a lot of things because we made a lot of mistakes and then hopefully, we'll play a cleaner game next week. Bottom line is, 24 hours to enjoy, put it in the rearview mirror, get back to work tomorrow."
 
Gettman has made seven consecutive field goal attempts over the past five games and his go-ahead kick from 42 yards was his 10^th career make and third this season from 40 yards or longer. It was that much more impressive that he kicked it into a stiff wind that gusted between 15 and 28 miles per hour during the contest. Gettman has recent experience in this area, though. Last week in the regular season finale against Delaware, also played at home, Gettman gave Villanova the lead for good with a field goal into the wind and through the west end zone uprights from 31 yards.
 
"Obviously those two field goals were the difference in the ballgame," Ferrante said. "Their missed field goal [a blocked attempt by the Wildcats in the second quarter] and the safety early is the point that seemed large at the end of the game. No doubt those two points were valuable, they put us up five instead of being up three. We put a little pressure on an errant snap and then were able to get the ball out of the back of the end zone."
 
Ferrante alluded to a safety which got Villanova on the board for the first time 10 seconds into the second quarter. Eastern Kentucky was backed up to its own seven-yard line on fourth-and-six, and an errant snap on a punt eventually went through the back of the end zone for the Wildcats first safety this season. Later in the second period, Villanova blocked a 26-yard field goal attempt – its third field goal block of the season – to stop the Colonels with 1:40 to play before halftime. Eastern Kentucky had a short field at the Wildcats 14-yard line after Villanova muffed a punt with 4:10 left in the quarter.
 
True freshman running back David Avit (Potomac, Md.), one of 25 finalists named this week for the Jerry Rice Award given to the top freshman in the FCS, amassed 169 all-purpose yards on 17 rushes and two receptions. He ran for 94 yards and totaled a season high 75 receiving yards, all but three of which came after the catch. Avit went 56 yards on a catch-and-run play in the second quarter, but he and sixth year quarterback Connor Watkins (Williamsport, Pa.) were stopped four times in a row after the Wildcats had first-and-goal from the two-yard line.
 
Watkins was 14-of-24 for 177 yards with two touchdowns and an interception on the day. One of the game's biggest plays was a feel-good moment for senior tight end James Welde (Havertown, Pa.) who scored tallied his first career catch and first career touchdown on a five-yard grab as Villanova pulled to within 17-16 on the first drive of the second half. Watkins earlier threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to fifth year receiver Devin Smith (Durham, N.C.) which was the first significant slice into the Colonels early two-touchdown advantage.
 
Another turning point in the game came with just under two minutes remaining in the third quarter when Eastern Kentucky had an initial scoop-and-score fumble recovery touchdown taken off the board when replay review showed Watkins to have made a forward incomplete pass. Instead of a 23-16 deficit, the Wildcats had new life on second-and-10 from their own 31-yard line on the possession that extended into the fourth quarter and ended with Gettman's go-ahead field goal.
 
It was quite a day for several of the stars on Villanova's stingy defense, which held the Colonels scoreless for the final 38:28 of the game. Fifth year linebacker Brendan Bell (Basking Ridge, N.J.) had seven tackles but more importantly a fumble recovery and the blocked field goal one week after he became the Wildcats first player in at least decades to score both an offensive and a defensive touchdown in the same game.
 
Senior linebacker Richie Kimmel (Holmes, Pa.) led Villanova with eight tackles while forcing the fumble that Bell recovered. Fifth year safety Ethan Potter (Chesapeake City, Md.) added seven tackles, redshirt freshman Zahmir Dawud (North Brunswick, N.J.) had a career-high seven stops starting in place of first team All-CAA cornerback Isas Waxter and senior linebacker Shane Hartzell (Perkasie, Pa.) added to his team-leading tackle total for the season with six total stops.
 
The disparity between the two teams on third down carried even greater import than the tackle numbers for the Wildcats defense. Villanova held the Colonels to going 3-of-13 (23.1%) on third down while its own offense topped 50 percent for the first time this year with an 8-of-15 (53.3%) conversion rate. Eastern Kentucky scored points on just one of three possessions in the red zone as the Wildcats improved their numbers in red zone defense which already ranked seventh in the country this season (69.2%) entering the game.
 
Villanova got the ball with 6:01 to play in the fourth quarter and nearly succeeded in running out the remainder of the clock before Gettman kicked a field goal with exactly a minute to play. His ensuing kickoff was only for 50 yards though, and a 28-yard return by the Colonels got another 15-yard bump on a personal foul call.
 
That sequence of events gave Eastern Kentucky the ball at the Wildcats 42-yard line with 54 seconds left. On third-and-three from the 16-yard line, an initial targeting call was reviewed and overturned to set up fourth down with 10 seconds to go. Colonels quarterback Matt Morrissey thew to running back Joshua Carter who got out of bounds at the 10-yard line with six seconds left. Morrissey threw the ball again on the final play of the game – to wide receiver Jackson House – who was outside the back of the end zone when he caught the ball as time expired.
 
Villanova has won at least one playoff game in five of its last six postseason appearances. Saturday's win advances the Wildcats to a second round matchup against #6 seed UIW (10-2) next week (December 7) in San Antonio, Texas. That game will kick off at 2 p.m. Eastern time (1 p.m. CT) and be televised on ESPN+.
 
POST GAME NOTES
 

• Villanova improves to 15-14 all-time in the Division I Football Championship. This is the 16^th appearance in the FCS playoffs for the Wildcats; head coach Mark Ferrante has been a part of all 16 in his years as an assistant coach and now head coach. He is 3-3 as a head coach in the playoffs.

 

• Villanova has played 15 of its 29 FCS playoff games at home and is 12-3 in those games.

 

• Villanova set a new program record today with its 16^th consecutive home victory. The home winning streak began midway through the 2022 season and is now longer than two previous 15-game streaks. The more recent of the 15-game home winning streaks was from 2008 to 2010 and spanned the Wildcats 2009 national championship season. The other 15-game home streak occurred in the first 15 games ever played at Villanova Stadium from 1927 to 1930.

 

• Villanova has outscored opponents by a +88 margin in the second half (184-96) this season, including 13-0 today. Over the last eight games played, the Wildcats own a scoring margin of 67-10 in the fourth quarter alone.

 

• Fifth year kicker Ethan Gettman has made each of his last seven field goal attempts dating back to the first quarter against Hampton. His 42-yarder in the 4^th quarter today was his 10^th career field goal from 40+ yards and his third this season.

 

• Junior wide receiver Jaylan Sanchez had one reception for six yards today, extending his streak of catching at least one pass in every game this season. He is the only Villanova player with a catch in every game and he has had a reception in 24 of his 26 games played since the start of 2023.

 

• Fifth year wide receiver Lucas Kopecky made his college football debut in the Maryland game and since then has played in all 10 games and recorded at least one reception in every game. He had a game-high six catches today and his season stats are up to 24 catches for 279 yards.

 

• Senior tight end James Welde tallied his first career catch and first career touchdown with his five-yard reception in the third quarter.

 

• True freshman running back David Avit now ranks 16^th in a single season in Villanova history with 887 rushing yards.

 

• The touchdown pass by Connor Watkins in the third quarter was the 50^th passing touchdown of his career and it moved him into sole possession of seventh place in school history in career passing touchdowns. He also surpassed 8,000 career yards of total offense and ranks sixth in school history in that category with 8,198 yards.