VILLANOVA, Pa.—Junior wide receiver Jaylan Sanchez (North Bergen, N.J.) caught a go-ahead touchdown pass late in the third quarter, redshirt freshman Isaiah Ragland (Alexandria, Va.) ran for a career-high 141 yards and No. 4 Villanova (3-0, 1-0 CAA Football) held on late for a 14-13 win over Towson (1-2, 0-1 CAA Football) in the conference opener for both teams at Villanova Stadium on Saturday afternoon. A missed 37-yard field goal by the visiting Tigers as time expired extended the Wildcats home winning streak to 11 games by the slimmest of margins.
 
Sanchez scored both Villanova touchdowns – his first two scores of the season – on a 20-yard pass with 12:10 to play in the second quarter and his go-ahead score on a six-yard throw from sixth year quarterback Connor Watkins (Williamsport, Va.) with 1:16 to play in the third period. Sanchez finished the day with four receptions for 59 yards. Ragland rushed a career-high 17 times for 141 yards, including a 65-yard burst in the third quarter which set up the go-ahead Sanchez touchdown two plays later.
 
A close game throughout came down to three game-changing and potentially decisive moments in the final 1:13 of the contest. It was at that point with 73 seconds to go that Towson had driven to the Wildcats 31-yard line and set up for a 48-yard field goal to take the lead. The kick had plenty of distance but hit the right upright and Villanova took over with 1:13 on the clock and the Tigers holding two timeouts.
 
Towson took the first of those timeouts after the Wildcats were stopped for a one-yard loss with 1:10 to play. After the timeout, Villanova gained 14 yards for what would have been a first down were it not for a fumble that the Tigers recovered at the 44-yard line. A review confirmed the play, and Towson took over with 1:03 to go. A 25-yard completion after from quarterback Sean Brown to Da'Kendall James got the Tigers into field goal range with less than 30 seconds to go and no Towson timeouts remaining.
 
Brown spiked the ball with four seconds to go to set up a 37-yard attempt to decide the game. The kick was wide right to finally secure the outcome and prevent the Wildcats from suffering a walk-off loss on their home field. It is the 10^th time in the last 13 seasons that Villanova has won its CAA opener.
 
"It's a CAA game so we know that no matter who play in the CAA it's going to be challenging," Wildcats head coach Mark Ferrante said. Towson obviously came in ready to play and we dodged a bullet. Thankfully they pushed that last one right and the other one hit the bar, and then we had the block earlier in the game. We need to clean some things up, but I've said this many times over my career that we'll take a win any way we can get them. An ugly win is better than a pretty loss any day of the week, so we're excited to get the 'W' for sure."
 
Ferrante referred to an earlier block of a 31-yard Towson field goal attempt with 3:47 to play in the third quarter. Sophomore JR Strauss (Reading, Pa.), a linebacker who has made contributions on special teams the past two seasons, recorded his first career blocked kick and the first blocked field goal by Villanova since October 6, 2018, when Jafonta Johnson did so in a game against Maine.
 
Long before the frenetic sequences in the third and fourth quarters, the Wildcats found themselves facing a deficit for the first time this season when Tigers tight end Carter Runyon caught a 30-yard touchdown pass from Brown with 8:39 to play in the opening period. Towson led 7-0 until the 12:10 mark of the second quarter when Sanchez leaped over a defender in the end zone to haul in his first touchdown of the season.
 
The game was tied 7-7 at halftime and the Tigers went back in front on a 41-yard field goal on the first drive of the second half. Villanova went nearly 26 minutes of game time in between putting points on the board but appeared to be sparked by the Strauss field goal block.
 
Following the block, freshman running back David Avit (Potomac, Md.) rushed for four yards and then Ragland broke away up the middle for a 65-yard gain which took the ball from the Wildcats own 24-yard line down to the Towson 11-yard line. Watkins rushed up the middle for five more yards before finding Sanchez for the go-ahead and eventual game-winning score with 1:16 to play in the period.
 
Starting linebackers Brendan Bell (Basking Ridge, N.J.) and Shane Hartzell (Perkasie, Pa.) had seven tackles apiece to lead the Villanova defense, while Capri Martin (Bridgeport, Conn.) and Nigel McSween (Newark, N.J.) each had solo sacks.
 
The swinging pendulum of home and away games which defines much of the Wildcats season schedule swings to the road next week when Villanova travels to College Park, Md. to face Big Ten foe Maryland in its annual game against an FBS opponent. The game kicks off at 12 p.m.