BETHLEHEM, Pa.—The 50^th touchdown pass of graduate quarterback Pat McQuaide's (Solon, Ohio) collegiate career was a game-winner in the second round of the playoffs and #12 seed Villanova (11-2) advanced to the quarterfinals with a 14-7 win over previously unbeaten #5 seed Lehigh (12-1) at Goodman Stadium on Saturday afternoon. After a scoreless first half, the Wildcats scored in the final three minutes of both the third and fourth quarters to first tie and then pull ahead of the Mountain Hawks in a hard-fought and tenuous defensive battle.
 
Villanova secured its 10^th consecutive victory and is headed to the quarterfinal round of the Division I Football Championship for the third time in the last five seasons. Its opponent will be #4 seed Tarleton State (12-1) from the United Athletic Conference, with the game to be played next Friday or Saturday (December 12-13) in Stephenville, Texas. The date and time will be announced late Saturday night at the conclusion of second round play. The Texans had a bye in the first round of the playoffs and opened postseason action with a 31-13 home win over unseeded North Dakota.
 
"That was a heavyweight fight," Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante said. "Both teams were throwing punches pretty much the whole game, and both defenses were responding very well. What I felt (earlier in the week) the game was going to come down to actually came to play. I said both teams are pretty disciplined. Both teams run the ball well; both teams defend the run well; both teams are going to make a lot of good plays. It was going to be whoever makes the fewest mistakes will probably come out on top. The biggest difference today – other than the effort and execution that these guys have played with all year – it came down to two turnovers versus zero. So those two mistakes; I would like to say we forced those two mistakes, bot those two mistakes with the turnovers ended up being the difference in the game in my opinion."
 
It took game-changing plays on both sides of the ball in the fourth quarter for the Wildcats to earn their first road playoff victory in 15 years. McQuaide connected with freshman wide receiver Braden Reed (Pottstown, Pa.) with 2:56 to play for the go-ahead touchdown and – after Lehigh drove to the Villanova 14-yard line on its ensuing possession – graduate defensive tackle Obinna Nwobodo (Wilmington, Del.) forced a fumble which was recovered by senior linebacker Shane Hartzell (Perkasie, Pa.) with 1:49 to play.
 
The offense kept possession of the ball for the final 109 seconds play of play and McQuaide all but sealed the game when he threw a 12-yard pass to senior tight end Antonio Johnson (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) on 3^rd-and-8 from the Wildcats own 13-yard line with 1:36 to play. After the Mountain Hawks used their final timeout with 1:31 on the clock, McQuaide took a knee on second down with 1:30 remaining and third down with 38 seconds showing. The game's final play was a kneel-down on fourth down with just two seconds on the clock.
 
Lehigh came into the contest with an unblemished 12-0 record and the nation's top-ranked rushing defense. It was as advertised for much of the day, although the Villanova defense has proven time and again this season it can play with anyone in the country. The Wildcats held the Mountain Hawks to just one touchdown on the first drive of the second half and a total of 335 yards of offense. Lehigh began the day averaging 33.8 points per contest and 432.4 yards of offense per game.
 
Earlier in the fourth quarter before the fumble recovery, Hartzell recorded Villanova's only defensive sack of the game when he brought down Mountain Hawks quarterback Hayden Johnson for a 10-yard loss. It was the 21^st sack of Hartzell's career which moved him into the top 10 in school history. His six total tackles on the day also moved Hartzell up to sixth place in the Wildcats record book in that category. Redshirt freshman linebacker Omari Bursey (Broomfield, Colo.) had a game-high eight total stops.
 
McQuaide finished an effective 18-of-28 for 208 yards and the game-winning touchdown. This is his first season at Villanova, but McQuaide has registered 23 of his 50 career touchdown passes in a Wildcats uniform after he threw 27 touchdown passes over the last two years at Nicholls. Graduate wide receiver Luke Colella (Wexford, Pa.) caught eight passes for 71 yards and increased his season total to 955 yards which is 10^th in a season in Villanova annals. Reed added three catches for 70 yards and the go-ahead score, a 28-yard touchdown reception which was the Wildcats longest play of the game.
 
Junior running backs Ja'briel Mace (Somers Point, N.J.) and Isaiah Ragland (Alexandria, Va.) combined for 20 carries and 67 yards against a defense that was giving up only 73.7 rushing yards per contest entering the day. Mace ran 11 times for 48 yards and his 14^th total touchdown (10^th rushing) of the year. He surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards along the way, becoming the 64^th player in school history to achieve that feat.
 
Mace scored at the 2:29 mark of the third quarter to get Villanova on the board for the first time. The teams had battled through a scoreless first half, and the contest marked the first time in a span of 247 games since September 18, 2004 against James Madison that the Wildcats were involved in a game that had no points in the first half.
 
Both teams came into the game averaging better than 32 minutes of possession time for the season, with Lehigh ranked eighth nationally (32:34) in that category while Villanova was 10^th (32:28). It was the Mountain Hawks who were able to grind away running the ball in the first half, and by the intermission the hosts had held the ball for nearly 18 minutes. Lehigh outgained the Wildcats by a 70-2 margin in the first quarter and 142-74 in the first half.
 
The stalemate ended coming out of halftime when the Mountain Hawks went five plays and 75 yards culminating in an Aaron Crossley five-yard touchdown run with 12:29 to play in the third period. Lehigh leading rusher Luke Yoder ran 11 times for 70 yards, while Johnson completed 12-of-20 passes for 161 yards.
 
 Villanova has won 10 straight games for the first time since the 1997 team had an undefeated regular season and was 12-0 before eventually falling in the playoffs. The current streak is the fifth winning streak of at least 10 games in Wildcats history but matches the 1997 stretch as the only ones in school history to occur within the same season and not overlap multiple years. The last road win in the postseason was a 42-24 quarterfinal win at Appalachian State on December 11, 2010. Ferrante improved to 24-11 (.686) in November and December games as head coach.
 
Another noteworthy streak continued for the Villanova late in Saturday's game when McQuaide connected with graduate wide receiver Lucas Kopecky (Rocky Hill, N.J.) for a 16-yard pass play. It marked the 24^th consecutive game with a reception for Kopecky, who has caught at least one pass in every game he has ever played for the Wildcats.