HAMILTON, N.Y.—Junior quarterback Daniel Smith (Leesburg, Va.) threw for 205 yards and three touchdowns in his Wildcats debut, junior cornerback Jaquan Amos (Philadelphia, Pa.) scored his third career touchdown on a pick-six and Villanova (1-0) opened the 150^th season of college football in America with a 34-14 win over No. 13 Colgate (0-1) at Andy Kerr Stadium on Saturday afternoon.  The game was the first of four Week Zero games to kick off on Saturday's national schedule and the Wildcats scored 27 unanswered points in the second quarter en route to the victory. 
 
Smith was 14-of-29 through the air and rushed for 37 yards and a score in the win.  The transfer from Campbell completed passes to eight different receivers and finished the day with 242 yards of total offense.  Junior wide receiver Changa Hodge (East Stroudsburg, Pa.), sophomore running back Jalen Jackson (Richmond, Va.) and redshirt freshman wide receiver Andrew Perez (North Caldwell, N.J.) all caught touchdown passes during the big second quarter scoring burst. 
 
Villanova began its 122^nd season of varsity football in strong fashion on both sides of the ball.  The offense put up 444 total yards and the defense gained a pair of turnovers which turned into 14 points.  Jackson caught an 18-yard touchdown pass less than a minute into the second quarter and Amos returned an interception 27 yards just over a minute later to put the Wildcats in front 14-0 with 13:16 left before halftime.  Later in the period, Smith found Hodge for a 45-yard touchdown reception in the right corner of the end zone with 2:07 on the clock and Perez scored on his first career reception with 12 seconds left before the intermission.
 
The shutout bid lasted until there was 6:27 remaining in the third quarter when Nick Draught caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Grant Breneman to get the Raiders on the board.  Colgate pulled to within 27-14 on Breneman's one-yard run early in the fourth quarter, but Villanova answered with a 10-play, 78-yard drive that culminated with Smith's nine-yard scoring run with 8:41 to play which closed the scoring.
 
"They were aggressive and played physical, which was our goal coming into the game," Wildcats head coach Mark Ferrante said of his team's defensive effort.  "We probably made some mental mistakes but at least our guys played hard and those two turnovers in the first half, especially the one that went back for a touchdown, was a pivotal part of the game for us.  We're trying to stress the physical play and our guys answered that today." 
 
Junior running back Justin Covington (Bronx, N.Y.) was another offensive standout for Villanova with a career-high 134 rushing yards on 19 carries.  He tallied his first career 100-yard game in a breakthrough performance and Jackson finished with 64 yards on 11 rushes.  Ferrante noted the play and the potential of the team's offensive line. 
 
"We'll look at it obviously," Ferrante said.  "There's going to be some missed blocks and those types of things, but the same thing on the offensive side where we want to play physical, get a hat on a hat and tro to make sure we finish blocks.  I did see some guys making good blocks downfield so I'm excited about that.  We'll clean up what we need to clean up and hopefully build off that.  There are some new guys in there and some of the other guys have a lot of game experience, but this is the first time they are playing together as a group of five."
 
Junior linebacker Forrest Rhyne (Waynesboro, Pa.), voted a tri-captain by his teammates along with Covington and senior safety Chucky Smith (Newbury Park, Calif.) during preseason camp, had a career-high eight tackles to lead the Wildcats defense.  He had two tackles for loss, including one of the team's four sacks.  Junior defensive lineman Malik Fisher (New York, N.Y.) also had a sack and forced a fumble which Amos recovered in the second quarter to set up the drive that led to Jackson scoring the first points of the game.  Senior linebacker Drew Wiley (Pennington, N.J.) and junior defensive lineman Aaron Seigle (Harrisburg, Pa.) each had solo sacks. 
 
After playing the earliest season opener in program history and the first college football game in the country for the 2019 season, Villanova now takes a break before facing Lehigh in its home opener on September 7 at 6 p.m.