No. 14 Villanova vs. Rhode Island: Wildcats should cruise to 5th straight win

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No. 14 Villanova (4-1, 2-0 CAA) vs. Rhode Island (1-4, 0-2 CAA)
Villanova Stadium, Villanova, Pa.
Saturday, noon, The Comcast Network

Can Villanova be stopped? Riding a four-game winning streak, including two straight road routs, the No. 14 Wildcats return home for a CAA matchup against an overmatched team. Here’s a look at the matchup.

Scouting Villanova
Against an Elon team that looked pretty good on paper, the Wildcats were utterly dominant last week, amassing a school-record 35 first downs and 557 yards of total offense in a 42-7 win. Sophomore quarterback Zach Bednarcyzk led the way with a career-high 270 passing yards and three touchdowns on top of 58 rushing yards and a TD, while running backs Matt Gudzak and Aaron Forbes each scored two TDs. Villanova’s defense, which had four touchdowns in four games coming in, limited Elon to just six first downs, 33 passing yards and 130 yards of total offense with star defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon registering a sack for a fourth straight game on top of 2½ tackles per loss. For the season, Villanova has allowed fewer than 300 yards per game and only 105.2 rushing yards — tops in the conference.

Scouting Rhode Island
After starting the season with four straight losses to Kansas, Albany, Harvard and New Hampshire, the Rams got off the schnide with a 28-13 win over in-state rival Brown last week. Junior running back Harold Cooper fueled the win with 135 yards and two touchdowns, and freshman defensive end William Mack III had two of the team’s five sacks. Picked to finish last in the CAA after winning just one game last season, Rhode Island ranks 12th in the CAA in scoring offense (15.8 points per game) and 11th in scoring defense (38.6 ppg). 

Series history
Villanova has dominated the series, winning 18 out of 21 games dating back to 1988, including a 10-1 record at Villanova Stadium. Eleven of Villanova’s last 12 wins over the Rams have been by double digits.

Storyline to watch
The Wildcats will almost certainly score a lot of points and gain a lot of yards against Rhode Island’s porous defense. The big question may be how they balance it as Gudzak joined the running back corps with a team-high 71 yards last week in his first game back from injury. Javon White, the Wilcats’ leading rusher, may also return after missing last week with an injury, and Forbes has been coming on strong with an average of 8.3 yards per carry.

What’s at stake
At 2-0 in the conference, Villanova needs a win to stay atop the conference with New Hampshire, which moved to 3-0 with a win over Elon on Friday night. James Madison is the only other team with a 2-0 mark.

Prediction
The ’Cats should have very little trouble in this one. 

Villanova 49, Rhode Island 7

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