Royalty goes to Villanova to see football!

Prince at Villanova Stadium

Saturday morning I woke up early so I could go to Avis to rent a car again for the weekend. This time I wound up getting a Lincoln Town car. It was that or an SUV. Since I needed a trunk, I took the luxury car. It was nice to go in style again.

I went back home and I picked up the King and away we went.

This time we took a ride to Villanova, Pennsylvania. The only other time we went there was back in March when we went to the Pavilion which is the campus home of the Villanova Wildcats basketball team who play a handful of games there.

Next door is Villanova Stadium, home of the Wildcats' football team. Saturday afternoon the Wildcats were hosting the James Madison Dukes.

The King and I drove past the Stadium and we found a parking spot on the street in the neighborhood that was nearby.

After taking a short walk over to the stadium, we waited outside for a little while. It was worth the wait as a few people gave us tickets for the game. Once we got them, we went inside. It was a small intimate venue which consisted of benches. We decided to go up to the top in front of the press box by the 50 yard line so we could have a good overview of the action.

As for the game we saw, the Wildcats came out roaring. They scored early and often as they got a 4 yard touchdown run from their quarterback John Robertson who found the end zone with 8:19 left in the first quarter to give his team a 7-0 lead.

In the second quarter, they extended their lead to 10-0 as kicker Mark Hamilton booted a 22 yard field goal with 12:22 left until halftime. They made it 17-0 as wide receiver Dorian Wells caught a 20 yard touchdown pass from quarterback John Robertson with 5:18 left in the second quarter. It stayed that way as they went into the locker room.

In the third quarter, the Dukes finally got on the scoreboard as their quarterback Justin Thorpe ran in from a yard out to cut the lead to 17-7 with 12:47 left. The Wildcats responded as John Robertson answered with a one yard touchdown run of his own to give the Wildcats a 24-7 lead with 10:08 to go in the quarter. With 6 minutes to go, safety Matt McCann sacked Justin Thorpe in the end zone for a safety to make it 26-7. Before the quarter ended, the Wildcats found the end zone again. This time running back Kevin Monangai scored from a yard out to give the Wildcats a 33-7 lead with 1:22 to go in the quarter. It should be noted that he surpassed a thousand yards rushing for the season during this game.

In the fourth quarter, the Dukes finally woke up as Justin Thorpe threw two touchdown passes in a four minute span to pull them within a few scores at 33-20 with 8:39 left. The natives were starting to get nervous around us. But with 5:33 to go in the game, Wildcats' linebacker Joey Harmon sacked Justin Thorpe in the end zone for another safety as the Wildcats sealed the deal, 35-20.

After the game, we continued our journey through the Keystone State as we headed to Hershey to see some hockey.

Stay tuned for the special post that will go into detail about that.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman