Holy Cross at Yale
Sat., Sept. 16 – Noon
Yale Bowl, Class of 1954 Field
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The wait is over for #Team150. The Yale football team kicks off the 2023 season by hosting Holy Cross on Saturday. Kickoff at Yale Bowl, Class of 1954 Field is slated for noon. The game can be seen on ESPN+ with Justin Gallanty on the play-by-play and Jack Ford providing analysis.
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
 
* Both Yale (Ivy League) and Holy Cross (Patriot) are defending league champions and began 2023 as the favorites to repeat according to the preseason polls. The Bulldogs finished 8-2 overall and 6-1 in Ivy play last fall, while the Crusaders were 12-1 overall and 6-0 in the Patriot League.
 
* Yale has played its first game against Holy Cross in each of the last four seasons. The Crusaders, who open their season earlier in September, have won three of the games, including last year in Worcester. The Bulldogs' win came in 2019, a 23-10 victory at the Bowl. Yale went on to finish 9-1 that season and capture the Ivy League championship.
 
* The Bulldogs have won the Ivy League title in three of the last five seasons – 2017, 2019 and 2022. Yale, which has won 17 Ivy titles, tied for the third most in the league, hasn't won back-to-back league championships since winning three straight from 1979 to 1981.
 
* Fifteen Bulldogs who earned All-Ivy recognition last fall return in 2023, including quarterback Nolan Grooms, the Asa Bushnell Cup recipient as the league's offensive player of the year, and Joshua Pitsenberger, who was named the rookie of the year. The other first team returners are: offensive lineman Kiran Amegadjie, defensive back Wande Owens and placekicker Jack Bosman. Yale also returns its leading passer (Grooms), three leading rushers (Grooms, Tre Peterson and Pitsenberger), seven leading receivers (David Pantelis, Mason Tipton, Ryan Lindley, Mason Shipp, Jackson Hawes, Pitsenberger and Chase Nenad) and its top two leading tacklers (Owens and Hamilton Moore).
 
* Saturday is the first of seven home games this fall for the Bulldogs, who were a perfect 5-0 in the Bowl a year ago. The seven home games are the most since 1989. Yale is 22-4 at Yale Bowl since the start of the 2017 season.
 
* The Bulldogs led the Ivy League in scoring offense (30.5), rushing offense (232.8) and total offense (412.8) last season. Yale also was in the top-10 nationally in scoring defense (5th, 19.5 ppg.), rushing defense (7th, 105.9) and rushing offense (9th).
 
* Yale was ninth in the nation in rushing offense despite facing four opponents who finished in the top-10 nationally in rushing defense – Penn (2nd), Princeton (3rd), Harvard (4th) and Columbia (5th).
 
HISTORY LESSONS
 
Saturday is the 37th all-time meeting between the Bulldogs and the Crusaders. Yale leads the series 29-7. Last year in Worcester, Holy Cross scored 21 second-quarter points on its way to a 38-14 victory. The Crusaders also won the last meeting at the Bowl, 20-17 in 2021 when Derek Ng booted a 47-yard field goal with 48 seconds left in the fourth quarter to snap a 17-17 tie. The Bulldogs' last win in the series came in 2019 when Yale opened its Ivy League championship season with a 23-10 victory at the Bowl.
 
SCOUTING HOLY CROSS
 
The Crusaders, ranked No. 5 in the AFCA national poll, nearly knocked off ACC foe Boston College last Saturday, falling 31-28 in Chestnut Hill. Holy Cross had the ball, trailing by three, with 1:58 remaining when the game had to be stopped for more than two hours due to lightning in the area. When play resumed, Holy Cross drove to the BC 28-yard line, but the Eagles' defense forced a turnover to secure the victory. HC quarterback Matthew Sluka rushed for 131 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while completing 10 of his 15 passes for 130 yards in the air. Jordan Fuller finished with 109 rushing yards and two touchdowns. The loss snapped an 18-game regular season winning streak for the Crusaders and was their first loss to an FBS opponent since 2019 after defeating Connecticut (2021) and Buffalo (2022) over the past two seasons. In the Crusaders' 42-20 victory over Merrimack in the season opener on Sept. 2, Fuller scored five touchdowns – four rushing and one receiving. Last year Holy Cross advanced to the FCS playoffs, defeating New Hampshire 35-19 in the opening round before falling to South Dakota State 42-21.