FINAL SCORE
No. 19/19 Lafayette 40 (1-1, 0-0 Patriot)
Monmouth 35 (0-2, 0-0 CAA)

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – No. 19 ranked Lafayette scored two touchdowns in the final minute to upend the Monmouth University football team by a 40-35 final score on Saturday afternoon at Kessler Stadium.

Monmouth took the lead with under two minutes remaining on a bruising 17-yard run by Sone Ntoh to make it 35-28. Lafayette quickly answered by taking the ball 89 yards on four plays to pull within one. The Leopards opted to go for two and the lead, but Dean Denobile's pass was knocked away by Deuce Lee at the goal line to keep Monmouth in front.

With 53 seconds remaining, Lafayette needed an onside kick to keep its hopes alive and the Leopards were able to recover. A 42-yard connection from Denobile to Elijah Stweard with 36 seconds on the clock put the visitors ahead for good and capped a high-scoring fourth quarter.

Monmouth's  Derek Robertson, who had another strong game with 355 yards passing and four touchdowns, had his day book-ended by interceptions, the last of which ended the game with 13 seconds to play after Monmouth got into Lafayette territory. 

Seven different receivers had at least two receptions in the game for Monmouth with Tra Neal leading the way with five total grabs for 55 yards and a touchdown. Maxwell James also had five catches for 39 yards and a score, TJ Speight scored on a dazzling 89-yard touchdown and Josh Derry had his second TD in as many weeks with a 39-yarder.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES
"That was a perfect example of why the game is 60 minutes and why you have to play a full 60 minutes. When you are playing a ranked team, a team that is No. 19 in the country you have to make sure that you are perfect in every thing that you do. We were far from perfect today, from coaches all the way down to our players, and there are things we have to do much better moving forward."

"This was a game I felt we could have won, a game that I thought our team competed extremely hard for a large portion of the game and you have to give our guys credit for doing that. Unfortunately, we didn't close out the game the way you need to in order to win games. Hopefully there is a lesson in that we play complete games and close them out. When you don't do that and play an opponent that is explosive and has a lot of weapons, that is the result that you get."
Head Coach Kevin Callahan

Lafayette evened the all-time series against Monmouth at 3-3. 
The Hawks dropped their fourth straight game against a ranked opponent.
Monmouth fell to 5-21 all-time against ranked foes. 

NUMBERS CRUNCH
Tra Neal and Maxwell James each caught five passes.
Four different Hawks caught touchdown passes. Neal, James, TJ Speight and Josh Derry. 
Speight's 97 yards receiving matched his career-high, set last week at Eastern Washington.
Neal's 55 yards set a new career high and he scored his first-career touchdown.
Derry and James each have two receiving touchdowns in as many games.
Derry had a career-best 71 receiving yards in the game.
Ntoh led Monmouth with 50 yards rushing on 10 carries.
Ntoh scored his second touchdown of the season and the 16th of his career.
Emmanuel Lane led Monmouth with a career-high seven tackles.
Michael Calton Jr. was a perfect 5-for-5 on extra points.

UP NEXT 
Monmouth will begin CAA play on the road next Saturday at Maine. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. and the contest will be broadcast live on FloSports.