Villanova Travels To Towson For Saturday Night Match-Up

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Villanova Wildcats will be on the road Saturday night as they visit Towson in Colonial Athletic Association action.

The 2-2 Wildcats opened CAA play last weekend, losing in overtime on the road to Albany, 19-10. Villanova actually scored a touchdown on the final play of regulation to force the overtime. Albany kicked a field goal on its first possession of the extra session and then Villanova fumbled on fourth down on its possession and Albany returned it for a score to close things out. Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante says his team battled in defeat.

"Low scoring game, so every possession counted," Ferrante tells KYW Newsradio. "They held the ball away from us a little bit with 38 minutes of possession time to our 22. But to our guys' credit they were resilient, they hung in there, we drove the field in 2:16, 87 yards in 15 plays to tie it up and go to overtime."

Also in the loss, the Wildcats lost their fine senior safety Rob Rolle for the rest of the season after he tore an ACL. Ferrante talks about how they will adjust in the secondary in his absence.

"We've played four games now, so we've had a lot of guys get some experience back there," he says. "We have [sophomore] Gabe Cohen who played the whole second half and then we had [freshman] Jaquan Amos who's played some corner for us in the first three, four games. What we're going to do is we're probably going to move Rasaan Stewart back to Rob's position, he's a senior, but he'll be the one to be able to make the calls and so on and then we're going to go with Gabe and Jaquan and do a little bit more by committee."

Towson is also 2-2 heading into Saturday night. They lost their CAA opener last week, falling on the road to Stony Brook, 25-17.

"They are playing with a young quarterback, [redshirt freshman Ryan] Stover, his dad coached him over at Upper Dublin High School," Ferrante says. "He's a local guy so we know him pretty well. On defense, I think its going to be pretty similar to last week to be honest with you. I think they're physical, I think they're fast, they pursue to the ball, they gang tackle."

Last year, Villanova beat Towson at Villanova Stadium, 40-21.

Saturday night's game gets underway at 6:00pm.