LEWISBURG — Sam Milligan’s team-record fourth touchdown reception came with 1:49 remaining in the game, sending the Bucknell football team to a thrilling 35-28 win over VMI in the home opener on Saturday at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. Ralph Rucker IV tied the school record with five touchdown passes, four of them going to Milligan, as the Bison won their second straight game to improve to 2-1 on the season.

Rucker completed 21 of 28 passes for 405 yards and five touchdowns. There have now been four five-touchdown passing games in team history, and Rucker has three of them. The 405 passing yards were second-most in a game in school history, trailing only Rucker’s 437 in last season’s win over Colgate.

Milligan had three touchdown grabs in the first half alone, as Bucknell raced to a 21-7 lead at intermission. Milligan sat out most of the third quarter due to a minor injury, but he returned in the fourth quarter and made the biggest play of the day. After VMI rallied to tie the game at 28-28, Milligan outmuscled a defender for a spectacular 37-yard catch in the front left corner of the end zone with less than two minutes to go.

“I felt very calm today out there,” said Milligan. “I wasn’t thinking much when I made that catch. I was relaxed and that’s something that I haven’t felt a ton of and feeling that today was really cool and really exciting.”

VMI was set back by a holding penalty and a bad snap on its final drive, and the Keydets came up short on a 4th-and-31 play. A first-down run by Logan Bush sent the Bison into victory formation.

Milligan finished with seven catches for 192 yards. Six Bison previously caught three touchdown passes in a game: Carl Probst (1971), Ken Jenkins (1980), Mike Morrow (1986), Will Carter (2014), Jake Hartman (2014), and Dominic Lyles (2021). Milligan’s 192 receiving yards were sixth-most in a game in team history, and the most since Carter went for 246 at Lehigh in 2014.

Outside of breaking his touchdowns in single-game records, the junior broke his career receptions record with seven and his career reception yards record with 192. TJ Cadden also broke his career receiving yards record with 123 in this game.

Down by just one score with nine minutes remaining, the Keydets strung together a nine-play, 52-yard drive that culminated with a 14-yard receiving touchdown for Owen Sweeney to tie the game at 28 with just over five minutes left to play. The Keydets found the end zone the play before as well, but it was taken away due to an ineligible player downfield penalty. Ben Shrewsbury made the extra point to officially tie the game.

With just under two minutes left in the game, the Bucknell offense was faced with a 28-28 scoreline and a third-and-1 situation. Rucker kept the ball and battled through the defensive line of VMI to give the Bison a fresh set of downs and a chance to make a game-winning play. Rucker threw a deep ball to the end zone and found Milligan, who toe-tapped it in for the game-winner and record breaker.

“I have to earn the right for the football. If Ralph is willing to throw me the football, I need to go get it,” said Milligan. “Every time the ball is in the air that’s him putting his faith in me. The five lineman are blocking and they are doing all this just so I can catch the football. It is a team effort and when you have those opportunities to capitalize on what everyone else on the team is doing, you have to go make a play. That’s one of those things that helps me relax.”

The Bison came out to a 21-7 lead at the end of the first half, but VMI was able to stay in the game and put up a comeback in the final quarter of play to make it come down to a two-minute drill to decide a winner.

The defenses came up big to start off the game as the first two offensive drives for both Bucknell and VMI were three and outs.

Bucknell 35, VMI 28

VMI 7 0 7 14 — 28

Bucknell 7 14 7 7 — 35

First quarter

B–S. Milligan 45 pass from R. Rucker IV (M. Schearer kick), 8:46.

VMI–O. Sweeney 18 pass from C. Shannon (B. Shrewsbury kick), 3:16.

Second quarter

B–Milligan 18 pass from R. Rucker IV (Schearer kick), 4:58.

B–Milligan 34 pass from R. Rucker IV (Schearer kick), 0:15.

Third quarter

VMI–N. Grevious 73 pass from C. Shannon (Shrewsbury kick), 8:37.

B–T. Cadden 59 pass from R. Rucker IV (Schearer kick), 2:30.

Fourth quarter

VMI–N. Utsey 3 run (Shrewsbury kick), 14:54.

VMI–Sweeney 14 pass from Shannon (Shrewsbury kick), 5:26.

B–Milligan 37 pass from R. Rucker IV (Schearer kick), 1:49.

TEAM STATISTICS

VMI B

First downs 18 18

Rushes-yards 28-59 36-71

Passing yards 362 405

C-A-I 21-38-0 21-28-1

Total yards 421 476

Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0

Penalties-yards 7-55 10-122

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–VMI, Leo Boehling 19-66, Nana Utsey 2-4 TD, Aslin Shipe 2-3, Collin Shannon 2-(minus 3). Bucknell, Tariq Thomas 14-25, Michael Cadden 4-18, Ralph Rucker IV 13-16, Logan Bush 3-14, TEAM 2-(minus 2).

PASSING–VMI, Collin Shannon 21-38-0 262 3 TDs. Bucknell, Ralph Rucker IV 21-28-1 405 5 TDs.

RECEIVING–VMI, Noah Grievious 10-186 TD, Owen Sweeney 11-72 2 TDs, Leo Boehling 4-38, Malik McNeeley 4-14, Julio Carrecter 1-39, Cade Cox 3-8, Morgan McPhaul 2-5, Nathan Lhotsky 3-0. Bucknell, Sam Milligan 8-192 4 TDs, TJ Cadden 8-123 TD, Nate Anderson 4-28, Josh Gary 3-25, Tariq Thomas 3-15, AJ Bosch 1-22, Charlie Kreinbucher 1-0.