NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Yale broke open a tight contest with a pair of third-quarter scores to earn a 24-10 victory over the Columbia football team on Saturday. The Bulldogs (5-2, 3-1) recorded five sacks, while 10 penalties hampered the Lions (1-6, 0-4), who dropped their fifth straight.

"Yale is a heckuva football team with a talented pass rush and two really great running backs," said Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach Jon Poppe. "We proved we were capable of moving the ball with Chase (Goodwin) back, but we need to get better at the fundamentals. There were too many penalties in key spots and missing tackles and not making blocks at the right angles. And that was costly today."

Starting quarterback Chase Goodwin returned after missing the previous three games due to injury and completed 15-of-30 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown. Senior running back Lucas Bullock was the beneficiary of 78 of those yards through the air, highlighted by a 69-yard gain in the second quarter. Junior Titus Evans hauled in his second touchdown of the season and had four catches on the day. 

Defensively, linebacker Terell Battle and defensive back Jeremiah Douglas had breakout games, tallying career-highs of 10 tackles.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Bulldogs drove 82 yards in 15 plays, powered by a Josh Pitsenberger 11-yard rush to set up first-and-goal at the 3. Dante Reno found Jaxton Santiago on a seven-yard touchdown pass to the right side of the Columbia endzone to take a 7-0 lead with 13:22 remaining in the second frame.

Goodwin's big connection with Bullock had the Lions on the Yale 6. After a delay of game, a Goodwin rush set up 4th and goal inside the 1. However, a false start pushed the Lions back, and a missed field goal kept Columbia off the board.

Later in the quarter, a 71-yard strike to Jaxton Santiago set up a screen pass to Nico Brown, who ran it in from seven yards out to double the Bulldogs' lead with 4:52 before the half.
Columbia answered with a near-perfect two-minute drill to end a touchdown drought that dated back to the third quarter of week five against Penn. Goodwin orchestrated the offense and was responsible for all 52 yards on the drive, highlighted by back-to-back runs of 12 and 17 yards. After two earlier fourth-down attempts came up short, the third time was a charm as Goodwin hit Evans across the middle for a six-yard touchdown, cutting the deficit in half to 14-7 with just 13 seconds remaining in the half.

Both teams traded empty possessions to open the second half before Yale added a 40-yard field goal to make it a two-score game at the 5:35 mark of the third. Columbia then went three-and-out, and the Bulldogs used a big play to put the game away, when Wilhelm Daal squeezed through the line and sprinted 81 yards for a touchdown, putting Yale in front 24-7 just under two minutes later. 

Catches by Elliot Cooper and Titus Evans set the Lions up at the Bulldogs' 4 early in the fourth quarter, but once again Yale turned up the pressure on defense with a sack and two quarterback hurries to force incompletions. The Lions had to settle for a 29-yard field goal from Hugo Merry with 7:08 on the clock.

Yale converted twice on third down, and once on fourth down to drain the clock to seal the victory.

Pitsenberger and Daal each rushed for over 100 yards in the game. Pitsenburger ran 25 times for 132 yards, while Daal had 114 yards on just nine rushes. Santiago totaled a game-high 92 receiving yards.

The Lions are back home to face off against No. 12/15 Harvard for their final Friday night contest of the season on November 7. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

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POSTGAME NOTES
- Columbia tied its season high in penalties with 10 this afternoon.
- The Lions had 17 different players record at least one tackle in the game.