HARRISONBURG – Bryan Schor recognized an opportunity to take a chance.

“First of all, the defense jumped offsides,” the James Madison senior quarterback said. “And the wide receivers did a great job of just getting down the field and giving me options of where to throw the ball.

“Then I saw [junior wide receiver] David [Eldridge] in a good position to make a play and I just threw a ball that I thought he could make a play on.”

JMU, of course, declined the offsides penalty as Schor’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Eldridge gave the Dukes a two-touchdown lead on Villanova in the fourth quarter. JMU went onto win 30-8 on Saturday.

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- Schor threw for 271 yards and two touchdowns. His first touchdown throw was a 23-yard strike to freshman tight end Clayton Cheatham. Schor’s two touchdown tosses puts him at 50 career touchdown throws.

- Schor also surpassed 5,000 passing yards for his career on the throw to Cheatham. Schor is now at 5,158 passing yards.

- JMU’s offense relied on Schor to help the unit move the football because the Dukes couldn’t do anything productive in the running game. JMU managed just 45 rushing yards against Villanova’s defense. Villanova has now held its opponent below 100 rushing yards in nine straight games.

- Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said, “That’s what we’re built for,” referring to his team’s strong rushing defense, “And, unfortunately [JMU] put a couple up in the air and got in the end zone overtop of us.”

- Cheatham filled in for senior tight end Jonathan Kloosterman, who missed his second straight game with an illness. Combine the illness with his two-game suspension early in the year, and Kloosterman has missed four of the first six games.

- JMU’s defense set season-high marks for sacks and tackles for loss. The Dukes racked up six sacks and 11 tackles for loss. The team now has 18 sacks and 43 tackles for loss on the season (six games), which is on pace to shatter last season’s total in both statistics. Through six games last year, JMU had just eight sacks and 24 tackles for loss. Last year in total (15 games), JMU registered 24 sacks and 64 tackles for loss.

- Senior defensive end Andrew Ankrah led the team with 1.5 sacks on Saturday giving him 21 sacks for his career. Senior linebacker Kyre Hawkins also notched a sack, giving him a team-leading 4.5 sacks on the season.

- Ankrah said it was critical for JMU to pressure Villanova freshman quarterback Jack Schetelich into a mistake on his first possession when junior cornerback Jimmy Moreland intercepted Schetelich’s second passing attempt of the game. Ankrah added it gave JMU’s defense momentum immediately.