RICHMOND – Bryan Schor refused to let himself become invested in the one-on-one matchup captivating the game. The James Madison junior quarterback and his counterpart, Richmond junior quarterback Kyle Lauletta, took turns parading their respective offenses up and down the field.

In the back-and-forth affair of dueling player of the year candidates, Schor’s decision to only pay attention to what he could control paid off and in the process put Richmond’s Colonial Athletic Association title hopes to rest.

Trailing 37-33 with 1:36 remaining, Schor did what he had all day – extend plays with his feet to throw. He escaped the pocket to his left and slung a 9-yard touchdown strike to tight end Jonathan Kloosterman in the corner of the end zone to give JMU a 40-37 lead.

The No. 5 Dukes (8-1, 6-0) would go onto win 47-43 over No. 7 Richmond (7-2, 4-2) at Robins Stadium.

“I’ve seen Lauletta play a few times,” Schor said. “I’ve seen different defenses face him when we watch film, so I knew going into this game that I wouldn’t be able to watch him the entire game.

“I wasn’t trying to go back-and-forth with anyone. I was just focused on their defense because a lot of times you hear about the quarterbacks facing each other, but it’s our offense versus their defense, so that’s the mindset I had.”

Schor finished the contest 22-of-28 for 285 yards with three touchdowns passes. He also rushed for 91 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.

Lauletta threw for 436 yards and five touchdowns, completing 65 percent of his throws.

It was Lauletta’s 1-yard quarterback sneak touchdown with 6:43 left that gave Richmond its 40-37 lead.

From there, Schor navigated JMU’s longest touchdown drive of the game before capping it with the throw to Kloosterman. The Dukes took more than five minutes off of the clock, leaving Lauletta with little time to pull off a two-minute drive comeback.

“It was a tough situation,” Lauletta said. “I was a little disappointed. I think I tried to force the one-on-one throw to the backside a few times on that last series.”

Lauletta threw four incompletions before JMU took the ball over on downs inside the red zone.

Two plays later, JMU running back Khalid Abdullah scored his second touchdown of the game on a 4-yard run with 1:00 to go, giving the team a 10-point lead. The touchdown plunge was the 33rd of his career, which set a new school record.

JMU coach Mike Houston said melting most of the clock after Lauletta’s 1-yard touchdown, wasn’t designed even though it worked out for Madison.

“We talked about it and [offensive coordinator] Donnie Kirkpatrick kept asking me, but I just said, ‘run our offense,’” Houston said. “I just thought the way the game was going that I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to score.”

JMU picked up five first downs on the drive, including a key third-down and fourth-down conversion. Abdullah had a 3-yard run on fourth-and-1 to extend it. JMU would have the lead it would never give back five plays after.

Throughout the contest, JMU’s offense moved the chains when it needed to, especially on third down. Schor and company converted 8-of-12 third-down tries. Six of the eight third-down successes came on scoring drives and five of the six scoring-drive conversions came on passes of 10 or more yards from Schor.

Richmond coach Danny Rocco said it was one of the differences in the game.

“They’ve been extraordinary on third down and we studied it,” Rocco said. “We were kind of searching for the right formula to match up with the receivers and play tight coverage and we couldn’t get it to where it needed to be.”

Unblemished in league play, James Madison now holds a two-game lead over Richmond in the CAA with two weeks to play.