The St. Lawrence University football team led Buffalo State for almost the entire game, but Bengals' quarterback Kyle Hoppy scored on a 20-yard fourth-down scramble with 1:15 to play to lead his team to a 24-21 win over the Saints in a non-league game at Leckonby Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Rodrick Payne scored on 41- and 10-yard runs in the first quarter, and after Hoppy completed a 1-yard touchdown pass to Antoine Holloman, St. Lawrence rookie quarterback Aaron Ruthman, starting in place of injured senior Sean Richardson, found Travis Marnell in the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown pass as time expired in the first half for a 21-7 halftime lead.

Justin Simoncelli hit a 30-yard field goal in the third quarter to cut the lead to 11. Hoppy found Ricky Bailey for a 32-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter, then found Holloman for a two-point conversion to cut the lead to three.

Ruthman finished the game 14-for-23 passing for 192 yards, while Payne had 99 rushing yards on 21 carries to lead the Saints on the ground. Marnell had seven receptions for 87 yards to lead St. Lawrence's receiving corps, while Vincenzo Ferraro made four catches for 57 yards.

Hoppy was 20-for-39 passing for 243 yards. St. Lawrence's defense held the Bengals to 83 total rushing yards, with Holloman leading the team with 37 yards on 14 carries. Bailey had eight receptions for 93 yards, while Stephen Johnson led Buffalo State with 95 receiving yards on four catches.

Skyler Williamson led the Saints' defense with 15 tackles, including eight solo stops, one sack and four tackles for a loss. Charlie Maistrellis added eight tackles for the Saints, while Dan Jeffrey had six tackles and broke up four passes.

Justin Pender had eight tackles with a sack, 1.5 tackles for a loss and one pass breakup for the Bengals, who improved to 4-2 on the season.

St. Lawrence, now 1-5 on the year, returns to Liberty League play next Saturday, hosting the University of Rochester at 1 p.m. at Leckonby Stadium.