New Hampshire Football Report
Home / College / UNH survives late scare

UNH survives late scare

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – Sophomore quarterback Bret Edwards tossed his first three career touchdown passes and the University of New Hampshire football team rode a huge start by its defense to a 27-21 win over Colonial Athletic Association rival Stony Brook on Thursday night in Kenneth Lavalle Stadium.

COMING FRIDAY: MORE ON UNH’s VICTORY

GAME STATISTICS

Edwards connected with sophomore tight end Kyle Lepkowski for his first TD pass in the opening quarter and later hit senior Brian Espanet  for two scores. The second score put UNH up 27-0 early in the third quarter.

They held off a Stony Brook rally from there.

Edwards completed 17 of his 25 passes for 233 yards in his second career start. He took over the starting job when sophomore Max Brosmer suffered a season-ending knee injury during pre-season camp.

The defense helped stake UNH to a 20-0 lead at the half. Besides keeping Stony Brook off the scoreboard, that unit came up with three turnovers in the second period, two of which set Edwards and the offense up inside the Stony Brook 6-yard line.

Senior safety Pop Bush led the defense with 10 tackles, three of them for loss. He also intercepted a pass and returned it 65 yards, caused a fumble that led to the first UNH score in the second period and had a quarterback sack on a fourth-down play from the Wildcat 5-yard line.

Redshirt freshman linebacker Zedane Williams recovered the fumble that Bush caused and redshirt freshman cornerback Jonathan Collins Jr.  picked off  a pass and returned it 26 yards to set up another UNH touchdown.

Stony Brook quarterback Tyquan Fields scored on a 17-yard keeper to cut UNH’s lead to 27-21 with 3:03 left in the quarter.

The Stony Brook defense forced a punt to give the offense one more chance, and he Seawolves marched from their own 44-yard line to the UNH 19-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.

The victory marked the 99th career CAA win for UNH coach Sean McDonnell, who was coaching just his second game in more than 1,000 days. McDonnell is the league’s active leader in CAA regular season victories and only two coaches have ever reached the 100-mark.

McDonnell coached UNH in the one game it played last March before the season was called because of COVID-19. He sat out the 2019 for medical reasons as he battled cancer.

XTRA POINTS

  • Espanet led the Wildcats with five catches for 100 yards and the two scores.
  • Junior Carlos Washington Jr. had 16 carries for 63 yards and caught two passes for 32 yards.
  • Sophomore Dylan Laube carried nine times for 20 yards and went 54 yards with a pass reception.
  • Redshirt freshman safety Noah Stansbury had seven tackles.
  • Junior defensive tackle Niko Kvietkus had assists on a pair of quarterback sacks.
  • UNH had 359 yards of total offense on 60 plays.
  • Stony Brook had 378 yards on 77 plays.
  • UNH rushed for 126 yards and Stony Brook for 123.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login