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UNH leans on defense

The defense turned in another strong performance and sophomore quarterback Bret Edwards connected with junior Brian Espanet for a pair of passing touchdowns to lead the No. 23 University of New Hampshire football team to a 19-13 win over Lafayette in Fisher Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

UNH improved to 3-0 for the season.  Lafayette fell to 0-3.

BOX SCORE

The Wildcats take on Pittsburgh next Saturday at noon at Heinz Field in their FBS game. Pittsburgh, after starting the season with wins over UMass (51-7) and at Tennessee (41-34) lost at home to Western Michigan, 44-41, on Saturday.

The Wildcat defense held Lafayette to two field goals. UNH forced a pair of turnovers and limited Lafayette to 41 yards rushing and 233 total yards. Lafayette scored its touchdown on a 93-yard kickoff return to open the game.

Redshirt freshman safety Noah Stansbury had his second interception in as many games and grad student defensive tackle Duval Paul had a fumble recovery.

Junior defensive end Gunner Gibson and redshirt freshman Ryan Toscano (Bedford, N.H.) led the Wildcats with five tackles each. Gibson also had a sack and a half and forced a fumble.

Edwards and Espanet also teamed up for a pair of touchdowns in UNH’s opener at Stony Brook. Edwards now has seven touchdown passes this year and four of those have been to Espanet.

Edwards completed 22 of his 37 passes for 249 yards and the two scores. Espanet had six catches for 57 yards.

Sophomore Dylan Laube had the other UNH touchdown on a 50-yard run early in the fourth quarter. Laube had 10 carries for 79 yards and caught six passes for 64 yards. Junior Carlos Washington, Jr. had 21 carries for 75 yards.

The Wildcats had 133 yards rushing and 382 yards of total offense.

XTRA POINTS

  • The Wildcats play Pittsburgh at Heinz Field next Saturday.
  • Grad student safety Evan Horn and freshman Josiah Silver each had four tackles. Silver also had two sacks. UNH had four sacks in the game.
  • Redshirt freshman Aidan Cadogan averaged 42.7 yards on his three punts.
  • UNH had 21 first downs to Lafayette’s 12.
  • Ah-Shaun Davis made his first career start at quarterback for Lafayette and completed 16 of his 23 passes.
  • UNH had an edge of 35:26 to 24:34 in time of possession and ran 75 plays to Lafayette’s 48.

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