New Hampshire Football Report

New Haven 21, Saint Anselm 10

MANCHESTER – Taking on the No. 24-ranked team in NCAA Division II, the Saint Anselm College football team was saddled with its first loss of the 2022 season Saturday when it fell to the University of New Haven by a 21-10 score at Grappone Stadium.

Saint Anselm dropped to 4-1 overall on the year, and to 2-1 in Northeast-10 Conference play. Saturday’s loss is just the second for the Hawks at home in their last 11 games – both defeats have come at the hands of nationally-ranked opponents.


GAME STATISTICS


New Haven, ranked No. 24 in the latest American Football Coaches’ Association national poll, moved to 4-1 overall while remaining perfect across three NE10 games. The Chargers had four turnovers in the game (two lost fumbles, two interceptions) but held on for the victory, thanks to 320-plus yards of offense (207 yards rushing).

Senior Taylor Pawelkoski (Bradenton, Fla.) posted 10 tackles for the Hawks, reaching double-digits for the second game in 2022 while chipping in with six solo takedowns. Graduate student Mac Barry (Malvern, Pa.) had a career-high seven tackles while senior Ryan Raybuck (Flower Mound, Texas) and senior Liam Flynn (Hanover, Mass.) each recorded interceptions for Saint Anselm.

Junior Drew Willoughby (Austin, Texas) generated 127 aerial yards for the Hawks, completing 18 passes. Senior Anthony Brown (Belton, Texas) was the top receiver in terms of receptions (four) and receiving yards (70) while classmate Bobby Long (Bridgewater, Mass.) hauled in three catches for 39 yards.

Senior Vincent Wagner (Staten Island, N.Y.) had 15 rushes for 57 yards for Saint Anselm.

On the very first offensive play of the game, New Haven received a 73-yard rushing touchdown from Christopher Ais, setting the tone for what was a busy day for the sophomore back. He finished the game with 183 rushing yards, adding to his game-opening rushing score with a receiving touchdown later in the first quarter.

Saint Anselm was forced to punt on its first offensive drive of the game, but the ball was mishandled by New Haven and set the Hawks up first-and-10 on the Chargers’ 19-yard line. Following a big 13-yard pickup on a pass to Long, sophomore quarterback Anthony Santino (Woodbridge, N.J.) came in for a two-yard rushing score, the first of his career, to tie the game at seven.

New Haven answered back on its next offensive possession as signal-caller Connor Degenhardt engineered an 11-play, 75-yard drive for the Chargers, breaking a seven-all deadlock with a passing touchdown to Ais that led to a 14-7 advantage for the guests.

The Hawks offense could not get going for the rest of the game as the next four possessions resulted in an interception, a fumble and two punts. New Haven struggled on offense as well to end the first half, throwing an interception and punting three times.

Coming out of halftime, Saint Anselm punted on its first possession but got the ball back following a Degenhardt interception that was hauled in by Flynn. The Hawks started out at the visitors’ 20-yard line, but could not muster a touchdown, settling for a 22-yard field goal by sophomore Patrick Carroll (Stafford, Va.) with 8:32 left in the third quarter. Carroll now has five field goals in his last three games, the first to log three-straight games with a field goal since Daniel Parisi accomplished the feat during the 2018 season.

Saint Anselm had yet another golden chance to get on the scoreboard, this time thanks to strong defense by junior Ahmad Brown (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.) and junior Devin Wood (Merrimack, N.H.). After a catch and run by New Haven’s Terrell Ford, Brown came from behind to tackle Ford, who lost the ball into the end zone where it was recovered by Wood.

The Hawks generated just 11 yards on the next sequence with under 14 minutes left in the fourth quarter, punting once again. Later in the fourth quarter, New Haven put the game away with a key conversion on fourth-and-1 from the Hawks 22-yard line and then Degenhardt ran it home for 20 yards, creating a 21-10 lead for the visitors with under three minutes to go.

In desperation mode, the Hawks threw an interception with 2:11 left in regulation time and turned the ball over on downs with under 90 seconds left in the game. New Haven scored just one touchdown on its final 10 drives of the game (and turned the ball over three times), but the late score was enough to add insurance.

Degenhardt completed just 11-of-21 passes for New Haven, throwing a touchdown and two interceptions. Dev Holmes was the team leader in catches (four) and receiving yards (39) while David Onyemem was all over the field, producing 13 total tackles and a forced fumble.

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