UNH 24, URI 21

DURHAM – Sophomore quarterback Tommy McLeish threw two touchdown passes and caught another to lift the University of New Hampshire football team to Saturday afternoon’s 24-21 victory against the University of Rhode Island at Wildcat Stadium.

With UNH trailing 21-17 and 1:53 remaining, McLeish engineered an 11-play, 64-yard drive capped by a 1-yard TD pass to grad student tight end Colby Ramshaw (Londonderry, N.H.) with seven seconds to play to give the Wildcats a 24-21 lead.

McLeish completed 21 of 37 passes for 271 yards and the two scores, and he caught a 7-yard TD pass from sophomore wide receiver Ryan Ricketti. Junior wide receiver Logan Perez caught four passes for 91 yards, including a 52-yard touchdown. Senior wide receiver Ja’Carree Kelly had five catches for 91 yards.

Grad student running back Myles Thomason had a team-high 84 rushing yards on 16 carries.

Sophomore linebacker Trevor Barry, who entered the game top the FCS national leaderboard in tackles per game, finished with 10 tackles.  Grad student safety Jackson Stone finished with nine tackles and had an interception.

URI was led by Brayden Richardson, who recorded almost half of his game-high 138 rushing yards on a 64-yard rushing touchdown. Alex McClelland completed 10 of 24 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown, and he had 17 carries for 50 yards.

UNH NOTEBOOK

• Stone has a team-high three interceptions this season, and he has a total of three career picks.
• Kelly surpassed 1,000 career receiving yards. He has 518 yards this season – his first as a Wildcat – and 1,021 career.
• Barry has 197 career tackles, including 119 this season.
• Ramshaw has two TD catches this season and leads all current ‘Cats with nine career.
• Six of UNH’s 10 games have been decided by seven points or less and the ‘Cats are 3-3 in those games.