Steriti's Four TDs Lift #1 Football Past #9 Fordham, 44-19, In NCAA Second-Round Tilt

Saturday, December 6

1 pm

University of New Hampshire

11-1 , 8-0

Fordham University

11-3 , 6-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Fordham

New Hampshire

Steriti's Four TDs Lift #1 Football Past #9 Fordham, 44-19, In NCAA Second-Round Tilt

12/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football

Box Score

DURHAM, N.H. – Senior running back Nico Steriti (Toms River, N.J.) scored four of the University of New Hampshire's six rushing touchdowns and a swarming defense came up with nine quarterback sacks to lead the No. 1 Wildcats to Saturday's 44-19 NCAA Division I FCS tournament second-round win over Fordham at a cold and damp Cowell Stadium.

The Wildcats got off to a fast start and survived a couple of turnovers on the way to their 11^th straight victory, a triumph that moves them into the national quarterfinals.

Fordham, the Patriot League champion, closes its season with an 11-3 record.

UNH, which matched its best single-season win total with its school-record 13^th straight home victory, improved to 11-1; the 'Cats will face the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on either Friday, Dec. 12, or Saturday, Dec. 13, in Cowell Stadium. Game time and date will be announced late Saturday night.

The eighth-seeded Moccasins, champions of the Southern Conference, are 10-3 after registering a 35-14 home win over Indiana State in the second round Saturday.

"I thought it was a really, really good effort by the team," said UNH head coach Sean McDonnell. "The way our defensive line played today, I was really proud of the way the kids played. It started with Matt (Kaplan) and the guys up front."

Kaplan (Franklin, N.H./five tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss) had 3.5 of the nine Wildcat sacks. It was the most sacks by the Wildcats as a team since they collected 10 in last year's first-round playoff win over Lafayette, another Patriot League team. Brian Ciccone (Manchester, Mass.) added two sacks.

Saturday's totals came against a team that was averaging 42 points a game with a quarterback in senior Mike Nebrich who was completing 65 percent of his passes and passing for 312 yards a game.

Nebrich completed only 12 of his 30 passes for 161 yards against UNH. He threw one touchdown pass and was intercepted once.

UNH evenly split its 544 yards of total offense with 270 yards on the ground and 274 passing.

Steriti, who became the first UNH running back to go over 100 yards in a game this season, carried 14 times for 110 yards and the four scores. He did extra duty after senior Jimmy Owens (West Deptford, N.J./three rushes-71 yards, TD) went down with a knee injury late in the second quarter.

Junior quarterback Sean Goldrich (West Haven, Conn.) completed 22 of 37 passes for 240 yards and scored the second UNH TD on an 8-yard run.

The defense set the tone right off the bat and was all over Nebrich at the start of the game.

"Any time you play an offense that throws the ball so much a lot of the game plan relies on the front four because we've got to get the quarterback so we can do other things," Kaplan said. "All week we were saying if we can get to the quarterback, we're going to win this game and I think we did a very good job of that today.

Junior Dougie Moss (Huntsville, Ala.) notched an interception on an afternoon where he made his first collegiate start at cornerback.

The Wildcats jumped on the Rams – offensively and defensively – early and led 14-0 before the game was seven minutes old. In Fordham's first nine plays from scrimmage, not counting punts, the Wildcats sacked the quarterback five times.

UNH got off to a great start offensively, too. On its first play, Owens got to the right side and broke loose for a 51-yard touchdown. The PAT failed.

The Wildcats followed a Fordham punt with a seven-play, 56-yard drive capped by Goldrich's TD run. Andy Vailas (Bedford, N.H) passed to Harold Spears (Perkasie, Pa./four catches-71 yards) for a two-point conversion and it was 14-0 with 8:42 left in the first quarter.

The Wildcat defense dominated again with a couple more sacks and Fordham, faced with a 4^th-and-35, punted from its 5-yard line. UNH quickly earned a first down and had 1^st-and-10 from the Fordham 21.

A fumble gave the ball back to the Rams, and they drove to a Michael Marando 25-yard field goal to make it 14-3 with 14:17 left in the second period.

The Wildcats drove back down the field but gave the ball away again on a fumble inside the Fordham 5-yard line.

Two plays later, Ram freshman running back Chase Edmonds (18 carries, 208 yards) broke through the line of scrimmage and went 91 yards for a touchdown. A conversion rush failed and it was 14-9 with 7:44 remaining in the half.

Fordham forced a UNH punt and tacked on another Marando field goal to cut it to 14-12 with 5:05 left in the half.

The Wildcats responded with Steriti's first score on an 11-yard run with 3:07 left in the half. They tacked on a 30-yard field goal by Brad Prasky (Groton, Mass.) on the last play of the half for a 24-12 edge at the break.

UNH took the second half kickoff and marched to a Steriti 1-yard score and Prasky kicked the conversion for a 31-12 edge.

Fordham quickly matched the TD with a Nebrich to Brian Wetzel 5-yard scoring pass.

It was all UNH after that. Steriti scored on a 7-yard run with 3:33 left in the third quarter and a 24-yard run with 4:48 to go in the fourth to close out the scoring and the game.

Tickets are on sale now for the NCAA Division I FCS national quarterfinal game between UNH and Chattanooga at Cowell Stadium by calling 1-800-745-3000 or CLICKING HERE. Time and date of the game will be announced later Saturday.