Crossan Leads No. 20/23 Wildcats Past Elon, 37-14

Saturday, October 3

Durham, N.H.

3:30 PM

University of New Hampshire

3-2 , 1-1

Elon University

2-3 , 1-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

ELON

UNH

Dalton Crossan (27) scored four rushing TDs in the win over Elon

Photo by: Elise Austin-Washburn

10/3/2015 6:26:00 PM | Football

Box Score

By:

DURHAM, N.H. – Junior running back Dalton Crossan (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) had a career night, rushing for four touchdowns and 140 yards on 22 carries, to lead No. 20/23 New Hampshire to a 37-14 Homecoming win over Elon at Cowell Stadium on Saturday.

Crossan cracked the 100-yard mark for the first time in his career and became the first Wildcat to go over 100 yards rushing in a game this season.
The Wildcats won their second straight game and improved to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association.

They rode a defense that came up with five interceptions and for the second straight week they got off to a fast start. Last week, UNH led Central Connecticut State 25-0 after one period.

Saturday, the Wildcats opened up a 20-0 first period lead and pushed the advantage to 27-0 in the first two minutes of the second period. They slowed down a bit after that.

"It was really good to see early how we came out and played," said coach Sean McDonnell. "We'll have to watch the tape and figure out what happened in the latter part of it. It didn't taste good going through the middle of it."

Bottom line, the Wildcats have won two straight going into a break in the schedule.

"I know this," McDonnell said. "We're 3-2, 1-1 in the conference. We needed this win. We go it. They're a much improved football team, much improved football program. It's good to be 1-0 (on Saturday night)."

The Wildcats are off next Saturday and then come back with road games at William & Mary on Oct. 17 (noon) and Delaware on Oct. 24 (3:30 p.m.)

UNH's next home game is against Rhode Island on Oct. 31 (1 p.m.)

Junior Adam Riese (Hamilton, N.J.) started his second straight game at quarterback and went the distance for the Wildcats. He completed 22 of his 32 passes for 163 yards and one touchdown. He also threw an interception.

Crossan scored on two touchdown runs in the first period and two more in the second.

"Starting off I think we ran the ball very well, passed the ball very well," Crossan said. "Our offensive linemen blocked unbelievably in my opinion. They really opened up some holes for us to get going. We had a great first half, a really fast start which is good and we always preach that around here."

The Wildcats did not intercept a pass in the first four games this year and picked off the five Elon passes, four in the second half.
Junior defensive back Casey DeAndrade (East Bridgewater, Mass.), junior linebacker Ryan Farrell (Westwood, Mass), senior defensive back Lamar Edmonds (Worcester, Mass.), senior linebacker Akil Anderson (Morristown, N.J.) and sophomore defensive back D'Andre Drummond Mayrie (Lawrence, Mass.) each had an interception.

"We did a good job up front of getting pressure on the quarterback," Anderson said. "He made some throws and guys just made plays on the ball. It was just an all-around great effort. I think we played downhill early on and that helped us out. We kind of stopped the run so they had to be a little more one dimensional so we were able to pick up on some of their routes and things like that."

The Wildcats had four of their interceptions off Elon quarterback Daniel Thompson and picked off Connor Christiansen once.

UNH finished with 398 yards of total offense to Elon's 313 and had 235 yards rushing to Elon's 69.

The Wildcats rolled to a 34-7 lead at the half.

UNH had 260 yards of offense in the first half to Elon's 84, including 146 rushing yards to Elon's 34.

Crossan carried the ball 12 times in the first half for 93 yards.

Riese completed 12 of his 19 first-half passes for 114 yards and the touchdown.

UNH had the first possession of the game and cruised down the field from its own 23-yard line to open the scoring in just four plays. Riese rushed for four yards and passed to senior wide receiver Jared Allison (Cliffwood, N.J.) for 19 yards.

Crossan then ran for 18 yards and followed up with a 36-yard run for the score. Christian Breda (Needham, Mass.) kicked the extra point and UNH led just a minute and 15 seconds into the game.

Riese connected with junior tight end Jordan Powell (Forked River, N.J.) for a 4-yard touchdown pass with 7:34 left in the first quarter.

The Wildcats capitalized on an interception by Edmonds and marched down the field to a Crossan 1-yard score with 33 seconds left in the period. The conversion kick was blocked and UNH led 20-0.

Crossan did all of UNH's scoring in the second period. He scored on an 8-yard run with 13:37 left in the period and on a 2-yarder with 4:49 to go before the break. Breda made both conversion kicks and UNH led 34-0.

Elon closed out the scoring in the half with a Daniel Thompson to Tereak McCray 7-yard TD pass with 42 seconds to go.

B.J. Bennett scored on a 2-yard run with 10:05 left to play in the third period.

Breda closed out the scoring with a 26-yard field goal with 1:20 left in the third.

DeAndrade led UNH with six tackles. Junior Cam Shorey (Calais, Maine) and sophomore Rick Holt (Portsmouth, N.H.) each had a sack.

Powell led UNH receivers with five catches for 48 yards.

Tickets for the Wildcats home game against Rhode Island on Oct. 31 (1 p.m.) and their other remaining home games against Richmond on Nov. 7 (3 p.m.) and Maine on Nov. 21 (1 p.m.) are available by calling 603-862-4000, ext. 5 or visiting www.unhwildcats.com.