Riese, No. 21/24 Football Ride Fast Start To 57-14 Win over CCSU

Saturday, September 26

Durham, N.H.

6:00 PM

University of New Hampshire

2-2 , 0-1

Central Connecticut State University

1-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

CCSU

UNH

Photo by: Paige O'Donnell

Riese, No. 21/24 Football Ride Fast Start To 57-14 Win over CCSU

9/26/2015 8:41:00 PM | Football

Box Score

DURHAM, N.H. – Junior quarterback Adam Riese (Hamilton, N.J.) passed for three touchdowns in his first collegiate start to lead the No. 21/24 University of New Hampshire football team to a 57-14 win over Central Connecticut State University on Saturday night in Cowell Stadium.

The Wildcats got off to a fast start and led 25-0 after the first period on the way to evening their overall record at 2-2.

"It was a very good all-around effort by every facet," said UNH coach Sean McDonnell. "I was very pleased. Challenged the kids this week to come out and play an emotional game, to get up for playing at home and more importantly to play a physical downhill game and I thought we did a very good job of doing that. We caused some turnovers. We scored on defense."

The Wildcats bounced back from last week's 31-6 loss at Stony Brook in their Colonial Athletic Association opener.

"We needed to get back on track and I thought we did today, playing the way New Hampshire plays," McDonnell said.

UNH will look to get to .500 in the league when it plays Elon at home on Saturday (3:30) in its Homecoming contest.

Central Connecticut State fell to 1-3.

Riese completed 14 of his 21 passes for 188 yards and the three touchdowns in the first half and did not play in the second.

Riese played the second and third quarters against Stony Brook last week.

"I definitely felt a little more comfortable," Riese said. "With the atmosphere we had I had a little bit of jitters, nervousness, in the beginning, but I felt like I settled down and just tried to stay within the offense. I just tried to put balls on people and I knew they'd make plays and that's exactly what they did. It made my job a lot easier."

Junior running back Dalton Crossan (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) and freshman wide receiver Amechie Walker, Jr. (Harrisburg, Pa.) each scored a pair of touchdowns.

Crossan scored on a 33-yard run in the first period and on a 48-yard pass play from Riese in the second. Crossan had nine carries for 73 yards and caught three passes for 58 yards and also played in just the first half.

Walker had two catches, both for touchdowns, for 56 yards.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Trevor Knight (Nashua, N.H.) passed for one touchdown and ran for another.

The UNH defense gave up a couple of long touchdown runs, but also came up with three fumble recoveries and had seven sacks.

"Going through the first four games, we've gotten to the quarterback," McDonnell said. "We felt we could pressure them and we did it with some four-man pressure and more importantly we did it with some of our third-down package stuff."

Junior defensive end Cam Shorey (Calais, Maine) had two of the sacks and Boone had one and a half.

Junior defensive back Casey DeAndrade (East Bridgewater, Mass.) had a sack and he and sophomore defensive back D'Andre Drummond-Mayrie (Lawrence, Mass.) each had six tackles to lead the Wildcats.

The Wildcats punted on their first possession and were held to a 24-yard field Christian Breda (Needham, Mass) on their second. They scored touchdowns on their next three possessions and in between added a 15-yard fumble return for a score by linebacker Ryan Farrell (Westwood, Mass.) into the mix.

Riese connected with Walker for a 37-yard pass play for the first touchdown with 5:11 left in the first period.

"It was a play we practiced all week," Walker said. "Riese hit me on it a couple of times all week. I came out and ran it full speed like normal. It was up in the air for a minute, had to keep my eye on it the whole time. Looked at it, just ran full speed to the end zone. That was about it."

Knight passed to Jordan Powell (Forked River, N.J.) for the two-point conversion.

Crossan scored his first TD on the next possession and then Farrell added his score. Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Cyrus Boone (Stockton, Calif.) sacked Central Connecticut State quarterback Jacob Dolegala and he lost the ball.

Knight scrambled for a nine-yard score to make it 32-0 with 12:06 left in the second period.

Blue Devil running back Cameron Nash broke loose for a 73-yard touchdown run with 5:14 left in the half.

Riese and Crossan teamed up for their 48-yard TD two plays later and Riese then found Powell for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 11 seconds left in the half and it was 46-7 at the break.

Walker caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Knight with 34 seconds left in the third quarter and Morgan Ellman (Scotch Plains, N.J.) closed out the UNH scoring with a 20-yard field goal with 5:46 left in the fourth quarter.

The Wildcats play host to Elon for Homecoming on Saturday, Oct. 3, at 3:30 p.m. in a game that will be televised nationally by the American Sports Network. Limited tickets remain by calling 603-862-4000, extension 5, or visiting www.unhwildcats.com.