University of New Hampshire Athletics
UNH and Maine open the season Thursday night in Wildcat Stadium at 7.
Football & Fireworks: Maine at UNH Thursday Night
8/30/2017 5:32:00 PM | Football, UNH Insider
Much on The Line in Season Opener
DURHAM, N.H. – Last year's opening night was huge.
The University of New Hampshire football team took on regional rival Holy Cross to open its brand new Wildcat Stadium and a crowd of 13,242 – a program record for a home opener – turned out to celebrate the occasion and enjoyed a 39-28 victory, capped off by a fireworks show.
Defensive tackle Rick Holt thinks this year's opener against Maine on Thursday night at 7 in Wildcat Stadium will top last year's first game.
"It's the new field, it's the new stadium," Holt said. "Everyone will be fired up for it. I can't wait. The Holy Cross game was good. I think this one will be a lot better because it's Maine-New Hampshire. It's a really big game."
A new turf went down in the stadium this summer for safety reasons to replace the worn one that had been in place for about a decade.
That's part of the new. The old starts with the border rivalry - the oldest football series for UNH and dating to 1903 - and includes the Brice-Cowell Musket, a historic rifle that spends the offseason in the locker room of the winning team.
Tickets remain for the game and may be purchased by CLICKING HERE or by calling 603-862-4000. Season tickets and individual and group tickets for each of UNH's five regular season home games are also available.
The festivities will feature pregame entertainment in Wildcat Village just outside the main gate to the stadium. Entertainment includes the inaugural Wildcat Tailgate Show and there will be music, a UNH student giveaway and another postgame fireworks display as well.
The twist to the game - billed as the "Thursday Night Throwdown" – is that UNH and Maine have usually met in the final regular season game of the year over the last two decades.
Most often, the playoff implications of the game in recent years have been major. Either one team or the other – sometimes both – have needed a win in that final game to clinch a spot in the FCS tournament.
Last year, each team took a 6-4 regular season record into the finale in Orono and a spot in the playoffs was on the line.
UNH won its seventh straight game in the series, 24-21, on a Morgan Ellman field goal with seven seconds to play.
The Wildcats moved on to the FCS playoffs for the 13th straight time, which is the longest streak in the country.
More than anything, though, Thursday night is UNH-Maine.
The musket, bragging rights and a chance to jump out in front of the Colonial Athletic Association standings and set a tone for the season.
"Playing them in the first game of the year is a unique situation," said head coach Sean McDonnell, a veteran of many UNH-Maine games as a player, assistant coach and head coach since 1999. "It's like Christmas coming early. You've got an opportunity to play something that's a great reward, playing your archrival on this day. The other thing that's huge is it's a CAA game."
There's more.
"The other thing that's really huge is everybody in the last couple of years got caught up about the I-A game and this and that," McDonnell said.
The Wildcats often step up a level and play their first game of the season against an FBS, or I-A, opponent in a game that is always on the road and earns the program a paycheck.
Two years ago, UNH started the season at San Jose State. Last year, it was at San Diego State. This time around, the Wildcats play at Georgia Southern on Saturday, Sept. 9. Next year, UNH plays its FBS game at the University of Colorado.
"That means nothing in our schedule, except for a great trip and if we win it, even better," McDonnell said. "But the 10 games that count for us are the 10 games against FCS opponents. So we've got to figure out how we're going to get this under our belt."
The Wildcats will send out an offense led by junior quarterback Trevor Knight with running backs sophomore Evan Gray, senior Donald Goodrich, redshirt freshman DeUnte Chatman and senior Jerickson Fedrick, along with receivers junior Neil O'Connor and sophomore Malik Love, among others.
Sophomores Prince Smith, Jr., at cornerback and Pop Lacey at safety – both of whom started last year as true freshmen – are among the leaders of a young defense that has Holt and junior Ryan Sosnak in the middle at defensive tackle.
The Wildcat players and coaches are far from the only ones amped about Thursday night.
"We're really excited about a completely new agenda for us, starting at home on a Thursday night in Week 1 of college football," athletics director Marty Scarano said Wednesday. "The crowd is building and anticipation is building. We're expecting a very large crowd. It's just going to be a great evening. What better way to kick off the season than with hopefully a record-breaking crowd for opening day on a Thursday night?"
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
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