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University of New Hampshire Athletics
Dylan Laube is headed to the end zone for his 75-yard touchdown. (Rick Wilson photo)
Game 6 Report: Building Off Big Plays
10/17/2021 3:14:00 PM | Football, UNH Insider
'Cats Aim to Regroup with CAA Tests Ahead, Starting at Elon
DURHAM, N.H. – After a tough couple of weeks offensively, the University of New Hampshire football team broke out in big-play fashion on Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth College in front of a nice Family Weekend crowd of 15,394 in Wildcat Stadium.
The downside for the Wildcats was that a trio of quick-strike touchdowns _ sophomore Dylan Laube ran for TDs of 75 and 53 yards and junior running back Carlos Washington, Jr. passed for a 48-yard score to junior Sean Coyne – ended up being side notes to a frustrating 38-21 loss to the Big Green.
The UNH defense had all kinds of trouble handling Dartmouth's two-quarterback offense.
It's all Colonial Athletic Association play from here for the Wildcats, who will look to get back on the winning side of things at Elon next Saturday at 1 p.m.
UNH follows that game with a Halloweekend test against Richmond on Saturday, Oct. 30 in Wildcat Stadium.
Fans can purchase tickets at UNHWildcats.com/Tickets or by calling the UNH Wildcats box office at 603-862-4000 (Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm).
The Wildcats won their first three games of the season against Stony Brook, Towson and Lafayette, but now have dropped three in a row to Pittsburgh, an FBS school, James Madison and now Dartmouth.
"I know this one hurts right now a lot," said grad student senior safety and captain Evan Horn. "But at the end of the day we're still 2-1 in the CAA and 3-3 overall. This game's over and there's nothing we can do now. We'll watch film tomorrow and see where we went wrong. We've got to practice harder and we've got to be harder on ourselves. Coaches can scheme all they want, but we did not play up to our standards at all today."
Horn and head coach Sean McDonnell praised the Big Green for how hard they played and the way quarterbacks Derek Kyler (20 for 25 passing for 326 yards and two TDs) and Nick Howard (three rushing touchdowns) made the attack go.
Dartmouth improved to 5-0 overall, is 31-4 over the past three and a half years and took home the Granite Bowl trophy that has been reinstated and will be awarded to the winner of the in-state game each season. The Big Green evened the series with UNH up at 19-19-2.
The Wildcats have their work cut out for them in preparation for Elon, which had this weekend off.
The Phoenix and Wildcats have matching 3-3 and 2-1 records. Elon has conference wins over Maine, 33-23, and Richmond, 20-7, and lost to William & Mary, 34-31.
They are led by senior quarterback Davis Cheek, who was last week's CAA Offensive Player of the Week after completing 29 of 37 passes for 332 yards and three scores in the win over Maine.
Tony Trisciani, a Manchester native who worked a couple of stints as an assistant coach at UNH, is in his third year as head coach at Elon.
One focus of defensive practice this week will be some of the basics.
"Tackling," McDonnell said. "They broke through tackles, ran through tackles. We didn't tackle the way we tackled in four out of our five games. That's disappointing in that we pride ourselves on being a good tackling team and getting to the ball, running to the ball. We'll watch the tape, see where we're at, but I know one thing, we better tackle better if we want to win football games."
The Wildcats had one touchdown on offense in each of their past two games.
They'll look to build off the success they had with explosive plays against Dartmouth.
"We've been struggling to score points, so I think that was a big boost for us," Laube said. "A good boost for the O-line, for the receivers, for the running backs, for the whole offense. Getting those big X-plays is definitely a benefit for the whole offense. I think our offense is starting to click."
Dartmouth put together two long drives to take a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter. The second drive went 99 and a half yards after the Big Green defense came up with a goal line stand after UNH had marched down the field.
On UNH's first play at 14-0, Laube ran right, broke a tackle and was spun around and broke through and raced to the 75-yard score, UNH's longest TD play of the season.
A 51-yard field goal by Connor Davis and a couple Kyler passing touchdowns had the Dartmouth lead up to 31-7 with just under 10 minutes left in the third period.
Laube and the offense responded with the same play, but to the left, and he went 53 yards to score.
The UNH defense held and forced Dartmouth's first punt of the game.
Three plays later, quarterback Bret Edwards passed back to Washington, who passed to a wide-open Coyne, who dashed into the endzone. It was 31-21 with 3:42 left in the third period.
The defense held again and forced another punt. But this time the offense stalled and UNH had to punt.
Dartmouth marched to another TD.
"You're sitting there and they score again and go up 17 and now you're racing against time," McDonnell said. "I just felt we were so far on our heels the whole game. I felt that Carlos and Laube ran with great pad level. We hit a couple of passes. But their offensive side of the ball dictated so much of the game that we could never get back in a flow for what we needed to do offensively."
They'll look to turn that around Saturday at Elon.
HOME AGAIN
NEXT UP
NOTEWORTHY
QUOTABLE
"Yeah, it was a tough game. They were more physical than we expected on both sides of the ball. Penalties killed us. They were just the better team today."
Sophomore running back Dylan Laube
"I thought that we got beat, manhandled by a really good football team. Watching the game from the sideline and the field, they played downhill on us the whole game. They ran the ball extremely well, whether it was the running backs, the quarterback, then they did a great job of play action. They formationed us. They did a good job."
Coach Sean McDonnell
"That's a really good football team. I'm not surprised they were 30-4, now 31-4, over their last three or four years. We've got to go back, take a good look at what we're doing, try to see what we've got to correct and get ready for a heckuva Elon team."
Coach Sean McDonnell
UNH BY THE NUMBERS
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
The downside for the Wildcats was that a trio of quick-strike touchdowns _ sophomore Dylan Laube ran for TDs of 75 and 53 yards and junior running back Carlos Washington, Jr. passed for a 48-yard score to junior Sean Coyne – ended up being side notes to a frustrating 38-21 loss to the Big Green.
The UNH defense had all kinds of trouble handling Dartmouth's two-quarterback offense.
It's all Colonial Athletic Association play from here for the Wildcats, who will look to get back on the winning side of things at Elon next Saturday at 1 p.m.
UNH follows that game with a Halloweekend test against Richmond on Saturday, Oct. 30 in Wildcat Stadium.
Fans can purchase tickets at UNHWildcats.com/Tickets or by calling the UNH Wildcats box office at 603-862-4000 (Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm).
The Wildcats won their first three games of the season against Stony Brook, Towson and Lafayette, but now have dropped three in a row to Pittsburgh, an FBS school, James Madison and now Dartmouth.
"I know this one hurts right now a lot," said grad student senior safety and captain Evan Horn. "But at the end of the day we're still 2-1 in the CAA and 3-3 overall. This game's over and there's nothing we can do now. We'll watch film tomorrow and see where we went wrong. We've got to practice harder and we've got to be harder on ourselves. Coaches can scheme all they want, but we did not play up to our standards at all today."
Horn and head coach Sean McDonnell praised the Big Green for how hard they played and the way quarterbacks Derek Kyler (20 for 25 passing for 326 yards and two TDs) and Nick Howard (three rushing touchdowns) made the attack go.
Dartmouth improved to 5-0 overall, is 31-4 over the past three and a half years and took home the Granite Bowl trophy that has been reinstated and will be awarded to the winner of the in-state game each season. The Big Green evened the series with UNH up at 19-19-2.
The Wildcats have their work cut out for them in preparation for Elon, which had this weekend off.
The Phoenix and Wildcats have matching 3-3 and 2-1 records. Elon has conference wins over Maine, 33-23, and Richmond, 20-7, and lost to William & Mary, 34-31.
They are led by senior quarterback Davis Cheek, who was last week's CAA Offensive Player of the Week after completing 29 of 37 passes for 332 yards and three scores in the win over Maine.
Tony Trisciani, a Manchester native who worked a couple of stints as an assistant coach at UNH, is in his third year as head coach at Elon.
One focus of defensive practice this week will be some of the basics.
"Tackling," McDonnell said. "They broke through tackles, ran through tackles. We didn't tackle the way we tackled in four out of our five games. That's disappointing in that we pride ourselves on being a good tackling team and getting to the ball, running to the ball. We'll watch the tape, see where we're at, but I know one thing, we better tackle better if we want to win football games."
The Wildcats had one touchdown on offense in each of their past two games.
They'll look to build off the success they had with explosive plays against Dartmouth.
"We've been struggling to score points, so I think that was a big boost for us," Laube said. "A good boost for the O-line, for the receivers, for the running backs, for the whole offense. Getting those big X-plays is definitely a benefit for the whole offense. I think our offense is starting to click."
Dartmouth put together two long drives to take a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter. The second drive went 99 and a half yards after the Big Green defense came up with a goal line stand after UNH had marched down the field.
On UNH's first play at 14-0, Laube ran right, broke a tackle and was spun around and broke through and raced to the 75-yard score, UNH's longest TD play of the season.
A 51-yard field goal by Connor Davis and a couple Kyler passing touchdowns had the Dartmouth lead up to 31-7 with just under 10 minutes left in the third period.
Laube and the offense responded with the same play, but to the left, and he went 53 yards to score.
The UNH defense held and forced Dartmouth's first punt of the game.
Three plays later, quarterback Bret Edwards passed back to Washington, who passed to a wide-open Coyne, who dashed into the endzone. It was 31-21 with 3:42 left in the third period.
The defense held again and forced another punt. But this time the offense stalled and UNH had to punt.
Dartmouth marched to another TD.
"You're sitting there and they score again and go up 17 and now you're racing against time," McDonnell said. "I just felt we were so far on our heels the whole game. I felt that Carlos and Laube ran with great pad level. We hit a couple of passes. But their offensive side of the ball dictated so much of the game that we could never get back in a flow for what we needed to do offensively."
They'll look to turn that around Saturday at Elon.
HOME AGAIN
- UNH plays its next home game against Richmond on Saturday, Oct. 30 for Halloweekend.
- Tickets for home games are available by calling the UNH Box Office at 603-862-4000 or at www.unhwildcats.com.
- The Wildcats face Maine in the Border Battle for the Brice-Cowell Musket at home on Nov. 20 at 1 p.m.
- UNH's home games may be viewed on NBCSports Boston and at www.FloFootball.com.
- The team's remaining road games after Elon are Nov. 6 at UAlbany and Nov. 13 at Rhode Island.
NEXT UP
- Elon, like UNH, is 3-3 overall and 2-1 in the CAA.
- Cheek, e Cheek is 6-foot-3 and 217 pounds.
- He has completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 1,734 yards with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions.
- For his career, he has passed for 7,358 yards with 45 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.
- Here's a statistical oddity: Elon averages 386.5 yards of total offense.
- The Phoenix allow opponents 386.2 yards of offense.
- Elon averages 23.3 points a game and allows 25.8.
- UNH and Elon last met on Oct. 5, 2019 in Durham.
- UNH won that game 26-10.
- The year before, Elon beat UNH 30-9 at home.
NOTEWORTHY
- Laube rushed six times for 139 yards and was UNH's first runner to go over 100 this season.
- He's also the team's top kick returner and with 208 all-purpose yards Saturday was over 200 in that category for the second time this season (he had 222 vs. Lafayette).
- Laube leads the CAA with 150.3 all-purpose yards per game and is the only player to eclipse the 200-yard mark in a game.
QUOTABLE
"Yeah, it was a tough game. They were more physical than we expected on both sides of the ball. Penalties killed us. They were just the better team today."
Sophomore running back Dylan Laube
"I thought that we got beat, manhandled by a really good football team. Watching the game from the sideline and the field, they played downhill on us the whole game. They ran the ball extremely well, whether it was the running backs, the quarterback, then they did a great job of play action. They formationed us. They did a good job."
Coach Sean McDonnell
"That's a really good football team. I'm not surprised they were 30-4, now 31-4, over their last three or four years. We've got to go back, take a good look at what we're doing, try to see what we've got to correct and get ready for a heckuva Elon team."
Coach Sean McDonnell
UNH BY THE NUMBERS
- The UNH defense did not get a turnover in the game.
- The Wildcats turned it over on a Bret Edwards' interception.
- UNH had a season-high 197 rushing yards and 361 yards of total offense.
- Dartmouth had 280 yards rushing and 634 yards of total offense.
- Howard carried 18 times for 131 yards and Noah Roper 16 times for 118 yards.
- Edwards complete 19 of his 29 passes for 116 yards.
- Washington had six catches for 21 yards,
- Edwards has completed 109 of his 168 passes for 1,038 yards with nine TDs and three interceptions.
- Redshirt freshman Aidan Cadogan is third in the CAA with a 40.8 average for 25 punts.
- Freshman defensive end Josiah Silver had one of two quarterback sacks Saturday and leads the team with five.
- Junior defensive end Gunner Gibson has 4.5 sacks.
- Junior defensive tackle Niko Kvietkus had the other sack Saturday and now has two.
- Redshirt freshman linebacker Ryan Toscano and redshirt freshman safety Noah Stansbury lead the team with 41 tackles.
- Sophomore linebacker Bryce Shaw is next with 32 tackles.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
Players Mentioned
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