Game 1 Report: A Big Return, A Big Win

DURHAM, N.H. – The 27-21 win at Stony Brook on Thursday night was a long time coming. A very long time.

The last time the University of New Hampshire football team got to sing and yell and cheer and celebrate a victory in the locker room immediately after a game was November 23, 2019.

They'll aim to whoop it up again after their second game of the season, their home opener against Towson, another Colonial Athletic Association rival, on Saturday, Sept. 11, at 6 p.m. in Wildcat Stadium. Season and single game tickets are available at www.unhwildcats.com.

Thursday night's triumph was extra special.

For Sean McDonnell, as the head coach, it had been an even longer haul than for the team, thanks to a season lost to his own illness and the 2020 campaign being canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oh, he got to celebrate that November 2019 victory and certainly it was a nice one: over bitter rival Maine in Wildcat Stadium, a win that brought the coveted Brice-Cowell Musket back to Durham. But McDonnell had watched that game from high above the sidelines in the stadium, unable to be on the field.

That's how he spent that season, sidelined you might say. Out on a medical leave as he battled cancer. He was part of the team, to be sure, but was limited in what he could do. He attended the home games and joined the team in the locker room afterwards. But Ricky Santos was the interim head coach and he and defensive coordinator John Lyons and the rest of the staff guided the team on the field.

So go back further, back to November 10, 2018, and Albany, N.Y. That's where Coach Mac last celebrated a win as the fully involved head coach of the Wildcats. One thousand and twenty-seven days passed between those celebrations. Well over two years, pushing three.

Until Thursday night in Stony Brook.

The Wildcats, led by sophomore quarterback Bret Edwards in his second career start and playing tremendous defense, jumped out to a 20-0 lead at the half and pushed it to 27-0 early in the third period and all was going well.

Then it wasn't.

The Seawolves scratched back into the game with a couple of touchdowns and were taking advantage of the turnovers UNH took advantage of earlier. They quickly cut the score to 27-14.

It stayed that way until there was just 3:03 left in the fourth quarter and Stony Brook scored again and now it was 27-21.

"You're sitting there and played pretty good for 50-60 percent of the game," McDonnell said early Friday afternoon after a bus ride that delivered his team back to Durham at 4:45 a.m. "The last minute of the game your throat's a little tight."

Stony Brook got the ball back with exactly two minutes left on its own 44-yard line. The Seawolves earned a couple of first downs and were on the UNH 19 with a 4^th and 3 with 21 seconds to play.

Junior tackle Niko Kvietkus and the defense pressured quarterback Tyquell Fields and his final pass fell incomplete.

Soon, the celebration was on in the UNH locker room.

"It's a feeling you can't explain," said senior safety Pop Bush who had a monster game with 10 tackles, an interception and return for 65 yards, a forced fumble, a sack and a couple of pass breakups, of the mood in the locker room. "Your stomach is up in your heart."

There was much to celebrate. A season-opening win, made even sweeter by it being on the road and against a CAA opponent. A breakout game by Edwards, who passed for his first three career touchdowns as he replaced sophomore Max Brosmer who is out for the season with a knee injury.

They celebrated their chance to play football again.

And most of all they celebrated the return of coach McDonnell and his 99^th regular season CAA win: only two coaches have ever hit the 100-win mark in the league.

"It was cloud 9," said senior center Matt Mascia, who had been named a captain two nights before the game. "Everyone was so much more excited than usual. It's been a while since we sang and the last time we did sing in the locker room it was with Ricky leading us. You could tell how much this meant to all of us to have Mac back there for us. He's a legend. He's a living legend right now. To have him with us and leading us from the front. You just want to do everything you can for that guy."

It was a memorable first road-trip in a long time.

"With our pregame speech Friday night, you could tell how much it meant for Coach Mac to be back out there," Mascia said. "Like he said, he hasn't been on the road since November of 2018. To have him there with us meant everything. . . . We were all juiced up. We were all ready to go. You've got to say to yourself, 'got to flip the switch, got to go to bed and got to save that for the next day.'"

They saved plenty and came out on fire.

"It's a great road win," McDonnell said. "The kids were resilient and played hard. Found a way to win in a tough opener. Proud of that. Happy with that. There are a lot of things that can be corrected, that are good things that we know we can get through practice in the next couple days."

NEXT UP

The Wildcats face Towson on Saturday in Wildcat Stadium at 6 p.m.
Season and single game tickets are available at www.unhwildcats.com.
Towson opened its season Saturday at Morgan State at 4 p.m.
UNH and Towson last met on Oct. 21, 2017 in Durham.
The Wildcats won that game, 40-17.
Towson announced early on that it would not play last spring.
The Tigers finished 7-5 in 2019 and they and the Wildcats were two of the teams that just missed being selected for the FCS playoffs.
Senior receiver Nick Lorden caught a pair of touchdown passes from Trevor Knight in the last UNH-Towson game.
Knight passed for four touchdowns and led the Wildcats to 508 total yards of offense in the game.

NOTEWORTHY

Mascia, Lorden and fellow senior Elijah Lewis, a defensive tackle, were named captains on Tuesday after practice, joining grad student safety Evan Horn.
Horn was a captain during the abbreviated spring season.
Only Andy Talley of Villanova (142) and Jimmye Laycock (111) of William & Mary have more regular season CAA wins than McDonnell.
Talley and Laycock are retired.

QUOTABLE

"We know what we have to do to be the best defense. We have to stand up in those situations. That's what we've been practicing all summer, all spring and the last six months. We did our job."
                                            Senior safety Pop Bush on the defense's last stand

"The offense had some turnovers, the defense gave up some big plays, but we stayed together the whole time. That's what I was most proud of."

                                                                                            Pop Bush

"It wasn't pretty, but we got it done. I'm super excited. I haven't played in a while and it's nice to get out there and help get a win for the team."

   Sophomore quarterback Bret Edwards

"When he's healthy, he's a very good receiver in this league. He's long, athletic. . . . He's a prototype UNH receiver. He ain't real fast, he ain't real flashy, but he gets open and makes tough catches in tough crowds and does a great job."

                                                                               Sean McDonnell on junior receiver Brian Espanet


UNH BY THE NUMBERS

Edwards completed 17 of his 25 passes for 233 yards and three touchdowns.
The touchdowns were to sophomore Kyle Lepkowski (4 yards), Espanet (3 yards) and Espanet (64 yards) again.
Espanet matched his career-best day with the two touchdown receptions.
He also had two at Stony Brook in a 20-14 win in 2019.
Bush's interception was the second of his career.
UNH was even for the day in turnovers.
Redshirt freshman Jonathan Collins Jr. had his first career interception and redshirt freshman Zedane Williams had a fumble recovery.
The Wildcats lost three fumbles.
Bush led UNH with 10 tackles, matching his career high.
Redshirt freshman safety Noah Stansbury had seven tackles.
Kvietkus and sophomore defensive back Derek Thompson each had six tackles.
Bush, Kvietkus and junior defensive end Gunner Gibson each had three sacks.
Sophomore running back Dylan Laube had 77 yards on three kickoff returns.

Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu

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Max Brosmer

Pop Bush

Jonathan Collins Jr.

Bret Edwards

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Gunner Gibson

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Niko Kvietkus

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Kyle Lepkowski

Elijah Lewis

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