Insider Report: Laube Lights It Up

Dylan Laube rushed for 202 of UNH's 260 yards on the ground against UAlbany on Saturday night.

The 'Cats went for 260 yards on the ground behind Dylan's Laube 202 yards against UAlbany.

9/12/2022 1:47:00 PM | Football, UNH Insider

'Cats Get Ground Game Going, Land No. 25 Ranking at 2-0

By: Allen Lessels

DURHAM, N.H. – Head coach Rick Santos talked up the theory throughout the offseason.

Junior running back Dylan Laube stood in the University of New Hampshire football locker room after an opening night win and vowed things were just going to get better for the team's offense.

And Saturday night in Albany, Santos and offensive coordinator Brian Scott and their staff dialed up running play after running play and the Wildcats put on an impressive display to drive UNH to a 28-23 win over the Great Danes.

"It was nice to see our run game get established," said left tackle and captain Patrick Flynn on Monday morning. "It's probably the first time I've seen it get established that well in a game since I've been here. It was good to see. If you get both pass and run going, it's always a good thing."

Laube scored twice on the ground in the opening win over Monmouth University and he upped the ante bigtime at Albany.

He carried 32 times for 202 yards and three touchdowns as the Wildcats racked up 260 rushing yards, their best total since rolling up 299 yards in a 2017 game against Towson.

Laube earned Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors for his efforts and the victory moved UNH into the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 rankings for the first time this season at No. 25.

Laube and the Wildcats will aim to keep it going when they take their 2-0 record – both overall and in the Colonial Athletic Association – into a home game on Saturday against North Carolina Central on Youth Sports Night in Wildcat Stadium at 6 p.m.

Season tickets for UNH football at Wildcat Stadium start at just $99 per ticket and can be purchased online HERE or by calling (603) 862-4000 or e-mailing unh.tickets@unh.edu.

Single-game tickets are also on sale and start at $15 with group tickets as low as $10 per ticket.

From Day 1, Santos has wanted to get the ground game cranked up as a way to take advantage of Laube's talents and a veteran offensive line, as well as to provide time for sophomore quarterback Max Brosmer to ease back into things as much as possible after missing all of last season with an injury.

Santos praised the work of the offensive line along with a dominant job of blocking by the wide receivers in aiding the run game on Saturday night.

Flynn, junior David Perry Jr., junior Osho Omoyeni, junior Matt O'Neill and sophomore Dylan Poirier started up front and grad student Matt Marvin and redshirt freshman Mason David helped out, too.

Defensively, the Wildcats kept UAlbany off balance early to help set up a 14-3 edge at halftime.

Sophomore linebacker Ryan Toscano and sophomore defensive end Josiah Silver led the way with five tackles each and both helped pressure Great Dane quarterback Reese Poffenbarger, who was sacked five times.

Silver, sophomore defensive tackle Nathan Kapongo and redshirt freshman defensive end Dylan Ruiz each had a sack. Toscano, senior safety Pop Bush, sophomore linebacker Zedane Williams and redshirt freshman Max Tillett were each credited with half a sack.

Brosmer was an efficient 11-for-14 passing with a 2-yard scoring pass to Joey Corcoran to open the scoring. He had a couple of timely runs for first downs and was not sacked in the game. He also led the Wildcats on three drives that ate up at least 10 minutes of playing time, leading to UNH's advantage in time of possession of 37 minutes to 23 minutes.

Laube was the workhorse.

"This offense is going to progress every week," Laube said after the opening win over Monmouth. "New offense, new defense. As the weeks go on, it's going to progress, progress, progress. It's going to be a fun offense."

He helped make sure of that at Albany.

"Dylan's always had that kind of big-play ability," Santos said. "It's a little bit of everything. He has a real quick first step, great vision and he's a weight room warrior. He's very strong at the point of attack and very rarely gets tackled by one guy. That's kind of our goal for all our skill guys, to not get tackled by one guy. Dylan takes heed of that and can get those tough yards. And if it gets blocked up perfectly, he can take it for 50 as well."

Here's the thing with that.

"With Dyl, you don't have to block it up perfectly," Flynn said. "He'll make you look right most of the time. He has good vision and if you get in front of a guy, he'll make the good read and go the right way."

Of all Laube's good work Saturday night, the most eye-opening came in a span of less than a minute in the fourth quarter.

UAlbany had cut UNH's lead to 21-16 with 2:47 left and the UNH offense needed to respond.

The Wildcats started on their own 25-yard line and Laube went 14 yards on the first play. Then 24 yards. And 37.

Three plays, 75 yards and UNH's lead was back to 28-16 with less than two minutes to play.

Laube's night sent UNH's athletic communications folks to the record books. The 202 yards marked the first time over 200 yards for a Wildcat running back in a decade, since Nico Steriti had 201 against Old Dominion on Sept. 22, 2012. It was the most since Jerry Azumah carried 22 times for 259 yards against East Stroudsburg on Sept. 19, 1998.

More recently, UNH rushed for nine touchdowns all last year and Laube had four of them.

Thus far, he has all five of the team's rushing TDs this year.

More importantly, the Wildcats found another way to win Saturday night.

"Basically, we go into each game looking to see what seems to be an advantage for us to win," Santos said. "The first game we scored in three different phases (offense, defense and special teams). This game was by running it and we only threw 14 passes. I'm sure some game we'll feel like we have to throw 50 times. The philosophy of coach Scott and myself is we understand that and want to take whatever the defense gives us."