NEWARK, DE -- Sophomore running back Omar Cuff (right) rushed for a career-high 177 yards and scored three touchdowns and quarterback Sonny Riccio fired a career-high three scoring passes in the second half as No. 6 ranked University of Delaware broke open a close game in the third quarter to post a 35-23 non-league football victory over Holy Cross Saturday night at Delaware Stadium.

Cuff, who entered the game as the leading scorer in NCAA I-AA football, celebrated his 21st birthday by posting his fifth straight 100-yard rushing effort, running for two touchdowns, and catching a 23-yard scoring pass from Riccio to help the Blue Hens stay unbeaten at 3-0. The Hens won their ninth straight home game and improved to 24-2 at home under fourth-year head coach K.C. Keeler. The Hens have scored 20 or more points in each of those games. Cuff, who rushed for over 100 yards for the seventh time in his 11-game career, became the first UD player to rush for over 100 yards in five straight games since Daryl Brantley in 1989.

Holy Cross (2-2), which suffered its eighth straight non-league road loss since 2001, lost its second straight game to a top 20 team after falling to No. 15 Harvard 31-21 last week. The Crusaders had taken a 17-14 lead with 6:05 left in third quarter before the Blue Hens reeled off 21 straight points to take control. Running back Steve Silva rushed 24 times for 106 yards and one touchdown, caught four passes for 29 yards, and even completed a pass for 41 yards to set up a Crusader touchdown. Quarterback John O’Neil hit on 17 of 32 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns, both to wide receiver Sean Gruber.

Riccio, a second-year starter, hit on 16 of 22 passes for 124 yards and three touchdowns and also ran five times for 60 yards to lead a Blue Hen offense that piled up 430 total yards, including 306 on the ground. The Hens have now scored 10 or more points in 34 straight games and have gone 146 straight games at home without being shutout since falling to Holy Cross 24-0 back in 1983. Delaware and Holy Cross were meeting for just the third time and for the first time since 1985.

“We kept battling all night and that was the key,” said Keeler. “Early on, Holy Cross was playing at three-man front so we knew we had to run the ball and take advantage. Finally we got things going. When the other team gives you something, you have to take it. Our team is dynamic and our speed is starting to come around and we are making big plays.”

This game was a defensive struggle before Holy Cross got on the board with 6:02 left in the first half on a four-yard scoring pass from O’Neil to Gruber. But the Hens sent the game into halftime tied at 7-7 on Cuff’s one-yard scoring run with 53 seconds left in the half.

Mike DeSantis kicked a 20-yard field goal for Holy Cross just over three minutes into the second half to give the Crusaders a 10-7 lead before Cuff’s second touchdown, a 23-yard run, put the Hens back up 14-10 three minutes later. Holy Cross took its final lead with 6:05 left in the third quarter when O’Neil hit a wide-open Gruber down the right sideline for a 39-yard scoring toss.

The game belonged to Delaware after that. Riccio fired a seven-yard scoring pass to Joe Bleymaier with 1:07 left in third quarter for a 21-17 lead and just over two minutes later hit Cuff on a 23-yard scoring pass down the right side for a 28-17 cushion. Cuff’s touchdown, his national-high 10th of the season, was set up by a 54-yard punt return by Aaron Love. Riccio fired his third touchdown pass of the half just seven minutes later when he hit Brian Ingram on a seven-yard scoring toss to up the lead to 35-17.

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