NEWARK, DE -- Sophomore running back Omar Cuff (right) exploded for a career-high 236 yards rushing and scored four touchdowns, including a 60-yard romp for a score with 2:45 left to seal the win, as the University of Delaware football team knocked off No. 11 ranked and defending NCAA I-AA national champion James Madison 34-28 Saturday at soggy Delaware Stadium.

Cuff (C.H. Flowers/Landover, MD), an All-American candidate who entered the game as one of the national leaders in all-purpose yardage, scoring, and rushing, carried a career-high 39 times for his 236 yards and led an offense that piled up 334 yards on the ground against a JMU squad that entered the game ranked No. 2 in NCAA I-AA in rushing defense, allowing 57.3 yards per game.

Cuff, who posted his ninth career 100-yard rushing effort and his fifth of the season, posted the second highest single game rushing total in school history and the most since Daryl Brown ran for a school-record 272 vs. Northeastern in 1994. Cuff’s 39 carries were also the second highest total in UD history and the most since Roger Mason’s record 45 vs. Temple in 1972.

“I’m as proud of this win as any I’ve coached,” said Delaware head coach K.C. Keeler, whose squad snapped a three-game losing streak. “We just wanted to come out and fight and be spent at the end of this game. Omar Cuff is the best back in this league and that says a lot because there are so many great players in the Atlantic 10. He can do it all and he’s self-made.”

The game matched the last two NCAA I-AA national champions with Delaware having captured the title in 2003 and the Dukes having won last year’s crown. Delaware snapped a three-game losing streak, its longest since 1989, and won its first Atlantic 10 game of the season to improve to 4-3 (1-3). James Madison, which had allowed just 29 points over the last four games, lost its second straight to fall to 4-3 (2-2).

Delaware, which was looking to avoid its first four-game losing streak since 1967, won for the 10th time in the last 11 home games at Delaware Stadium. The game was played before 22,059 fans who braved the rainy and cold weather.

Blue Hen senior quarterback Sonny Riccio ran for 54 yards and hit on 9 of 18 passes for 80 yards and one touchdown, a two-yard toss to tight end Justin LaForgia with 8:10 left that gave the Hens a 28-14 lead. Riccio, a second-year transfer from Missouri, also became just the seventh player in school history to surpass 4,000 career yards passing during the contest.

James Madison quarterback Justin Rascati completed 20 of 32 passes for 213 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for 47 yards and another score to lead the Dukes offense. Alvin Banks added 62 yards rushing.

The teams played to a 14-14 deadlock at halftime as Cuff scored on two one-yard runs while James Madison got a four-yard scoring run from Maurice Fenner early in the second quarter and a 12-yard scramble from Rascati with just 37 seconds left before intermission.

The Blue Hens took the lead for good in the third quarter as Cuff scored on another one-yard burst and Riccio hit LaForgia for the two-point conversion for a 22-14 lead with 4:37 left in the stanza. Riccio then hit a wide-open LaForgia for a two-yard scoring pass with 8:10 left to up the lead to 28-21. James Madison climbed back on a 13-yard scoring pass from Rascati to L.C. Baker with 6:15 left to play to cut the lead to 28-21, but Cuff put the game away with a 60-yard scoring jaunt around the left end with 2:45 remaining to up the lead to 34-21.

James Madison made it a one touchdown game when Rascati hit Casime Harris on an 18-yard scoring pass with 1:29 to cut the lead to 34-28, but Delaware recovered the on-side kick and ran out the clock to pick up the much-needed victory.

“Delaware played a perfect game today,” said James Madison head coach Mickey Matthews. “They had no turnovers and no major penalties. We just couldn’t tackle Omar Cuff. He’s a great player - the best back in this league. That was the game, we just weren’t able to stop him.”

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