Photos Courtesy of Mark Campbell

DURHAM, NH -- The University of Delaware knocked New Hampshire All-American quarterback Ricky Santos out of the game midway through the second quarter of the key Colonial Athletic Association Top 20 football matchup Saturday afternoon.

But it was the Wildcats who knocked the Blue Hens from the unbeaten ranks.

Even with Santos on the sidelines for most of the game with a shoulder injury, the host and No. 15 ranked Wildcats built a 25- point third quarter lead and held off a furious Delaware comeback to down the 11th-ranked Blue Hens 35-30 at Cowell Stadium.

Redshirt freshman R.J. Toman replaced Santos, the 2006 Walter Payton Player of the Year Award winner, and tossed two touchdowns passes to wideout Keith LeVan. The Wildcats didn’t skip a beat as they knocked Delaware, one of only 10 undefeated teams in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision entering the day, from the unbeaten ranks.

The Blue Hens, who had allowed just 37 points in their previous four games combined, had a five-game win streak at Cowell snapped and dropped to 5-1 (3-1 CAA) with their first CAA loss of the season.

New Hampshire (3-2, 1-2 CAA), with its back to the wall after losing its first two conference games of the year, got new life. The win was the Wildcats’ third straight over Delaware but their first at home of the Hens since 1990.

“We just had too many mistakes and shot ourselves in the foot too many times today,” said Delaware head coach K.C. Keeler. “There were so many things in the first half that lost possessions for us and that came back to hurt us. We are very disappointed. New Hampshire is a very good ball club but I think we are better. But it was really a matter of us making too many mistakes. It was nice that we battled back, but there are no moral victories here at Delaware.”

Delaware battled furiously back from the 35-10 third quarter deficit as All-American candidate quarterback Joe Flacco (top right) hit tight end Josh Baker on a 54-yard scoring pass early in the fourth quarter and connected with All-American Omar Cuff (middle right) on a 31-yard scoring toss with 3:41 left to cut the lead to 35-24.

Cuff scored for the third time in the game on a one-yard burst with 1:33 remaining, but UNH recovered Delaware’s ensuing on-side kick and ran out the clock.

“We dug ourselves too deep of a hole,” said Flacco, who established Delaware single game records with 40 completions and 51 attempts and threw for 419 yards, the third highest total in school history, to go with two touchdown strikes. “We came out strong in the second half and I thought we found the groove, but we had a big fumble and they came back from that and jumped ahead even more. We fought back, but we just couldn’t catch them. We just can’t start slow like we did today.”

Flacco posted his 11th straight 200-yard passing game and surpassed the 300-yard mark for the sixth time in his career. His previous passing high was 341 yards vs. Towson in 2006. Cuff ran 22 times for 88 yards and two touchdowns and caught seven passes for 68 yards and another score. He went over the 3,000-yard rushing mark for his career, becoming just the third UD player to achieve the milestone, and scored three touchdowns, upping his school record to 55. His second rushing touchdown was his 48th of his career, breaking the UD record of 47 by Daryl Brown in 1991-94.

Also for the Hens, Aaron Love (bottom right) caught 10 passes for 107 yards and Mark Duncan hauled in 10 catches for 101 yards.

But the Wildcat offense was just too much for the Delaware defensive unit. The Hens had held the previous four opponents each under 300 yards for the first time since the 2000 season, but New Hampshire gained 413, including 275 in the first half, on the way to the win. The 35 points was the most scored against the Hens this season.

Santos hit on 9 of 10 passes for 108 yards and scored the game’s first touchdown on a 10-yard run early in the second quarter before leaving the game with the injury. Toman hit on 5 of 9 passes for 98 yards and two touchdowns and LeVan caught four passes for 90 yards and had one touchdown pass. Santos is expected to return for next week’s game vs. Iona.

After a scoreless first quarter, Delaware opened the scoring with 32-yard field goal by Jon Striefsky, his sixth straight without a miss this season, just 1:33 into the second quarter. But the lead would be short-lived.

New Hampshire, which earlier this season defeated NCAA Division I FBC entry Marshall 48-35, reeled off 21 straight points before halftime to take the 21-3 lead into intermission.

Santos capped a 74-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown run with 10:47 left in the half, the first points scored against Delaware in the second quarter all season, to give the Wildcats a 7-3 lead. He was engineering another scoring drive before he injured his shoulder when he was tackled by Anthony Bratton (team-high 13 tackles) following a 27-yard run to the UD 20-yard line.

Toman entered the game and three plays later hit tight end Scott Sicco on a 20-yard pass play down to the Delaware one-yard line. Sean Jellison scored on the next play to give UNH the 14-3 lead.

The UNH lead was extended to 18 points one possession later. Delaware was stopped at its own 49-yard line, but a fake punt attempt failed as Fred Andrew was dropped for a five-yard loss. New Hampshire took little time taking advantage. On the next play, Toman threw a pass back to LeVan, who then turned and found a wide-open Mike Boyle down the middle for an easy 45-yard touchdown play and a 21-3 lead.

The Hens entered the game having outscored opponents 79-0 in the second quarter this season and having stopped opponents in 26 of 28 first half possessions before UNH scored on three straight drives to end the half.

Delaware came out strong in the second half and marched quickly down the field, pulling to within 21-10 on an eight-yard run by Cuff just four minutes into the quarter. After stopping UNH on the next possession, the Hens put together another drive and advanced to the 46-yard line but Cuff fumbled after an 11-yard reception from Flacco and Wildcat defensive tackle Marvin Wright recovered.

That proved to be a big momentum shift as UNH then scored on its next two possessions to take a 35-10 lead. On the first scoring drive, UNH took advantage of a pass interference penalty against UD safety Aaron Hicks that put the ball on the Delaware 28-yard line. On the next play, Toman threw a 28-yard scoring pass to LeVan, who got one foot in the left front of the end zone for the touchdown.

Toman then made it 35-10 when he tossed another touchdown pass, this time scrambling until he found LeVan open in the left side of the end zone with 1:01 left in the third stanza.

Delaware then mounted its furious comeback but ran out of time. Flacco first hit Baker on a 45-yard scoring toss down the middle with the sophomore tight end scoring his first career touchdown and getting a key block from Kervin Michaud for the score.

After Ronald Talley blocked a 42-yard field goal attempt by UNH kicker Tom Manning with 5:02 left, the Hens cut the lead to 35-24 on the 31-yard pass play from Flacco to Cuff.

The Blue Hens will look to get back to winning ways next Saturday when they host CAA foe Northeastern for Homecoming at 12 noon at Delaware Stadium.

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