VILLANOVA, PA -- It will be a restless night for the University of Delaware football team.

The No. 9 ranked Blue Hens, who were virtually assured of earning a berth in next week’s NCAA Tournament field with a win over Villanova Saturday at Villanova Stadium, could not pull out the victory as they fell to the Wildcats 16-10 in the regular season finale for both teams.

Delaware (8-3, 5-3 Colonial Athletic Association), which dropped its second straight game, will now await an at-large berth in the 16-team NCAA Tournament field, which will be announced Sunday at 3:30 p.m. on ESPNU television. The Hens, looking to return to the tournament after a two-year absence, are hoping to be one of eight at-large team selected by the NCAA committee.

Villanova, which snapped a personal two-game losing streak to Delaware at Villanova Stadium, used an aggressive defense to limit the Hens to season lows for points and total yards and used a fake punt to set up what proved to be the game-tying touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Two 36-yard field goals by Joe Marcoux in the final three minutes of play sealed the deal for the Wildcats (7-4, 5-3, CAA), who posted their highest win total since 2003.

“I didn’t think anyone could do that to our offense,” said Delaware head coach K.C. Keeler, who team, ranked No. 3 in the nation in total offense (486.8 yards per game) and No. 4 in scoring offense (40.9 points per game), had scored 30 or more points in six straight games heading into the contest. “We didn’t help ourselves with some execution problems and dropped balls, but I give all the credit to Villanova today. They put some great pressure on us and we didn’t do a good job picking up the blitzes. They really attacked with their defense and made us do some things that are very uncharacteristic of this team, things we didn’t do all season long. They are a very good football team.”

So what does Keeler, who led the Blue Hens to the NCAA I-AA national title in 2003 and a I-AA quarterfinal berth in 2004, think of his team’s chances for a post-season berth.

“We are tremendously disappointed with today’s loss,” he said. “But at the same time, I would think our body of work is solid and I would be shocked if we didn’t get in. But you don’t want to have someone else making the decision for you.”

Villanova used 13 unanswered points in the final quarter to pull out the win. Matt Dicken, who ran for a game-high 134 yards, set up the tying touchdown when he took the snap off a fake punt and rambled 44 yards to the Delaware five-yard line. Two plays later, freshman quarterback Chris Whitney sliced into the end zone from one-yard out to tie the game at 10-10 with 12:48 left to play.

After Delaware’s next drive ended with Jon Striefsky just missing on a 29-yard field goal attempt, the Wildcats took a 13-10 lead on a 36-yard field by Marcoux that capped a 61-yard drive that consumed 7:55.

After Delaware was stopped again on its next possession, Marcoux nailed another 36-yarder with 22 seconds left to seal the victory and the inaugural Battle of the Blue trophy. The longstanding rivalry is now tied 20-20-1 all-time with Villanova having won straight, including a 28-27 win last season.

Delaware’s 10 points and 281 total yards were the lowest output by the Hens since gaining 267 yards in a 10-6 win over Hofstra last Oct. 14.

Senior quarterback Joe Flacco, who had a school-record streak of 15 straight 200-yard passing efforts snapped, completed his first six passes but finished by hitting on 17 of 31 attempts for a season-low 145 yards. His 17 completions gave him 415 for his two-year Delaware career, breaking the school career record of 502 by Matt Nagy in 1997-2000.

Delaware senior running back Omar Cuff, who was bothered by a back injury, rushed 17 times for a team-high 75 yards but was held without a touchdown for the first time this season, snapping a streak of 12 straight games with a touchdown that fell one short of the Delaware record. Cuff entered the game as the top scorer in NCAA FCS with an NCAA single-season record 33 touchdowns.

Aaron Love caught seven passes for 79 yards while a defense that held the Wildcats to just 294 yards was led by Anthony Walters’ (at right) seven tackles, including two for losses. The Hen defense posted four sacks and forced two fumbles in its best showing since early in the season.

Things looked good early for the Hens when Villanova kick returner Angelo Babbaro was hit by J.T. Laws on the opening kickoff and fumbled. Delaware kicker Jon Striefsky recovered at the Wildcat 35-yard line, but the Hens could not mount a drive a wasted an early opportunity.

The Hens got on the board first when Striefsky kicked his 16th field goal of the season, a career-high tying 42-yarder with 4:12 left in the opening stanza for a 3-0 lead. Neither team scored again until the closing minutes of the opening half.

The Wildcats tied the score at 3-3 when Marcoux kicked his first of three field goals with a career-high 42-yarder with 1:45 left in the half.

But Delaware stormed back with a nine-play, 65-yard drive to take a 10-3 lead into intermission on Flacco’s three-yard scoring toss to tight end Josh Baker with just 46 seconds left in the half. Striefsky’s extra point kick was his 51st straight, breaking the UD record of 50 he shared with Mark Drozic (1990-91). Villanova had the chance to cut the lead going into halftime, but Marcoux missed on a 47-yard field goal attempt on the final play of the stanza.

Neither team could mount a serious scoring threat until the final quarter when Villanova used a trick play to set up the tying score. Faced with a fourth down at the Delaware 49-yard line, Villanova brought out its punt team. But Dicken took the snap and raced around the left end all the way down to the Delaware five-yard line. After a three-yard run by Aaron Ball (49 yards) took the ball to the one-yard line, Whitney squeezed into the end zone to tie the score at 10-10.

Delaware couldn’t counter the rest of the way as Striefsky’s 29-yard field goal miss ended one drive and the next gained just 43 yards before stalling at the 50-yard line. After Marcoux’s third field goal gave Villanova the 16-10 lead with 22 seconds left, the Hens got one more shot starting at its own 25-yard line but could not capitalize.

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