Photos by Mark Campbell
Top Right: Charles Graves; Bottom Right: Phillip Thaxton

Boxscore

NEWARK, Del. -- The University of Delaware's three-game win streak came to an abrupt end before a soggy Homecoming crowd at Delaware Stadium Saturday afternoon as James Madison's struggling offense came to life in the second half and the Dukes defense posted eight sacks on the way to a 20-8 Colonial Athletic Association football victory.

The 16th-ranked Blue Hens (5-3, 3-3 CAA), who had put up 92 points over the last two games in posting big CAA wins of 43-27 over Massachusetts and 49-21 over Towson, could manage just two Jon Striefsky field goals and a late safety as the Dukes (2-5, 1-4 CAA) won their first league game of the season and snapped a four-game losing streak.

"We are very disappointed," said Delaware head coach K.C. Keeler, who came up short in his bid to earn his 150th career college coaching victory. "We weren’t crisp, we looked rusty. James Madison's defensive line play was the key to the game. They pressured us all day and we just didn't hold up, which was surprising."

James Madison redshirt freshman quarterback Justin Thorpe, who had struggled the last month as the Dukes scored just 27 points during the recent four-game skid, including going 12 straight quarters without a touchdown, was virtually unstoppable in the second half and finished with 262 yards and a touchdown on 11 of 15 passing. He completed just 2 of his 4 passes for 33 yards in the first half before coming alive in the second stanza and leading the Dukes to 386 total yards on the day.

Thorpe scored on a 12-yard burst up the middle early in the second quarter to give James Madison the lead for good at 7-3 and added a seven-yard scoring strike to tight end Charlie Newman with 3:18 to go in the third quarter to up the Dukes lead to 13-6.

Delaware was limited to a season-low 224 total yards, including just nine on the ground as Devlin lost 55 yards on sacks. JMU All-American candidate Arthur Moats recorded 2.5 sacks for 19 yards while Sam Daniels collected two and Chase Williams had 1.5 for 10 yards and finished with a game-high 11 tackles. Moats entered the game having posted 18 tackles for loss and seven sacks. Jakarie Jackson and Jon Williams also intercepted passes for the Dukes.

“Our defense played great in the first half but we didn’t get some of the sevens (touchdowns) that we should have and got threes (field goals) instead,” said Keeler. “James Madison was a dangerous team because they were struggling but they are talented. We gave them hope. We’ve had success the last few games but we got smacked in the face today and we couldn’t respond.”

Devlin, a Walter Payton Award candidate as the top offensive player at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level, connected on 19 of 42 passes for 215 yards but was intercepted twice. Delaware got its only points on field goals of 34 and 31 yards by Striefsky, who increased his school record total to 35, and on a safety with 42 seconds left when JMU punter Matt Goff ran out of the end zone.

Senior Mark Duncan caught five passes for 72 yards and became just the fifth player in UD history to reach the 2,000-yard mark while Phillip Thaxton hauled in five passes for 68 yards. Defensively for the Hens, Anthony Bratton intercepted a pass and recorded a team-high nine tackles, Anthony Walters had seven tackles, forced a fumble, and recovered a fumble, and Charles Graves returned a fumble 43 yards.

The Blue Hens, whose three game win streak was its longest since opening the 2007 national runner-up season with five straight wins, had defeated James Madison six straight times at Delaware Stadium and the Dukes hadn’t won at Delaware Stadium since a 30-10 win in 1994.

Neither team could muster much offense in the first 30 minutes as the 34-yard field goal by Striefsky with 13:14 left in the half was the lone score and helped the Hens take a 3-0 lead into intermission. The teams combined for just 10 first downs and 116 total yards in the first half. Walters recovered a fumble on a muffed punt return by JMU in the first quarter but the Hens could not take advantage and the teams later traded turnovers on interceptions by JMU’s Jon Williams’ and Delaware’s Bratton.

But the Dukes wasted little time taking the lead for good on their first drive of the second half as they 75 yards on six plays and went up 7-3 on Thorpe’s seven-yard run just 2:06 into the stanza. Delaware came right back to cut the lead to 7-6 on Striefsky's 31-yard boot just 3:18 later, but that would be all the Hens could score until the final minute.

James Madison had the chance to score on its next drive when Thorpe hit Rockeed McCarter (three catches for 125 yards) down the middle for a 51 yard play but Walters stripped him of the ball at the Delaware 10-yard line and Graves recovered in the end zone. Graves returned the fumble 43 yards to give the Hens good field position, but the Hens could not take advantage. After gaining just 23 yards on seven plays, the Dukes got the ball back and upped the lead to 13-6 on Thorpe’s seven yard touchdown pass to Newman.

The Dukes then put the game away on their next drive as they marched 83 yards on 14 plays and used up 7:20 on the clock, capping the drive on a three-yard burst up the middle by Jamal Sullivan to up the lead to 20-6.

Notes....Delaware was held without a touchdown for the first time since a 27-3 loss to William & Mary last season, but Delaware extended two impressive streaks as the Hens scored a point for the 168th straight game overall since 1996 and for the 172nd straight game at home since the 1983 campaign...Blue Hen junior punter Ed Wagner was outstanding, averaging 44.4 yards on seven punts, including a career-high 73 yarder in the first half that was the eighth longest in school history and the longest since Scott White’s school record 82-yarder in 1996...Devlin has now thrown for over 200 yards in six of the eight games this season...Hens host Hofstra next Saturday, Nov. 7, in the regular season home finale...the Delaware Stadium crowd of 20,639 was the 44th straight regular season game that drew over 20,000 since the 2002 season.