Boxscore
Photos Courtey of Mark Campbell

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- William & Mary started the night’s scoring with a school-record pass play and the University of Delaware could never quite recover as the Blue Hens dropped a 30-20 decision to the No. 5 ranked Tribe in a key early season Colonial Athletic Association football battle Saturday night at Zable Stadium.

The Hens (2-2, 0-2 CAA) managed to move the ball through the air behind Pat Devlin’s 302 yards passing and three touchdowns, but Delaware could never find its way on the ground and remained winless in conference play. The Hens rushed 18 times but lost -2 yards on the night, marking just the second time in school history that the Hens have been held to negative yardage rushing in a game.

William & Mary (4-0, 1-0 CAA), which moved to 4-0 for the first time since the 1994 season and defeated the Hens at home for the first time since the 2004 NCAA playoffs, used two big plays from quarterback R.J. Archer to Chase Hill, including a school-record 91-yard touchdown pass midway through the first quarter, and two rushing touchdowns from Jonathan Grimes to post the win in its CAA opener.

“William & Mary did a great job of keeping our offense off-balance all night,” said Delaware head coach K.C. Keeler, whose squad will return to action next Saturday with a trip to CAA foe Maine. “They got that big play early and that really hurt us. They jumped out to the lead and we felt we had to throw almost every down and that’s not what we want to do. They played better than we did tonight and we didn’t bring our A game. We didn’t start with any rhythm, got in a hole, and we could never recover.”

Devlin, a first-year junior transfer from Penn State, completed 33 of 49 passes for 302 yards and three touchdowns - all career-highs - while freshman Rob Jones caught 10 passes for 113 yards, Tommy Crosby (bottom right) hauled in eight passes for 63 yards, and Mark Mackey added seven catches for 33 yards. Jones’ 10 receptions set a UD single game record for a freshman, surpassing the nine by Justin Long twice in 2002.

Devlin hit Phillip Thaxton (top right) in the back of the end zone with a 30-yard scoring strike late in the first half to cut the William & Mary lead to 17-7 at the break and added scoring tosses of 25 yards to Jones and two-yards to Nihja White in the final three minutes but it wasn’t enough. Delaware never held the lead the entire game.

Archer, who led the Tribe to a season-opening 26-14 win over Virginia on Sept. was sharp all night, hitting 23 of 37 passes for 313 yards and two scores while Hill caught six passes for 148 yards and two scores and Grimes led all runners with 98 yards and two scores. The Tribe defense held Delaware to 18 first downs, only two on the ground, sacked Devlin five times for 28 yards, allowed the Hens to convert just 5 of 15 third down opportunities.

“We need to be better than we were tonight,” said Keeler. “We knew how important this game was, having played two of the top teams in the CAA early. We needed to get one of them. This will be a big chore for us to come back and get ready for Maine next week. We have to shake this off.”

After Delaware cut the William & Mary lead to 17-7 at the half, the Tribe controlled the action in the second half, putting together consecutive drives of 70 yards and 52 yards that used up over 11 minutes in the third quarter. Grimes’ nine-yard slashing dive into the end zone with 10:03 left in the third quarter capped a 70-yard drive and gave the Tribe the 23-7 cushion.

The Blue Hens battled back, cutting the lead to 23-13 with 2:37 left as Devlin drove Delaware 71 yards on seven plays and hit Jones with a 25-yard scoring toss down the right sidelines. Jones scored a touchdown for the second straight game.

William & Mary recovered the ensuing on-side kick by the Blue Hens and added some insurance as Grimes scored from four yards out to push the Tribe lead to 30-13. Devlin’s last minute two-yard scoring toss to White - the first catch of the redshirt freshman’s career - capped the scoring with 31 seconds left but it came too late.

The Blue Hens did not have much to cheer about in the first half until the final minute when Delaware finally got on the board with just 17 seconds left when Devlin hit Thaxton on a fly pattern in the back of the end zone to narrow the deficit to 17-7.

Up until then, it was all William & Mary as Archer sliced the Blue Hen defense for 253 yards and two touchdowns and the Tribe defense held UD to just 127 yards.

Archer hooked up twice with Hill as the two combined for the longest pass play in school history to open the scoring eight minutes into the game. After William & Mary was pinned back at its nine-yard line on a punt by Ed Wagner, it took just one play for Archer and Hill to makes things exciting. Archer was forced out of the pocket and fired a pass from the end zone to Hill, who caught the ball in stride across the middle at the 43-yard line and outraced freshman cornerback Marcus Burley the rest of the way for a 91-yard scoring play. Burley, a Virginia native, was making his first career start in place of injured starter Tyrone Grant.

Archer, who was 15 of 21 for 253 yards in the first half, hooked up again with Hill less than seven minutes later to push the score to 14-0. Hill took a pass from Archer at the right flat, broke a tackle, and raced into the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown with :52 seconds left in the first stanza. The score capped a seven-play, 77-yard drive.

William & Mary kicker Brian Pate missed on a 37-yard field goal attempt with 5:59 left in the half, but redeemed himself four minutes later when he converted his eight field goal of the season to increase the Tribe lead to 17-0.

Delaware finally got on the board on its next drive, moving 75 yards on nine plays in just 1:28. Devlin, who completed 17 of 26 passes for 141 yards during the half, completed a 19-yard pass to Crosby and consecutive completions to Jones, and later a seven-yard toss to Mackey to set up the scoring toss to Thaxton.

Wagner was a bright spot in the first half as he averaged 41.2 yards on six punts, pinning the Tribe inside its own 20-yard line several times. However, Delaware committed an uncharacteristic four penalties for 42 yards in the half. The Hens entered the game tied as the least penalized team in the nation at the FCS level with just 3.0 per game.