 "Photo:")
 "Photo:")
It would be hard to imagine a better Senior Day for the UNH football team.
The 11th-ranked Wildcats (8-2, 5-2 CAA) throttled rival Massachusetts (6-5, 3-4 CAA) 52-21 Saturday afternoon at Cowell Stadium. The win puts the Wildcats one step closer to an NCAA FCS playoff berth. Through fog and (at times heavy) raindrops, stars could be found everywhere Saturday on the UNH roster.
Senior linebacker Matt Parent received the annual Bill Knight Trophy as the most outstanding player of the UNH-UMass game. He recorded six tackles, recovered two fumbles, and returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown that ignited the 6,231 in attendance.
"Everyone on the team knew that we needed to win this game," he said. "Everyone played for the seniors. It was a big build-up, and it just exploded. It was an awesome feeling, an awesome game."
Sophomore quarterback R.J. Toman completed 10 of 18 passes for 295 yards and four touchdowns. Junior running back Chad Kackert accounted for 198 all-purpose yards with both a rushing and a receiving touchdown. Senior wideout Mike Boyle had 189 all-purpose yards and one TD reception.
Senior back Robert Simpson gained 125 yards on the ground on 23 carries. Redshirt freshman receiver Chris Jeannot, who had two catches on the entire season coming into Saturday's game, made two touchdown grabs. And a patchwork offensive line allowed the UNH offense to gain a massive 621 yards on the afternoon.
"We just wanted them to go out and show people we're a good football team," said UNH head coach Sean McDonnell. "We battled two teams that I think are really good, William & Mary and Villanova, and haven't come away with anything to show. That's a real good football team out there and I thought we played pretty well against them today."
One area the Wildcats improved upon previous efforts was the running attack, which garnered a total of 326 yards. There was some motivation behind that effort.
"There were some words we saw in some other articles that we couldn't run the ball," said Kackert. "You should have seen Bob Simpson yesterday because they put that up on our lockers, and he's running around saying, 'you shouldn't have put that up yet, I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight.'"
UNH's opening drive ended with a 46-yard field goal by junior kicker Tom Bishop to put the Wildcats up 3-0. UMass had a chance to take the lead on their ensuing possession, marching down to the UNH 6-yard line. Junior quarterback Liam Coen fired a pass to the goal line that was tipped by UNH senior safety John Clements and plucked out of the air by Parent. With blockers in front of him, Parent took the ball the length of the field for the score at 9:30, sending his sideline and the UNH faithful into a frenzy.
"The whole defense was running down the field just like a big convoy," said Parent. "We all ran through the end zone together. It was awesome."
The devastating swing of that play in UNH's favor was something the Minutemen were never able to recover from.
"Unfortunately, you'd like to think someone's going to run him down," said UMass head coach Don Brown. "But it came out in one of those spots where one or two guys are going to have a shot. It was a really difficult day."
The Wildcats got their next two scores on plays immediately following defensive takeaways. Coen threw his second pick of the game to linebacker Devon Jackson at 7:38 of the first quarter, and on the next play Toman found a seam in the UMass defense and ran 43 yards for a touchdown. Parent then recovered a Coen fourth-down fumble (had Parent not tripped soon after recovering, he had a tremendous chance at his second touchdown return of the day), and Kackert ran for a 48-yard TD on the next play with 2:43 to play in the quarter.
When the dust settled on the first quarter, the Wildcats were ahead 24-0, and looked to extend their lead early in the second. Driving down in Minutemen territory, Toman found Kackert in the right side of the end zone for a 30-yard score at 13:10, putting UNH up 31-0.
UMass got points on the board following a blocked Bishop punt, with fullback Chris Zardas scoring from one yard out to make it 31-7 with 9:20 left in the half. Neither side scored until Jeannot caught a pass from Toman, found his way down the UMass sideline with blockers in tow, and made it 77 yards for his first career collegiate touchdown with 59 seconds remaining until the break.
After a quick three-and-out by UMass to start the second half, the Wildcats embarked on a 14-play, 85-yard drive that ended when Toman threw a 20-yard TD pass to Boyle. With Minutemen defenders hot in pursuit, Toman rolled right and lofted his pass over the UMass secondary into Boyle's hands with 8:34 left in the third quarter.
The only bright spot on the afternoon for the Minutemen was the performance of junior running back Tony Nelson. He finished the game with 154 rushing yards on 24 carries in addition to a touchdown with 10:38 to play in the game.
UNH capped off their scoring on the ensuing drive, when a 60-yard Toman-to-Boyle completion set up a 15-yard TD catch by Jeannot with 7:46 remaining in the game.
Coen's tough afternoon ended with 22 completions on 41 attempts, 211 passing yards, one TD pass and four interceptions.
The CAA North Division title will be on the line next week when UNH travels to Maine for their annual regular-season finale. Game time is 12 p.m.
Be the first to comment on this article!