DURHAM – The new stadium was the star to begin the game, the old coach was the star at halftime, but in the end it was the current team that stole the show.
The University of New Hampshire football team christened its new $25 million dollar Wildcat Stadium by coming back from an early 14-point deficit for a 39-28 win against Holy Cross in front of 13,242 fans.
“It was really crazy just to be a part of the first one,” senior running back Dalton Crossan said of the inaugural game. “Everybody was really amped up and the hat goes off to all the fans and the students, it was a great atmosphere.”
Crossan was pretty great himself, running for a career-high 199 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries, a whopping 8.3 yards per rush average.
“The way he ran the ball tonight, tough hard runs, explosive runs, making people miss, he did a hell of a job,” Coach Sean McDonnell said of Crossan.
Sophomore quarterback Trevor Knight added another 87 rushing yards and Trevon Bryant had 79 yards on nine carries as UNH (1-1) ran for 362 yards and had 552 total yards after gaining just 141 yards in last week’s 31-0 loss at San Diego State.
“On the sideline we knew that we had ‘em,” Crossan said. “We knew that we could run the ball on ‘em.”
The first halftime at Wildcat Stadium featured Bill Bowes, who coached at UNH for 27 seasons and retired in 1998 as the all-time winningest coach in Yankee Conference/Atlantic 10 (175-106-5) and was named named to the 2016 College Football Hall of Fame Class by the National Football Foundation.
That was the good halftime news for the Wildcats, the bad news was they were down 21-13. But the ‘Cats found their groove after they came out of the locker room.
It started on the defensive side with a sack from Josh Kania ending the first drive of the second half. The offense took over from there, going 63 yards in five quick plays – the biggest one a 36-yard catch from Rory Donovan and the last one an 8-yard touchdown catch by Neil O’Connor, the first of his career, to make it 21-19 with 10:50 to play in the third.
The Crusaders (1-1) responded with an 85-yard drive that saw quarterback Peter Pujals (42-for-64 for 427 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions) hit Richie DeNicola for a 29-yard score midway through the third that have the visitors a 28-19 lead.
New Hampshire answered with an eight-play, 67-yard march that was highlighted by a 42-yard run from Bryant and and completed by a 1-yard touchdown run from Bryant that made it 28-25 with 2:53 left in the third.
After another stop from the UNH defense, the Wildcats took their first lead of the game at warp speed as Knight (11-for-18 for 190 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions) hit Donovan with a 62-yard bomb on the first and only play of the drive, putting the ‘Cats up 32-28 at the end of the third.
“We had a little play action fake and I just saw Rory run right by the kid,” Knight said. “So I just tried to put it anywhere near him so he could catch it and run.”
It was UNH senior captain Casey DeAndrade who, fittingly, sealed the first win of the season and the first win at the new stadium. The All-American picked off a Pujals pass and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown.
While UNH ended the night with a party in its new pad, Holy Cross was the team that seemed most at home in the new stadium to start.
The Crusaders scored touchdowns on their first three possessions and took that 21-13 lead into halftime.
“We don’t like to play form behind,” DeAndrade said, “but we had to, and I was pretty proud of the way we all came back.”