DURHAM — From inspiring start to efficient finish, the University of New Hampshire football team put it all together – special teams, offense and defense – in last Saturday’s impressive 37-14 Colonial Athletic Association road win at Towson.
The challenges keep coming this week as the Wildcats take their 3-1 overall record (they are 3-0 in the CAA) to Kalamazoo, Mich., to face Western Michigan in Waldo Stadium on Saturday night at 6 p.m. in their FBS test for the season.
The Broncos are 1-3 with a 37-30 win over Ball State to go with losses at Michigan State (35-13) at home against Pittsburgh (34-13) and at San Jose State (34-6) last Saturday.
After Western Michigan, the Wildcats play three straight games without leaving the state: They have Stony Brook in Wildcat Stadium for Homecoming on Oct. 8 at 3:30 p.m., play at Dartmouth on Oct. 15 at 1:30 p.m. and then face Elon in their Family Weekend game Oct. 22 at 1 p.m.
First, the Broncos.
Replicating the triumph at Towson – which featured some risk/reward opportunities that paid off handsomely – would be nice.
Special teams: Junior running back Dylan Laube earned CAA weekly honors for the second time this season, in large part for his 92-yard return of a punt for UNH’s first touchdown of the game in the last minute of the first quarter.
“We needed that spark,” said UNH coach Rick Santos said. “It allowed us to get a little more momentum. Dylan has an infectious personality and when he makes a play like that, the guys on defense get excited as well.”
The Laube play – on a punt that some would have chosen not to try to return from that close to the UNH end zone – gave the Wildcats a 10-0 lead they extended to 24-0 early in the third period.
It tied the program record for longest return for a TD that was set in 1981 by Dave Wissman and was UNH’s longest since Casey DeAndrade, now an assistant coach with the team, had one of 90 yards against William & Mary on Oct. 17, 2015.
Laube also had 23 carries for 114 yards rushing, a total of 250 all-purpose yards and was named CAA Special Teams Player of the Week. He was the league’s Co-Offensive Player of the Week after rushing for 202 yards at UAlbany on Sept. 10.
And here’s the, well, kicker: Redshirt freshman Nick Mazzie was another fine candidate for Special Teams honors.
Mazzie started the game with an onside kick drawn up by special teams coach Garrett McLaughlin. Adam Deese recovered the ball, and Mazzie kicked a 25-yard field goal to give UNH an early 3-0 lead.
The Wildcats had been working on the onside kick all season and debated long and hard over whether to open the Towson game with it.
“We rolled the dice a little bit,” Santos said.
Mazzie was impressive all night. His high kicks had enough hang time to help the kickoff team keep Towson’s dangerous returner, D’Ago Hunter, in check.
He made all four of his conversion kicks and added field goals of 25 and 42 yards in the fourth quarter to help seal the win.
He’s 4-for-4 on field goals this year. The Wildcats made only two field goals last season.
The offense: UNH’s 37 points were the team’s most since a 40-17 win over Towson on Oct. 21, 2017.
Sophomore quarterback Max Brosmer completed 17 of his 23 passes for 194 yards and three more touchdowns, did not throw an interception and was not sacked. He has seven touchdown passes with one interception in the past two games.
The goal Santos, offensive coordinator Brian Scott and the rest of offense set coming into the season was to establish the run game first to help set up a passing attack, with the idea of making the Wildcats dangerous in both aspects.
They scored five of their first six touchdowns of the year on the ground. They’ve scored their last seven through the air.
The offense had 171 yards rushing against Towson and 194 passing and for the season is at 209 passing and 144 rushing. UNH is averaging almost 31 points a game.
“I like the way the offense is going right now, being able to run and pass the ball,” said captain and offensive tackle Patrick Flynn. “It’s key to not be one-sided. If you’re only running the ball, it’s not good. The defense will load the box. If you’re only passing the ball, they can take people away. You want to be able to run and pass the ball.”
Brosmer has thrown touchdown passes to five different players, with redshirt freshman Joey Corcoran, grad student Heron Maurisseau and freshman DJ Linkins each catching a pair.
Maurisseau, a transfer from Connecticut, has pulled in a long TD pass (the first 49 yards, the second 51) in each of the last two games.
The defense: The defense bounced back at Towson from a rough night in a loss to North Carolina Central the week before.
The Wildcats shut the Tigers out in the first half and kept quarterback Tyrell Pigrome bottled up. Towson had 97 yards rushing and 239 total yards of offense.
The defensive front applied pressure all night and came up with six sacks, half of them by sophomore defensive end Dylan Ruiz. Josiah Silver had a sack and a half from the other end position.
UNH leads the CAA and is ranked 10th in the country in sacks with 3.75 per game. Ruiz leads the team with 4.5 sacks, and Silver is close behind with 3.5.
Captain and defensive tackle Niko Kvietkus, who is in the MBA program at the Peter T. Paul College of Business & Economics, loved the onside kick and the way UNH jumped in front at Towson.
“The amount of energy, especially on the road in the CAA, you can get out of that is great,” said Kvietkus, who is one of four CAA players nominated for the William V. Campbell Trophy. “You can just suck the energy out of the stadium doing that and use it to your advantage. It was awesome.”
The Campbell Trophy is awarded to the best football scholar athlete in the country and considers academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.
Game notes: Santos said Western Michigan is better than its record and desperate for a win after starting with a tough schedule, including having three of its first four games on the road. … Redshirt freshman quarterback Jack Salopek started the first three games and had one touchdown pass and four interceptions. He missed the San Jose State game last week with an injury but may return this week. Mareyohn Hrabowski, another redshirt freshman and more runner than passer, started last week’s game. … Running back Sean Tyler has rushed for 255 yards and a pair of TDs and had the only score against San Jose State with a 90-yard kickoff return. La’Darius Jefferson has 160 yards rushing with three touchdowns. … Western Michigan went 8-5 last year and beat Nevada, 52-24, in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit. The Broncos won at Pittsburgh, 44-41, the week before UNH played the Panthers. … For the Wildcats, Laube is up to 81 carries for 423 yards and has scored all five of the team’s rushing touchdowns. Corcoran leads the team with 18 catches for 186 yards and Laube has 13 for 134 yards. … Santos said that sophomore linebacker Oleh Manzyk had surgery last week and will miss the rest of the season. The injury had kept him out all year.