The Delaware football team remained undefeated with its third win of the season on Saturday over Duquesne, 30-6, on the strength of a stellar performance from running back Andrew Pierce.
Pierce led the Blue Hens in their ground attack this weekend, rushing for a total of 200 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. His performance marks a new single-game rushing record for a Delaware freshman.
Pierce’s efforts earned him the Colonial Athletic Association Offensive Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week honors.
This weekend, Pierce also became the first Blue Hen to rush for at least 100 yards in his first three career games.
The majority of Delaware’s 448 yards of total offense came on the ground with 373. Freshman quarterback Trevor Sasek passed for 75 yards and one touchdown on a 23-yard pass to Phillip Thaxton in the fourth quarter.
The Dukes offense put up a good effort moving the ball inside the Delaware 15-yard line on three occasions, but was unable to score any touchdowns. The Blue Hens defense has yet to allow a touchdown thus far this season.
Rams comeback to defeat UNH
After trailing for the majority of the game, a fumble return in the fourth quarter gave Rhode Island a 28-25 win over New Hampshire on Saturday.
The 39-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown by James Timmins came with two minutes, 11 seconds left on the clock and gave the Rams the victory. The ball fell loose after Victor Adesanya sacked quarterback R.J. Toman late in the fourth quarter.
The Rams entered the fourth quarter trailing the Wildcats 18-13, having not led the game sine the score was 3-0 early in the first quarter.
Rams quarterback Steve Probst rushed for 98 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries while also passing for 78 yards and a score.
Toman also put up a strong performance for his team, passing for 284 yards and two touchdowns on 31-of-44 attempts.
On the final drive of the game, Toman threw an interception on third- and-11 which was picked off by Matt Urban, his only giveaway of the game that prevented him from leading his team to victory.
The leading receiver in the game was Wildcats senior Terrance Fox, who caught a personal-best 11 passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns.
Nova flattens Towson
Villanova’s first conference game of the season on Saturday resulted in a 43-7 romping of Towson behind the leadership of quarterback Chris Whitney.
Whitney led the way for the Wildcats, completing 9 of his 12 passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns while rushing 14 times for 44 yards and two scores.
The first points for Villanova came by way of its defense after forcing a safety with 7:46 remaining in the first quarter. It came shortly after Whitney scored on a 9-yard run to put his team up 9-0 through the first quarter.
The big quarter for Villanova was the second in which they scored 27 unanswered points to put themselves up 36-0 at halftime. Whitney threw both of his touchdown passes that quarter, including a 22-yard pass to Dorian Wells and a 17-yard pass to Angelo Babbaro.
The Villanova defense held the Tigers to only 180 yards of total offense throughout the game and only 17 yards on the ground.
The rushing game for the Wildcats was fairly balanced with five different players receiving at least six carries. Senior Aaron Ball racked up the most yards with 100 on eight chances.
Towson’s only points of the game came with 9:36 left in the fourth quarter after a 56-yard pass from quarterback Bart Blanchard to receiver Hakeem Moore.
Robert Hanlon can be reached at [email protected].
