No. 23 Football Overcome By No. 2 UNH, 49-24
GAME STATS (PDF)
DURHAM, N.H. – Facing brutally cold and rainy conditions Saturday night at Cowell Stadium, the No. 23 University at Albany football team was overcome by the No. 2 ranked University of New Hampshire Wildcats, 49-24. The outcome marked UAlbany's first road loss of the season, dropping the Great Danes' record to 6-3 overall and 2-3 in CAA play, while UNH improved to 7-1 on the season and 5-0 in conference play.
Despite trailing 42-3 heading into the fourth quarter, the Great Danes scored 21 straight points in an exactly three-minute span. The spark included back-to-back fumble recoveries on the kickoff, resulting in touchdown tosses by redshirt senior quarterback Will Fiacchi.
“We're going to get there,” said Head Coach Greg Gattuso. “Our attitude is outstanding. They could have easily fell on the ground and felt bad for themselves. I thought they fought hard in the second half and gave it effort."
"There's not even a moral victory in this one," added Gattuso. "But I've never been part of building a program where you don't get your butt kicked sometime.”
While the Wildcats picked off three, Fiacchi finished the game with three passing touchdowns, completing 21-of-40 attempts for 215 yards.
True freshman Josh Gontarek led UAlbany with eight receptions for 70 yards and an 8-yard touchdown grab. Redshirt freshman Brad Harris followed with four catches for 60 yards and a 9-yard touchdown reception from Fiacchi.
Redshirt senior Cole King recorded two receptions, including a 22-yard touchdown nab that put the Syracuse, N.Y. native over the 2,000 receiving yard milestone for his career. With 2,018 yards, he is the third UAlbany player in program history to reach the milestone.
While the Wildcat defense held UAlbany to 96 rushing yards in the contest, sophomore Andre Martin recorded a team-high 80 yards on 15 carries. UNH held the CAA's rushing leader, Omar Osbourne, to 21 yards on 10 handoffs.
Defensively, Michael Nicastro (9 solo) and Christian Dorsey (8 solo) co-led the squad with nine tackles and a sack. True freshman Malachi Hoskins totaled three tackles, including two for a total loss of 14-yards, as well as forced a fumble. TJ Idowu, Jack Forster, and Adegboyega Asanpaola each logged a fumble recovery.
Scoring on their first drive of the game, UNH took a 7-0 lead on Nico Steriti's 25-yard touchdown run with 11:25 to go in the first quarter. UAlbany responded with an 11-play drive including two third-down conversions, but Patrick Toole's 44-yard field goal attempt landed just short of the uprights.
From there, R.J. Harris caught a 16- and an18-yard touchdown pass from Andy Vailas with 13 seconds left in the first and 11:39 on the clock in the second quarter, respectively. Vailas' toss to Harold Spears on the latter's conversion put the Wildcats up 22-0.
However, the Great Danes answered, piecing together a 10-play, 83-yard drive for a field goal. Facing 4th-and-3 on the UNH-20, Fiacchi connected a 13-yard pass to Gontarek, preserving the drive. Unable to get into the end zone, Toole put the Danes on the board with a 24-yard field goal with 8:17 remaining in the half.
While Fiacchi had his 2nd-and-9 pass at the UAlbany-41 picked, no damage was done, as the Danes' defense forced a three-and-out.
Slick playing conditions likely played a role in the game's next series of events, as Hoskins recorded a sack and stripped the ball from Vailas. Forster recovered on the UAlbany-46 with 1:51 left in the stanza. However, the Wildcats played copycat, forcing Fiacchi to fumble at the UNH-35 and Cody Muller recovered.
New Hampshire turned the turnover into a touchdown, using four plays to travel 65-yards. Harris capped the drive with a 21-yard run into the end zone with 30 seconds on the clock, giving the hosts a 29-3 halftime advantage.
Out of the break, the Wildcats stretched the margin to 39-points, turning two interceptions into two touchdowns. Casey DeAndrade picked off Fiacchi's pass at the UAlbany-18 and on the next play, Jimmy Owens ran it in, giving UNH a 36-3 lead with 10:42 left in the third.
In their next drive, UAlbany had another pass picked off, as Akil Anderson snagged Fiacchi's pass at the 50 and returned it to the UAlbany-22. Four plays later, Steriti ran it into the end zone on a one-yard rush. Zach Troutman blocked the extra-point, leaving the score, 42-3 with 7:40 left in the quarter.
With the game out of reach, the Danes did not give up. Converting twice on third down, Fiacchi capped UAlbany's 10-play, 61-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Gontarek. With Toole's point-after, the Danes made the score 42-10 with 13:23 left in the game.
However, the touchdown was just the beginning of UAlbany's fourth quarter spark. On the ensuing kickoff, UNH's Trevon Bryant fumbled the ball and Idowu recovered on the UNH-9. Less than a minute after their last touchdown, Fiacchi connected a 9-yard pass to Brad Harris, making the score 42-17 with 12:33 left.
Like déjà vu, UNH fumbled the next kickoff return too. This time, Colin Cooper forced and Asanpaola recovered on the UNH-36. Facing 4th-and-11, Fiacchi scrambled 15 yards for a first down and then capped the seven-play drive with a 22-yard touchdown pass to King with 10:23 remaining.
With 4:19 to go, UNH scored one last touchdown on Donald Goodrich's 9-yard run, making the final score 49-24.
Vailas finished with 188 passing yards, completing 18-of-24 attempts, while Harris led the Wildcats with 108 receiving yards on 10 receptions.
“Obviously it's a frustrating loss and not the performance we wanted to put up when we came here,” said Fiacchi. “We know we can't let this loss affect our next game. We have to come ready to work tomorrow and watch film and understand exactly where the mistakes were that we made, and how we can make them better. “
Up next, the Great Danes host CAA-foe Delaware Nov. 8th at 3:30 p.m. at Bob Ford Field.
