'Cats Fall Short at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – The University of New Hampshire football team's bounce-back season and return to the NCAA FCS Division I Championships ended with a 35-19 second-round loss to the College of the Holy Cross on a wet and slippery Fitton Field on Saturday afternoon.
 
UNH finished with a 9-4 overall record in its first trip to the 24-team tournament since 2017.
 
Holy Cross, the No. 8 seed in the playoffs, improved to 12-0. The Crusaders play next weekend in a Round of 16 game against the winner of a Saturday late game between Delaware and No. 1 seed South Dakota State.
 
Sophomore quarterback Max Brosmer (Roswell, Ga.) completed 21 of his 36 passes for  242 yards and two touchdowns. He also had three interceptions and was sacked twice.
 
Holy Cross did a better job dealing with rainy and windy conditions than the Wildcats, noted head coach Rick Santos.
 
The Wildcats lost two fumbles and their five total turnovers were a season high. They had turned the ball over four times total in their seven previous games.
 
Sophomore defensive end Josiah Silver (Hampton, Va.) had six tackles with 1.5 tackles for loss, a fumble recovery and a blocked a punt that gave UNH a safety. Fellow sophomore defensive end Dylan Ruiz (Kissimmee, Fla.) had five tackles and forced the fumble that Silver recovered.
 
Junior tight end Kyle Lepkowski (Adamstown, Md.) and senior Sean Coyne (Portsmouth, R.I.) caught the UNH touchdown passes. Redshirt freshman Joey Corcoran (Montreal, Quebec) had four catches for 77 yards and Lepkowski had four for 71 yards.
 
 Junior running back Dylan Laube (Westhampton, N.Y.) had 17 carries for 52 yards and had 116 all-purpose yards.
 
Redshirt freshman Nick Mazzie (Boxford, Mass.) made his only field goal attempt, a 24-yarder in the second quarter.
 
Sophomore safety Noah Palm (Lancaster, Pa.), sophomore defensive back Caleb Mead (Willow Grove, Pa.) junior safety Joe Eichman (Merrimack, N.H.) and junior linebacker Ryan Toscano (Bedford, N.H.) led the Wildcats with eight tackles each.
 
UNH held Holy Cross quarterback Matthew Sluka to 63 yards on 6-for-13 passing, but the Crusaders had 303 rushing yards. Peter Oliver carried 30 times for 175 yards and two scores and Sluka 12 times for 103 yards and two TDs.
 
 
FIRST QUARTER 

• Peter Oliver opened the scoring with a 39-yard run with 7:27 left in the quarter.
• Derek Ng's conversion kick put Holy Cross up 7-0.
• A UNH muffed punt return kept an early Holy Cross drive alive.  
• The UNH defense held for a punt on the first Holy Cross possession, but officials ruled the ball bounced off a UNH player and the Crusaders recovered.
• A Ng 41-yard field goal attempt came up short into the wind.
• After a UNH punt, the Wildcat defense forced a Holy Cross punt from deep in its own end.
• Silver blocked the punt and the ball bounced around and squirted out of the end zone for a UNH safety, cutting the lead to 7-2.
• Brosmer's first pass of the game on UNH's first play from scrimmage was intercepted by Walter Reynolds.

 
SECOND QUARTER 

• Silver recovered a Holy Cross fumble on a 4^th and 1 play from the HC 39 early in the second quarter.
• UNH capitalized with a drive to a 24-yard Mazzie field goal to make it 7-5 with 5:20 left in the half.
• Holy Cross had 176 yards of offense in the half to UNH's 49.

 
THIRD QUARTER 

• Holy Cross recovered a Brosmer fumble on the third play of the quarter.
• Oliver's second TD on a 4-yard run put the Crusaders up 14-5 with 11:05 left in the period.
• Sluka hit Jalen Coker with a 5-yard pass and Holy Cross led 21-5 with 4:17 to go.
• Brosmer connected with Lepkowski for an 11-yard TD with 2:07 left.
• A conversion pass fell incomplete and Holy Cross led 21-11 with 2:07 to go in the period.

 
FOURTH QUARTER 

• Sluka scored on a keeper to make it 28-11 with 10:50 left in the quarter.
• He added a 47-yard run for a score with 6:17 left and the Crusaders led 35-11.
• Brosmer closed out the scoring with a 14-yard pass to Coyne with 1:46 to play.
• Brosmer passed to Adam Deese for the two-point conversion.  

 
GAME NOTEBOOK 

• The Wildcats had 242 passing yards and 22 rushing yards for a total of 264 yards.
• Holy Cross turned the ball over once.
• It was the first time the Crusaders lost the ball on a fumble all season.

 
UNH NOTEBOOK 

• The Wildcats bounced back nicely from a 3-8 season in 2021.
• Brosmer ended the season with 3,157 yards passing for 27 touchdowns with eight interceptions.
• Coyne had four TD receptions this season.
• Lepkowski had two.
• Ruiz finished the season with 12 sacks and two forced fumbles.
• Silver had 17.5 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks with two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.  
• Mazzie was 11 for 13 in field goals for the season.

 
 
SERIES NOTEBOOK 

• Holy Cross tied the series up at 9-9.
• The Crusaders won the first game in the series, 13-0, on Oct. 2, 1909.
• The Wildcats have lost their last three games in Worcester.
• They fell 51-26 in 2017 and 13-10 in 2019.