http://www.unhwildcats.com/news/2017/12/2/football-gameday-unh-at-central-arkansas-ncaa-d-i-fcs-second-round.aspx?path=footballHolt, Defensive Effort Lead 'Cats Past Central Arkansas, 21-15
CONWAY, Ark. – Rick Holt (Portsmouth, N.H.) recorded nine tackles, including 2.5 sacks, and the University of New Hampshire's defense forced four turnovers to lead the No. 21/20 UNH football team to a 21-15 victory against No. 3 University of Central Arkansas in Saturday afternoon's NCAA FCS second-round game at Estes Stadium.
UNH's defense recorded two fumble recoveries and two interceptions – including a 56-yard pick-six by Evan Horn (Lebanon, Pa.) – against a Bears' team that ranked No. 5 in the nation with just 10 turnovers in 11 games. The Wildcats also made nine tackles for loss, including five sacks. UCA's offense had allowed an average of 0.55 per game, which ranked fourth in the nation.
Jae'Wuan Horton (Stafford, Va.) strip-sacked Hayden Hildebrand and Jared Kuehl Plymouth, N.H.) recovered the fumble with 76 seconds remaining in the game to secure the victory. Alonzo Addae (Pickering, Ontario) recorded seven tackles and recovered a fumble that he forced and Steven Harper (Roselle, N.J.) had the Wildcats' other INT.
Horton finished with five tackles, including two sacks.
New Hampshire, which improved to 9-4 overall, advances to play fifth-seeded South Dakota State in next weekend's quarterfinals. UCA, which entered the game with a 10-game win streak, ends the year at 10-2.
Christian Lupoli (East Haven, Conn.), who entered the game for injured starting quarterback Trevor Knight (Amherst, N.H.) midway through the second quarter, completed 8 of 10 passes for 63 yards and a nine-yard touchdown to Malik Love (Alcoa, Tenn.). Love led the 'Cats with five catches for 27 yards.
Evan Gray (Centreville, Va.) was UNH's top rusher with 24 carries for 85 yards. He also had two catches for 27 yards, including a 10-yard TD pass from Knight.
http://www.unhwildcats.com/news/2017/12/2/football-mcdonnell-on-cats-they-played-their-tails-off.aspx?path=footballMcDonnell on 'Cats: 'They Played Their Tails Off'
CONWAY, Ark. – They took the starch out of the "The Stripes."
The defense was immense.
The offense – led in the second half by a redshirt freshman quarterback who had completed three passes in his career – came up huge as well.
Put it all together and the No. 21 University of New Hampshire football knocked off No. 3 Central Arkansas, 21-15, Saturday afternoon in Estes Stadium where the field color alternates every five yards from purple to gray, thus earning the nickname "The Stripes."
The Wildcats made another statement – yes, they belong in this NCAA Division I FCS tournament - and now are on to the quarterfinals. They play at South Dakota State, the No. 5 seed in the tournament, next weekend, perhaps on Friday night.
"Terrific effort by my guys," said UNH head coach Sean McDonnell. "They just played their tails off. Coming into this situation, playing the No. 4 seed, No. 3 seed whatever it was in the country, a lot of people didn't think we belonged. . . . We told the kids let's go play.
That's where things get done, on the field."There was griping from some in the FCS world when the draw was announced that UNH didn't deserve a spot in the 24-team field with its 7-4 overall record.
The Wildcats beat Central Connecticut State, 14-0, in their first-round game last week and then went on the road and picked up another win Saturday.
UNH advances to the quarters with a 9-4 record. Central Arkansas had its 10-game win streak snapped and finished the season 10-2.
Junior Trevor Knight completed a 10-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Evan Gray to match a Central Arkansas score in the first period.
When Knight got knocked out of the game with an injury late in the second period, the redshirt freshman, Christian Lupoli, came in and played a tremendous game the rest of the way.
His beauty of a 9-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Malik Love – it was a great all-out dive of a catch as well – gave the Wildcats a cushion they badly needed in the middle of the fourth quarter. It put them up 21-9 with 7:19 to play.
Lupoli completed eight of his 10 passes for 63 yards and the score. He had completed three of 14 passes coming into the game.
And that defense!
Not only did it for the most part shut down a prolific Bear offense, it contributed a touchdown as well. Redshirt freshman safety Evan Horn scored it when he picked off a Hayden Hildebrand pass, got to the left sideline and raced 56 yards for a score, the only points in the second period. That helped his team to a 14-7 edge at the half.
The Bears did manage to gain yards on the Wildcats.
But how about these numbers? Central Arkansas averaged 37 points a game coming in.
The Bears had turned the ball over 10 times in their 11 regular season games.
The Wildcats forced four turnovers on Saturday. Besides Horn, redshirt freshman Steven Harper had an interception and redshirt freshman Alonzo Addae and junior linebacker Jared Kuehl had fumble recoveries.
Here's another subject senior defensive tackle Rick Holt liked: sacks.
Coming in, the Bear offensive line had protected their quarterback extremely well.
"They gave up six sacks all year," Holt said. "That's incredible almost. A lot of stuff can go wrong. One person messes up and you have a sack. Six. That's a half a sack a game. That's kind of crazy."
The Wildcats sacked Hildebrand five times.
Holt was credited with a career-high two and a half sacks. He had never before had more than one sack in a game.
Junior defensive end Jae'Wuan Horton had a couple of sacks and also deflected the pass that Harper intercepted. Junior defensive tackle Ryan Sosnak had half a sack and seven tackles.
"We game-planned really well and we ran some good stuff," Holt said. "Jae'Wuan did a really good job. Brian (Carter) did a really good job. Me and Ryan just keep working and keep working. . . . Our job was to make him as uncomfortable as possible back there and I think we did a really good job of doing that today."
They certainly did.
Now it's on to South Dakota and a chance for the program to play for the first time in another state, it did in Arkansas, and do a little more proving.
And what, from the defense to the offense to players stepping up and filling in for others, made McDonnell most proud on Saturday?
"How hard we played," McDonnell said. "It's what we do. I can't tell you how proud I am of our kids and our program. Wherever we've gone, we've just buckled up and gone and played. Don't talk much about it. We've done it. I asked the kids to do that and they did. As a coach, you can't ask for anything more."