Blue Hens push past Tops for 35-21 win

Published 8:25 am Wednesday, October 28, 2026

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Western Kentucky’s Moussa Barry (8) attempts to gain yards after making a catch during Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky’s Brock Glenn (11) reaches for extra yardsduring Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky’s Cameron Flowers (4) looks to gain extra yards during Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky’s Cameron Flowers (4) attempts to shed a tackle during Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky’s Moussa Barry (8) looks to gain extra yards during Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky’s Ajay Allen looks to gain extra yards during Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky’s Jonathan Stafford Jr. (80) makes a catch during Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky’s Moussa Barry (8) makes a catch during Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky’s Alec Johnson (50) looks to block during Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky’s Brock Glenn (11) looks to pass during Western Kentucky’s 35-21 loss to Delaware on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
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Western Kentucky kept pace with Delaware’s explosive offense nearly yard for yard Tuesday night at Houchens-Smith Stadium, with just 18 yards difference in total output.

Matching the Blue Hens’ point total proved a trickier proposition. Led by quarterback Nick Minicucci’s record-breaking performance, Delaware traded blows early with the Tops before pushing ahead and staying there for a 35-21 road victory.

Minicucci, the Conference USA Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, was practically flawless in completing 32 of 38 passes for 414 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. Minicucci set Delaware records for consecutive completions and consecutive completions to begin a game (18) to help the Blue Hens stay right with WKU (3-5 overall, 2-2 CUSA) before surging ahead just before halftime, then adding one more touchdown in the third quarter. Delaware outgained the Hilltoppers 495-477 in total offense, but came out of that production with two extra touchdowns.

“He’s a good football player and good football players make plays,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said of Minicucci. “And so he made his plays. He was accurate with the football. In the second half, he was accurate with a couple deep balls but he made his plays.”

Coming off a bye week after two straight conference wins, the Hilltoppers looked razor sharp on the opening drive as quarterback Brock Glenn capped an eight-play, 75-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end CC Ezirim to put WKU up 7-0 early in the first quarter.

The Blue Hens answered, with Minicucci’s 17-yard touchdown pass to Kaderris Roberts knotting the score at 7 with 6:43 left in the first.

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Glenn’s 45-yard completion to wideout Moussa Barry ignited the Tops’ offense again on the next drive, with Zion Taylor finishing off the seven-play, 75-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run with 3:41 left in the first quarter.

WKU defensive back Dave Herard forced a fumble and recovered it at the Delaware 37 to give the Tops another prime chance early, but two plays later the Blue Hens’ Kevin Moore intercepted Glenn’s pass to flip possession again. Minicucci made the most of it, hitting Sean Wilson (nine catches for 183 yards and two TDs) on a 21-yard touchdown pass to tie the game once again at 14.

The Tops needed less than two minutes to surge back ahead, with Glenn’s 61-yard keeper covering most of the distance on four-play, 75-yard drive that Ajay Allen wrapped up with a 5-yard touchdown run to give WKU a 21-14 lead with 10:52 remaining in the first half.

Glenn was nearly as sharp as Minicucci in the first half and finished with 224 passing yards and a touchdown, along with a game-high 129 rushing yards as the first Hilltopper quarterback to surpass 100 yards rushing in a game since Kawaun Jakes ran for 121 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries on Nov. 7, 2009, against Troy.

The Blue Hens answered once more with Viron Ellison Jr.’s 5-yard touchdown run evening the game at 21 with 7:25 left in the second quarter.

The Tops came up empty on their next possession and punted — Minicucci moved his team 90 yards in eight plays, completing consecutive passe of 25 and 34 yards to Wilson before hitting running back Jo Silver with a quick shovel pass that turned into an 8-yard touchdown that gave Delaware its first lead with 59 seconds before half.

But after Minicucci was 18-of-18 passing and Glenn managed a 14-of-15 effort in the first half, the final two quarters weren’t quite as sharp for either team. The Blue Hens punted away their first two tries in the third quarter, while the Tops punted and then missed out on points when Karl Campbell’s 42-yard field goal hit the left upright and bounced out.

Minicucci had one more big play, dropping in a perfect ball to Wilson in man coverage for a 40-yard touchdown strike that gave the Blue Hens a two-touchdown lead with 4:20 left in the third.

“That quarterback’s deadly accurate with the football and we were playing some man coverage and he put it right on the money where it needed to be,” Helton said. “Didn’t matter how good the coverage was. When you throw the ball that well, it’s hard to stop them.”

Another Glenn interception by AJ Graham snuffed out another WKU drive that reached the Blue Hens’ 17, and the Tops turned the ball over on downs in their final three possessions. Glenn left on the final drive with an injury with Rodney Tisdale Jr. leading WKU to the Delaware 3 before unloading a fourth-down incompletion.

“We’ve got to take advantage of our opportunities better,” said WKU freshman wide receiver Jonathan Stafford Jr., who tied with running back Jaden McGill for a team-high five catches. “We left a lot of things out there on the field. Missed a couple plays and assignments. Overall we’ve got to clean it up in terms of execution. We have an opportunity to clean up the mistakes that we have from this game. We’ll identify what we need to work on, and once we get that cleaned up we’ll be ready for our next opportunity.”

Allen added 73 rushing yards and Barry tallied a team-best 80 receiving yards in the loss.

On defense, WKU got a boost with the return of linebacker Jaylen Wester and defensive linemen Mackavelli Malotumau and Rylen Su’a-Filo, who missed the previous two games after a court injunction allowing them to play an extra season was dissolved by the Kentucky Court of Appeals — the trio won the latest round in court against the NCAA last week and were back on the field. Wester tied with Weston Ard for a team-high nine tackles, Malotumau had seven tackles including two tackles for loss and a half sack and Su’a-Filo tallied two tackles including one for loss.

The Tops are back on the road to face CUSA rival Middle Tennessee on Nov. 7 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

“Just headed back to work,” Malotumau said. “It’s Western Kentucky versus Western Kentucky at the end of the day. It starts in practice, we’ve got to come back ready to work.”

About Jeff Nations

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

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