By Ryan Colasanti NEWARK — The Fightin’ Blue Hens offense started at their own 22 yard line with just over two minutes to play and one timeout remaining. UConn led UD by three in the twilight of the back-and-forth game. Junior quarterback Nick Manicucci and the Blue Hen offense traversed the field to the Huskies 26 yard line setting the stage for graduate kicker Nate Reed.
Earlier in the quarter, Reed missed a 47 yard attempt that would’ve tied the score. This kick was four yards closer, but with even more pressure attached. With two seconds remaining, the ball was snapped, the holder placed it and Reed sneaked it barely above the crossbar. Reed completed his chance at redemption.
Reed’s kick sent the game to overtime where Manicucci capitalized on the opportunity scoring the game winning touchdown in the Blue Hens 44-41 win over the UConn Huskies, Saturday evening.
“Everything that we believe in, we went back to those fundamentals and the foundational aspects of our program and we played harder than that team today and we finished today. And that’s just so special to be a part of,” head coach Ryan Carty said postgame.
UD’s fight was on display all game. The Blue Hens answered almost every scoring drive the Huskies mustered with one of their own. There were only two drives in which the Blue Hens failed to answer a UConn score, one of them Reed’s missed field goal.
The first career FBS game between the Huskies and Blue Hens was an offensive shootout.
The two teams combined for 52 points through the first half and over 600 yards of offense. The two offenses finished with over a thousand yards of offense combined in the programs’ first meeting since 1998.
Both offenses featured a balanced offensive repertoire amassing over 150 yards on the ground and through the air. The Blue Hens had the advantage in the running game with a game high 247 rushing yards. 179 of those yards came from senior running back Jo Silver.
Silver ran for a career high 70 yard touchdown in the first quarter after UConn tied the game with its own long touchdown run courtesy of redshirt junior Cam Edwards.
“As I was trying to reverse, they kind of like almost got a hand on me, but I was able to beat it obviously,” said Silver about his touchdown run. “And then when I was down the field, I turned around at the perfect time and saw him diving and I got my feet up.”
That run was just one of a couple career firsts for the New Jersey product. Silver finished the game with a career high in rushing yards and his first career game with multiple rushing touchdowns.
Silver’s teammate, Kyre Duplessis, put together a similar career defining outing.
In the absence of leading receiver Jake Thaw, Duplessis caught nine of his 11 targets for a career high 161 yards and a touchdown. Duplessis’ second touchdown of the season came on a 68 yard pass and catch down the left sideline. The Coastal Carolina transfer leaped above his defender on third down to come away with the contested catch and scurried down the left sideline into the endzone for the longest touchdown reception of his career. The play gave UD a 28-24 halftime lead.
“I knew I was very close to the sideline. I knew once I caught the ball I wanted to try and stay in and I did my best. I didn’t hear a whistle so I said ‘alright sweet’,” Duplessis said.
Despite the career day, UConn paced the passing game with 346 yards through the air. The Huskies threw 39 times completing 28 of them to 10 different pass catchers.
The defenses weren’t much of a factor in the contest, but when they needed to make a play the Blue Hen defense came up with their first sack of the game holding UConn to a field goal on the first possession of overtime. The stop meant a UD touchdown would win the game and the Blue Hens ran a quarterback run option play that worked all game long — Manicucci scored all three of his rushing touchdowns on the play — to win the game.
The Blue Hens will try and carry the momentum from their first home overtime win since 2017 into their first Conference USA game against Florida International University next Saturday.
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