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The New Hampshire Wildcats jumped to a 30-0 lead within the first eight minutes of the first quarter and handed Towson their worst lost in Unitas Stadium history Saturday, blowing away the Tigers, 57-7, on Family Weekend. Towson is now 1-3 (0-1 in the CAA) this season.
“When you’re not as deep as everybody else and you are playing a lot of youth, every mistake gets magnified,” Towson head coach Rob Ambrose said. “I’m not a patient soul. Is there anything positive? Yeah, nobody died.”
Freshman receiver Alex Blake had easily the most memorable day of his career, but it didn’t start out the way he had hoped. Blake dropped two key passes early in the game, including a pivotal drop early in the second quarter on a third down.
“He will remember that play in his career as the bad one,” Ambrose said of the drop. “Those series of plays are going to be a conversation piece in about three years when he’s [Randy] Moss-ing people. I don’t want to blow him up because he’s still a puppy, but he is a big wide out who can run.”
On the ensuing punt, the New Hampshire returner fumbled and the ball was recovered by Towson’s Jeremy Gardner. Ambrose put Blake back on the field for the next play from scrimmage, and he responded by catching a 24-yard touchdown pass from classmate Peter Athens. It was Blake’s first career touchdown.
Athens, however, had a day he most certainly will want to forget. He threw five interceptions, four in the first half. And two were returned for touchdowns by New Hampshire, including a 96-yard return by Wildcats safety Ryan McGuinness.
Athens was replaced in the second half by sophomore Blair Peterson. Peterson threw an interception of his own, and was just 2-6 for 40 yards.
“Extremely frustrating,” Ambrose said of the quarterbacks' performances. “Are [the interceptions] all [Athens’] fault? No… [Blair] worked his way up. I can tell you that at the No. 2 quarterback position we’ll have a little bit of a competition this week.”
The performance of the Towson special teams unit was equally abysmal. Hakeem Moore struggled returning kicks all afternoon, and the punt protection unit wasn’t any better. A snap over the head of punter Bill Shears, who was camped deep in his own end zone, resulted in a New Hampshire safety and put the UNH up 16-0. The Wildcats returned the safety punt for another touchdown.
Even without preseason CAA Offensive Player of the Year, quarterback R.J. Toman, the Wildcats were able to move the ball quite effectively. Thanks to the short fields the defense was often able to give Toman’s replacement, Kevin Decker, Towson still played on its heels most of the game. Decker was efficient, throwing for 140 yards and had three total touchdowns.
“I have a lot of confidence in the kid,” New Hampshire head coach Sean McDonnell said of Decker. “I thought he did a great job running our offense today. Towson is going to beat some teams in the league this year. I just watch the way they play, especially defensively, and they’re starting to do the things that you need to do in this league.”
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