By Brian Bohl
On paper, it appeared to be an enticing matchup: a top-ranked defense against an upper echelon offense. But the bout was a lopsided affair, as New Hampshire’s passing attack ravaged the Pride’s secondary, leading to Hofstra’s first defeat of the season in a 40-3 trouncing at Shuart Stadium.
The Wildcats entered with the Colonial Athletic Association’s top scoring offense. Through the first six games, the Pride emerged with the 12-team conference’s best ranking in total defense. UNH quarterback Ricky Santos scoffed at those numbers and consistently picked apart the zone coverage, tossing four touchdowns while rushing for another to secure CAA Offensive Player of the Week honors.
“He might be the single-most dominating offensive player I’ve seen,”coach Dave Cohen said.
Hofstra (6-1, 3-1) entered the contest allowing just over 282 yards per game, but more importantly surrendered just 10 touchdowns in jumping out to a 6-0 start. Yet Santos produced half that total in one game, leading the Wildcats to scoring drives in four of his team’s first five drives to open a 33-3 halftime lead that took the announced crowd of 5,688 out of the game. It was the school’s worst loss since a 50-6 drubbing to Montana in 1992.
“They did a great job beating us not only in all three phases of offense, defense and special teams, but also in coaching,” Cohen said.
After not playing the previous week because of a sprained right shoulder, Santos showed no signs of rust. He consistently exploited a Cover 2 defense, finishing 19-23 for 262 yards before giving way to R.J. Toman in the third quarter with the game out of reach. The senior quarterback recorded three down passes of over 25 yards, including two in a 26-point second quarter. Before the game, Cohen’s team had not allowed more than 28 points in any game.
“I thought early on, we kept them off balance,” Santos said. “We were hitting some short passes underneath, and that opened some play-action big for us. We stuck with the game-plan we had all week, and it worked.”
The eleventh-ranked Wildcats started quickly against No. 10 Hofstra, marching 74 yards in nine plays on the opening drive that was capped by a Santos 1-yard touchdown sneak. The Pride responded with a promising first drive that ended with a field goal, making it 7-3 after both teams exchanged defensive stops.
With time winding down in the first half, UNH produced the game-changing play. Safety David Darby, off to a hot start, made a leaping deflection to prevent a J.T. Wright reception on third-and-long. That set-up and punting situation and a chance for Hofstra to get the ball back and potentially take the lead.
Instead, punter Tom Bishop executed a brilliant fake call, taking the snap and rushing 26 yards against a stunned coverage team for the first down as time expired in the first quarter. One play later, Santos hit Wright for the first of his two touchdown catches, opening up a 13-3 advantage that irrevocably garnered UNH the momentum.
“They were pretty aggressive in their middle return, and I was hoping they were in a certain alignment,” New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell said. “We have a number of fake punts that we use. We executed but not the way it was drawn up. It was supposed to go up the middle.”
Santos did more than just victimize safeties Darby and Nick Altomare and corners DeWayne Whitaker and Kyle Arrington. The Wildcats thrived on a barrage of midrange and flat throws in front of the coverage. Linebacker Luke Bonus finished with a game-high 13 tackles and Gian Villante registered nine stops, but neither could consistently prevent Keith LeVan, Scott Sicko and Wright from using the intermediate pass plays to facilitate the long strikes.
“You can’t go out and lose the turnover ratio 4-0,” Cohen said. “Obviously, we were not ready emotionally to play. Our seniors have never beaten New Hampshire. We have to look under every rock and see what went wrong as a staff.”
LeVan abused the secondary for seven catches and 121 yards and a touchdown, complementing Sicko’s five-catch, one-touchdown performance as Hofstra into a tie with Massachusetts for first place in the North Division. They will try to make it back to the top-10 in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) rankings and remain in contention for the school’s first playoff appearance since 2001.