Here’s pretty much all you need to know about tonight’s Route 1 Rivalry game between Delaware and Delaware State: 35-0, 301-95 and 112-1.
In order that’s the score, the total yards and the rushing yards at the half. The last difference is not a misprint. DSU has exactly one yard rushing in the first half. Just a dominating half for the Blue Hens.
3rd Quarter:
And UD picked right up where they left off on their first drive of the second half; a methodical seven-play, 59-yard march with Andrew Pierce running in his third touchdown of the game to officially put this one into laugher territory.
On the drive, Pierce cracked 100 yards rushing for the game and 2,000 yards rushing for his career. Pierce is the first sophomore in Blue Hen history to go over 2,000 yards in his career.
With seven minutes left in the 3rd quarter, UD pulled Pierce and quarterback Tim Connelly. Of all of the Blue Hens’ stars tonight, Donnelly may have been the brightest, finishing 13-for-14 for 221 yards with two touchdowns. He was pretty much flawless. Donnelly got my vote for the game’s most valuable player.
As for Pierce, he finished with 106 yards and three touchdowns.’ Nuff said. The Hens killed the Hornets all night on zone plays to the outside.
While the UD offense has been a machine tonight, the Hens defense has been a brick wall. Without Wilson, the Hornets haven’t been able to stretch the field, allowing the UD defense to crowd the line and stop the run and the short passing game. Down big, the Hornets have had to throw the ball a lot, but it’s been a lot of dinking and dunking. There’s no threat of the big play, and UD knows it.
4th Quarter:
We’re into garbage time here in Newark. UD has put in all its backups and is either running the ball or throwing short passes. Clearly, UD Coach K.C. Keeler is ready to get out of this thing with everyone healthy for Old Dominion next week.
The announced crowd was a little over 18,000, the smallest attendance at a UD game in 10 years. Not sure what to make of that number. Either the Blue Hen fans were skeptical of their team, or they didn’t think UD would have much of a problem tonight.
For DSU, this one got ugly in a hurry. UD just looked faster than DSU and the Hornets really struggled defensively to keep up with the Blue Hens’ pace.
UD pretty much put this one in cruise control midway through the 3rd quarter and it was not a good sign that the Blue Hens backups were running it up and down the field.
So the First State Cup goes to Delaware, 45-0. Until the next time…
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Ryan Mavity has been a reporter with the Cape Gazette since February 2007. He covers the town of Milton and the courts. Ryan lives in Milford with his wife, Rachel, son, Alex, and daughter, Jane.
Contact Ryan at ryanm@capegazette.com.
