Robertson drives Villanova by Blue Hens

NEWARK, DEL. >> Delaware appeared to have everything in its favor with two minutes and four seconds to play against archrival Villanova Saturday afternoon.

The Blue Hens had a one-point lead, the crowd on its side and home-field advantage.

Villanova, though, had Walter Payton Award candidate John Robertson and in the end, having a contender for national Player of the Year honors trumped all.

Robertson engineered the fourth game-winning drive of his career and second of the season as the sixth-ranked Wildcats rallied for a 35-28 comefrom-behind victory over the Blue Hens in front of 17,056 onlookers at Delaware Stadium.

Two of those winning drives have come in the last two meetings against Delaware. Last year, Robertson put 23 points on the board in the fourth quarter as the Wildcats (10-2 overall, 7-1 CAA) erased a 34-12 deficit to beat the Blue Hens, 35-34, at PPL Park in Chester.

This time around, the 6-1, 215-pound junior quarterback threw a 21-yard scoring strike to Kevin Gulyas with 23 seconds left to cap a 10-play, 68yard scoring drive. It was his third touchdown pass of the game and fifth scoring drive that measured at least 68 yards.

Robertson finished with 217 yards passing and 117 rushing to help the Wildcats win at Delaware for the fifth straight time, beat the Blue Hens for the eighth time in the last nine meetings and win the Battle of the Blue Trophy for the sixth time since its inception seven years ago.

“He’s special,” Delaware defensive end Derrick Saulsberry said of Robertson. “That’s the only way to describe him. He’s a great player and he showed it.”

Early on, Robertson looked like he was going to lead the Wildcats to a blowout victory as he engineered scoring drives of 84, 80 and 93 yards on Villanova’s first three possessions to open up a 20-0 lead 55 seconds into the second quarter.

Delaware, t hough, was not about to go quietly and didn’t, thanks to its defense and a big day from running back Jalen Randolph. The Ridley AllDelco scored three touchdowns, the final score was a 1-yard plunge with 2:04 remaining in the game that gave the Blue Hens (6-6, 4-4) their only lead of the game, 28-27.

The problem was, Delaware left too much time on the clock and that gave Robertson the opportunity to show why he is one of the leading candidates for Player of the Year in the FCS, even though the drive started with a delayof-game penalty against the Wildcats After all, Robertson did have a lot of his mind.

A lot hinged on what the Wildcats did in those final two minutes, most importantly, where Villanova will be seeded when the FCS playoff bracket is announced Sunday morning on ESPNU (11 a.m.).

“I was thinking, ‘ Man, going into the playoffs with a loss is just a terrible way to do it,’” Robertson said. “We have a special thing going on with our team. We set ourselves up for the best position so I said, ‘We can’t lose.’ That’s pretty much what I was saying the whole time, even when there were dropped balls. Just getting into the playoffs with a good seed was what was going through my head.”

Robertson completed 3 of 9 passes on the final drive for 53 yards. He also ran once for 10 yards. No completion, though, was bigger than the 23-yard strike he threw to Poppy Livers on fourth-an-15 from the Villanova 27-yard

line to keep the drive and hopes for a high seed alive.

“That’s what a Walter Payton guy does,” Villanova coach Andy Talley said. “Fourth-and-15, he gets you the ball in the right place and then gets you the ball in the end zone, under duress.”

Robertson certainly was feeling the heat, but so was Delaware. A holding call against the Blue Hens gave the Wildcats a first down at the Delaware 40-yard. After two incompletions, Robertson found Anthony DeCamillo for nine yards and left Villanova with another tough fourth-down situation.

Well, difficult for most teams, but not that hard when you have a player of Robertson’s capabilities. He raced 10 yards to convert his third fourth down in four tries.

“That’s a credit to how much heart our team has,” Robertson said. “We’re a special team and if we don’t get it on third down, we’re ready to go on fourth down. Our offense doesn’t want to go out even if we’re on our own 30. We want to keep going for it because we have a lot of confidence.”

One play later, Robertson found Gulyas along the Delaware sideline and the junior wide receiver did his best Usher imitation as he stayed inbound to put the Wildcats in front, 33-28.

How close Gulyas was to the sideline no one will ever know.

“I don’t even remember,” Gulyas said. “It happened so quickly. I was focused on the pylon and trying to get to it.”

Robertson wasn’t done, either. He found Livers for the two-point conversion that gave Villanova a seven-point lead with just 23 ticks on the clock.

As game as the Blue Hens were, they couldn’t go the length of the field because they did not have a Walter Payton candidate on their side.

“He’s the heart-and-soul of what we’re doing,” Talley said. “We don’t have (another) superstar on offense. He’s the superstar. I think he’s the Walter Payton (winner). He’s the guy. He’s the best and I think this kind of performance today proves that. We wouldn’t have done that with anybody else. He’s the guy.”