The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Huskies avoid upset in opener
EAST HARTFORD » The return of Randy Edsall to the UConn football sidelines generated most of the buzz leading into Thursday’s season opener but it was another veteran who stole the show.
Bryant Shirreffs, a starting quarterback in each of the last two seasons, came off the bench to engineer three second-half scoring drives in the 27-20 win over Holy Cross at Rentschler Field.
Nate Hopkins sandwiched touchdown runs of 1 and 3 yards around an 11-yard scoring pass from Shirreffs to Hergy Mayala but a missed extra point by Michael Tarbutt on the last of those three scores made it a seven-point game instead of the Huskies leading by eight with 6:27 to play.
Holy Cross quickly drove inside the 20 but on fourth down, Peter Pujals was forced out of bounds for a two-yard loss by Cam Stapleton to give the ball back to
the Huskies. Shirreffs and Mayala teamed up with a clutch third down completion to allow the Huskies to run out the clock.
With the offense struggling to generate anything since the scoring drive late in the first quarter, former starting quarterback Bryant Shirreffs came in and completed three straight passes. Nate Hopkins did the rest including a 3-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 20-14 with 15 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Shirreffs led the Huskies on another scoring drive the next time out culminating with an 11yard TD pass to Hergy Mayala.
Shirreffs was 9-of13 passing for 124 yards while Mayala finished with nine catches for 106 yards. Hopkins finished with 130 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries to become the first UConn player to rush for more than 100 yards in his debut since Lyle McCombs in 2011.
The victory could be a costly one as senior linebacker Junior Joseph left the game in the third quarter with an upperbody injury and did not return.
After Arkeel Newsome was stopped behind the line of scrimmage on 3rd and 1 to end UConn’s first offensive possession of the season, it looked like Holy Cross was in business when Pujals connected with Jordan Montgomery for a 40-yard pass play. However, an ineligible man downfield penalty negated the gain. A sack by Chris Britton in his first career start helped to force a punt on the Crusaders’ first drive.
UConn was already playing without injured senior linebacker Vontae Diggs, its top returning tackler. Things got worse when senior defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi was ejected for targeting on a helmet to helmet hit on Pujals. Pujals had completed a 13-yard pass on the play so combined with the 15-yard penalty, Holy Cross’ second offensive possession went from the 20 to the 48.
The Crusaders converted on 3rd and 7 and 4th and 8 and had a first down at the UConn 14. Freshman defensive back Tyler Coyle had a key pass breakup on a pass that looked like a touchdown as the Crusaders had to settle for a A.J. Wells’ 25yard field goal.
UConn, which went the entire 2016 season without scoring a touchdown in the first quarter, showed some signs of life on offense.
David Pindell was 5-for-5 passing for 60 yards. The final 18 yards went to tight end Alec Bloom setting up freshman running back Hopkins’ 11-yard touchdown. The TD was the first for the Huskies in the first quarter since former UConn running back Ron Johnson had an 8-yard scoring run with 1:21 left in the first quarter of the 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl. The drive accounted for 71 of UConn’s 110 yards of total offense in the first half.
A pair of UConn turnovers in the second quarter changed the complexion of the game.
Pindell fumbled after running for a first down as Nick McBeath’s recovery gave the Crusaders the ball at the UConn 34.
A 13-yard completion to Jordan Montgomery on 4th and 5 ultimately led to Pujals’ connecting with fellow Illinois native Blaise Bell for a 19-yard touchdown.
On The Crusaders’ next possession, reserve defensive back Marshe Terry dropped an easy interception.
Holy Cross would capitalize on the second chance by driving into the red zone before settling for Wells’ 20-yard field goal.
On the ensuing kickoff, Holy Cross was offsides after a short return by freshman Jordan Swann. UConn opted to have Holy Cross kick off again rather than add five yards to the end of Swann’s mistake.
That ended up coming back to bite the Huskies when Swann fumbled on the return. A 20-yard pass from Pujals to Bell on 2nd and long was followed by Dijuan Walker trotting into the end zone untouched for the 6-yard touchdown to give Holy Cross the 20-7 lead.
UConn got a couple of breaks early in the second half when a promising opening drive by Holy Cross ended with a missed field goal. After UConn’s next drive appeared to stall, punter Brett Graham sold a running into the punter penalty to extend the drive. A rare successful down the field throw resulted in a 28-yard pass from Pindell to Hergy Mayala gave the Huskies a chance to get some points on the board. However. UConn passed on a short field goal and called an inside run on fourth down but Hopkins was stopped well short of the first down.