Laube's career day against Fordham sends UNH to Holy Cross for second round

DURHAM – Junior running back Dylan Laube finished with a school-record 424 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns to lead the University of New Hampshire football team to Saturday afternoon's 52-42 victory against Fordham University in an NCAA first round game at Wildcat Stadium. Laube rushed 29 times for 157 yards and three TDs, caught four passes for 127 yards and a touchdown, had five kickoff returns for 119 yards and three punt returns for 21 yards. The three rushing touchdowns matched a personal best, with the four total TDs and 127 receiving yards both marking career highs.

More:UNH football back in NCAA tournament, at home: 'It means everything'

Up next: Holy Cross

UNH, an NCAA at-large team as co-champion of the CAA, improved to 9-3 overall to advance to the NCAA second round at eighth-seeded College of the Holy Cross on Saturday (noon). Fordham, which received an at-large bid out of the Patriot League, ends the season at 9-3.

Saturday stars

Sophomore Max Brosmer completed 18 of 34 passes for a career-high 348 yards and three TDs – 87 yards to Laube, seven yards to Sean Coyne and 65 yards to Heron Maurisseau.

Joey Corcoran had a team-leading five catches for 47 yards. Coyne finished with three catches for 52 yards. Josiah Silver led UNH's defense with seven tackles, including two stops behind the line of scrimmage, and a forced fumble. Joe Eichman, Niko Kvietkus and Ryan Toscano followed with five tackles apiece. Eichman recorded one of UNH's three takeaways with a fumble recovery; Randall Harris and Brendan Tighe both recorded an interception. Fordham's Tim DeMorat threw for 330 yards, two touchdowns and two INTs.  Fotis Kokosioulis was the top target with 14 catches for 132 yards. MJ Wright pulled in five catches for 95 yards and a touchdown.

Maurisseau gets UNH going in second half

On the first play from scrimmage in the second half, Maurisseau got outside on the right edge and raced past three defenders into the end zone to give the Wildcats a 35-21 lead at 14:44.

Loughridge's 25-yard run untouched up the middle trimmed the margin to 35-28 at 5:59.

Laube returned the ensuing kickoff 36 yards to set up first-and-10 at the UNH 48, and six plays later he scored his third TD of the game (second rushing)  on a 12-yard run up the middle to extend the advantage to 42-28 at 1:40.

Fordham answered with an 8-play, 75-yard scoring drive to once again pull within seven points, 42-35, with 13:18 left.

Nick Mazzie, who had a 40-yard field goal attempt blocked in the second quarter, made a career-long 43-yard field goal at 10:50 to advance the score to 45-35.

UNH's defense forced a 3-and-out, but then the Rams got the ball back on a fumble at the Fordham 45.

The Wildcats' defense yielded just one yard to set up fourth-and-9 and another incompletion gave possession back to New Hampshire at 7:02.

Six plays later, Laube scored on an 18-yard run to extend the advantage to 52-35 at 4:10. He had five rushes for 45 yards on the 6-play, 46-yard drive.

Fordham needed just 1 minute, 43 seconds to closed within 52-42 at 2:27.

Burke Griffin caught the attempted onsides kick and returned it nine yards to give UNH first-and-10 at the Fordham 37 with 2:25 remaining.

Runs of seven and three yards by Laube gave the 'Cats a first down with less than one minute to play, and a pair of Brosmer kneel downs ended the game.

Game notes

• New Hampshire's offense scored a touchdown on four of its first five possessions while the Wildcats' defense recorded a takeaway on three of Fordham's first five possessions as UNH built a 28-7 lead at 11:31 of the second quarter.

• UNH finished with season  highs in both passing yards (330) and total offense (664), as well as points

• The previous time the Wildcats topped 600 yards of offense was six years to the day: Nov. 26, 2016, with 637 in an NCAA first round 64-21 win vs. Lehigh. That was also the last time UNH scored 50+ points in a game.

• Fordham, which entered the game ranked No. 2 in the nation in scoring (50.2 points/game) and No. 1 in both total offense (612.1 yards/game) and passing yards (421.4 per game), finished with 577 total yards on a split of 247 rushing and 330 passing.

• UNH won the turnover battle with three takeaways and one giveaway.

• The Wildcats had the edge in time of possession, 35:33 to 24:57.

• There were no sacks on a combined total of 75 pass attempts.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: UNH football advances in NCAA tourney with win over Fordham