By Jack Weiland
DURHAM, N.H. – The Northeastern football team did something special Saturday at New Hampshire.
The team lost 52-21 in a game that somehow wasn’t nearly as close as the score.
Sophomore quarterback Ricky Santos scorched the Northeastern defense for six first half touchdowns in front of 7,317 at Cowell Stadium, as the Wildcats opened up a 42-7 edge after two quarters. Santos, who threw for 306 yards before being pulled late in the third quarter, moved into third all-time among UNH passers with 5,478 career yards.
He connected on 25 of 26 passes, including his last 23. When he wasn’t dissecting the Huskies with his arm, he was fooling them with his legs – sidestepping NU’s rush at every turn.
“It was like we were out on ice,” said NU coach Rocky Hager, his team having fallen to 1-6 overall, 1-4 Atlantic-10. “He had skates on, we didn’t, which is a credit to him.”
Santos led the Wildcats to the end zone on their first five possessions.
On their first, two minutes into the game, he scored on a two-yard quarterback keeper.
Northeastern answered with an impressive 13-play, 66-yard drive that lasted more than six minutes. Quarterback Anthony Orio (6-for-14, 30 yards) found fullback Bobby French with a pass as he fell out of bounds to tie the score, 7-7, halfway through the first quarter.
The game, at this point, seemed to have all the makings of a classic shootout. And it was, just with one unarmed combatant and one crazed gunslinger.
Santos led UNH (6-1, 4-1) downfield with ease on the next possession, going 67 yards in just five plays. On the seventh of 24 straight completions, he found Jon Williams in the flat for a four-yard touchdown with 4:45 left in the opening frame.
On his ninth straight completion, after a sack and fumble recovery gave the Wildcats the ball on NU’s 39, he hit Sean Lynch in the back of the end zone with seven seconds left in the first.
After an interception put Santos on the Northeastern 32, the 6-foot, 2-inch, 215-pound quarterback tossed a 21-yard touchdown to running back John McCoy to make it 28-7 just 18 seconds into the second quarter.
With 10 minutes to halftime, on his 15th consecutive complete pass, Santos found David Ball for a six-yard touchdown strike.
Seven minutes later the first half onslaught ended with Santos’ 22d straight completion, a seven-yarder to Keith Levan.
Halftime: UNH 42, Northeastern 7.
UNH tacked on a touchdown run and a 28-yard field goal, making it 52-7 before Northeastern cut into its deficit. John Sperrazza, relieving Orio, led NU on a nine-play, 76-yard drive before connecting with Cory Parks (6 catches, 60 yards) in the back of the end zone.
After a Wildcat rushing touchdown, Sperrazza led the Huskies to another touchdown on the game’s final drive. With no time remaining, Christopher Plug hauled in a 22-yard pass to make it 52-21.
“One of our challenges and one of our woes is the number of young people in a situation that are required to play,” Hager said. “There are times we have as many as eight true freshmen playing. [In Division I-AA] football, that is not a good set of circumstances for one to try to live through. But that is the reality of what we face.
“For us as coaches, we need to handle that and be patient with them. The only time we ought to ever get upset with them is if their effort is poor. If they’re in the right positions and they don’t have all their faculties together to make plays, then we need to continue to coach them. If their effort is poor, then we need to get a little firm with them to get them going. But I don’t see that as what’s going on with our young freshmen players.”
The team is now off to its worst start since 1999, when the team started the season 1-9 and finished 2-9.
“It’s sort of mixed emotions on a lot of things,” Parks said. “We have a lot of highs, we have a lot of lows. We’re going to try to keep fighting, week in, week out.”
Saturday, the Huskies travel to Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La., starting at 1 p.m.
