By Allen Lessels
NEFJ Correspondent

DURHAM, N.H. – Junior quarterback Max Brosmer passed for three touchdowns and ran for another as the University of New Hampshire football team came off its bye week and bounced back from a two-game losing skid with a very important 38-31 win over No. 24 UAlbany on Homecoming at Wildcat Stadium on Saturday.

It was actually a battle of No. 24 football teams, depending on the national poll you prefer. The Great Danes were No. 24 in the Stats Perform FCS poll this week and received votes in the FCS Coaches poll. The Wildcats were No. 24 in the Coaches poll and received votes in the Stats FCS poll.

UNH evened its record at 3-3 overall and more importantly, improved to 1-2 in the Coastal Athletic Association. UAlbany fell to 4-3 with its first loss to an FCS school and is now 2-1 in the league.

The Wildcats slipped in both polls heading into their bye week with losses at Delaware, 29-25, and at home to Towson, 54-51 in overtime, on Sept. 30.

“You can either feel sorry for yourself or get back to work on the things you need to do to get better,” said UNH coach Rick Santos. “I was just so happy with how our guys practiced. It was really competitive (last week). Normally in those situations, you take a little bit off the workload, but I felt we needed it.

He loved how they responded on Saturday, too.

“We challenged the guys and they responded in the right way,” added Santos.

UNH trailed 17-14 at the half and then fell behind 24-14 early in the third quarter on a Reese Poffenbarger to Brevin Easton 38-yard pass play.

The Wildcats surged in front with 17 straight third quarter points on a Dylan Laube 5-yard TD run, Nick Mazzie 25-yard field goal and Brosmer 53-yard scoring pass to Logan Tomlinson. Poffenbarger’s fourth TD pass of the game – covering 32 yards to Julian Hicks – got the score tied at 31-31 just 1:12 into the fourth quarter.

Brosmer completed the scoring with a 6-yard pass to Colby Ramshaw with 7:08 left in the fourth. Mazzie’s fifth conversion kick of the day made it 38-31. The UNH defense held and forced a punt, but the Great Danes had one last shot in the final minute after the Wildcats were unable to convert a 4th and 1 near midfield.

Poffenbarger advanced the Great Danes to the UNH 35-yard line with 39 seconds to go, but his last pass into the end zone was intercepted by Brendan Tighe to end the threat.

Brosmer completed 29 of his 49 passes for 342 yards and was intercepted once to go with the three TD passes. He’s up to 17 touchdown passes for the seasons and has been picked off twice.

Tomlinson, who transferred in to UNH after playing his first two seasons at Division III Wesleyan, had two touchdown catches Saturday and has a team-high five for the season. Laube carried 19 times for 85 yards and his TD was his sixth rushing score this year and 12th touchdown overall.

Poffenbarger completed 23 of his 39 passes for 373 yards and four touchdowns and was intercepted twice. Linebacker Ryan Toscano led UNH with nine tackles and defensive end Josiah Silver had six with a couple of sacks.

“On the offensive end, we continue to be really efficient through the air,” said Santos. “We wanted to establish a ground game, but (Albany’s) front seven is as good as there is in FCS. We felt like we had to drop back and throw it. Logan was a man amongst boys. Every time he had one-on-one coverage we threw the ball up to him and he found a way to play above the rim and be big. He stepped up huge. Max had a slow start. They got to him early. They rattled him a little bit and we just weren’t where we needed to be in the first half.

“We grabbed him, loved him up and let him know he’s one of the best players in the country. We need him and he certainly stepped up in that second half…that was a really great effort to finish it.”