EAST HARTFORD – The UConn football team handled business on a windy day at Rentschler Field, beating Sacred Heart, an FCS program, 31-3 on Saturday for its second win of the season and first at home.
“It feels good, we’ve been working, I think we really deserve it,” sophomore running back Cam Edwards said. “It’s been a long time.”
The Huskies, after losing four in a row, did almost all of their damage in the first half, sprinting out to a 24-3 lead as Ta’Quan Roberson completed 16 of his first 21 passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns. Head coach Jim Mora wasn’t happy.
“I felt like our offense stumbled in the first half and I think we should’ve had about 35 points at halftime,” Mora said. “I want them to score more points.”
The offense punted on its first two drives of the second half and missed a field goal on its third before adding another touchdown, a pass from Roberson to Brett Buckman, on its fourth and final drive.
Postgame Press Conference https://t.co/zDPUoWwyRY
— UConn Football (@UConnFootball) November 18, 2023
“An FBS team should beat an FCS team,” Mora said, bluntly.
His message to the team after the game was just as quick and to the point, “It’s hard to win a college football game, so we’re on to UMass next week,” Edwards recalled. “Coach Mora, you never know with him and his emotions and how he feels, we think positive so we’re just gonna be getting ready for UMass.”
Edwards led the way on the ground with 90 of the Huskies’ 206 rushing yards on 12 carries. Victor Rosa added 74 yards on 11 carries and Roberson took it himself four times for 30 yards to add to his final stat line: 22 of 35 passing for 201 yards and four touchdowns.
Justin Joly, the Huskies’ leading receiver, caught nine passes for 73 yards and his second touchdown of the year.
Placekicker Joe McFadden made a career-long 50-yard field goal on the Huskies’ first of three consecutive scoring drives to start the game, before Roberson found Cam Ross for a 46-yard touchdown in the first quarter – the second time that duo connected on a scoring play of 40-plus yards this season. The redshirt junior completed his second touchdown pass of the game to Joly from 12 yards out and finished the first quarter 7 of 7 passing with 85 yards and two touchdown passes.
Sacred Heart went three-and-out on its first four offensive drives, but put together a 12-play series to get on the scoreboard with a 24-yard field goal two minutes before halftime. The Huskies executed their two-minute drill and went 74 yards in 13 plays, the drive capped off by Roberson’s third touchdown pass of the day from 14 yards out to Kylish Hicks – the first of his career – just before the half.
“I thought (the defense) played good, up to our standard and what we expected going in today, I would’ve liked the shut-out, to be honest, but holding anyone to three points is good and I thought the guys flew around and played hard,” said linebacker Jackson Mitchell, one of 18 seniors honored prior to the game. “You’re supposed to protect your home field, so the fact that we were 0-5 (at home) going into this game was disappointing, but just to come in here and get the win, these guys deserved it and they’ve been working really hard so to come in here and have a dominating win like that was good for us.”
Mitchell led the team with 11 total tackles on the day, improving him to a career-mark of 431 which ranks third in the program’s all-time record books behind John Dorsey (495, 1980-83) and Lawrence Wilson (449, 2007-10).
UConn is now 2-9 on the season with one game left, on the road at UMass on Saturday.
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