Minicucci’s Four Touchdowns Lead Blue Hens to Thrilling 31-28 Victory Over Middle Tennessee State

Photo: Ben Hershey on Unsplash

The University of Delaware’s football team earned its fourth victory of the season Wednesday with a tough 31-28 win over the Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders.

The star of this game was UD’s quarterback Nick Minicucci, who completed 27 of his 42 passes for 276 yards and four touchdowns.

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University of Delaware trails by seven points at the end of the first quarter.

Middle Tennessee State opened the game with the ball and didn’t do much with it as the team went three and out on the possession.

Delaware didn’t squander their first touch of the ball as it turned into a long five-minute and eight-second, 89-yard, ten-play scoring drive that started at their own 11-yard line.

Junior quarterback Nick Minicucci completed all eight passes on the drive, which included a 15-yard and a 12-yard completion to senior running back  Jo Silver.

Minicucci would end the drive by throwing a short pass to a sophomore wide receiver, Sean Wilson, from the MTSU 22, and the wideout took it all the way for the touchdown to give the Hens a 7-0 lead with 8:28 left in the opening period.

The Blue Raiders’ offense would wake up after the Hens scored, as they had a lengthy five-minute and 24-second, 12-play, 76-yard drive that ended with their quarterback Nicholas Vattiato finding his wide receiver Nahzae Cox for the five-yard touchdown to tie the game at seven with 2:09 left in the first.

UD’s recent turnover problems would follow them in this matchup, as on the first play of the possession, sophomore running back Viron Ellison Jr. fumbled the ball, and it was scooped up by a Middle Tennessee defender at the Hens’ 17-yard line.

MTSU didn’t waste the turnover, as they turned it into a score in two plays, with Jekail Middlebrook rushing for four yards for the touchdown on the second play to give his team a 14-7 edge at the end of the first quarter.

UD scores 17 unanswered points to take a 10-point lead into halftime.

The Blue Hens would find a spark at the beginning of the second quarter with a long (five-minute and 19 seconds), 11-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in seven points for the team to tie the game at 14 with 11:39 remaining in the first half.

The drive ended with quarterback Nick Minicucci finding wideout Sean Wilson for his second touchdown catch of the day.

Another highlight on the drive came on the fifth play of the drive on third and 11 at their own 35-yard line, where Minicucci found his receiver, Max Patterson, for a 24-yard gain.

The University of Delaware was also helped by a 10-yard face mask penalty on the drive, which pushed them from the Blue Raiders’ 20-yard line to the 10-yard line. This gave the Hens the ammunition for the score, as it happened right after this play.

Two possessions later, UD would drive 56 yards on 11 plays to end with senior kicker Nate Reed booting a 49-yard field goal to give his team a 17-14 advantage with 6:25 left in the second quarter.

In the mid-second quarter, both offenses stalled, and the scoreboard was silent for a while.

At the 2:13-minute mark, Delaware woke up the crowd by flying 78 yards in ten plays to end with Nick Minicucci finding senior wide receiver Kyre Duplessis for a yard score to give their team a 24-14 edge at the end of the first half.

Delaware holds on to a 10-point lead at the end of the third quarter.

The Hens’ offense started the second half shaky as their first two drives amounted to a negative 15 yards.

MTSU’s opening possession of the second half ended in an interception, but their second concluded with their first points since the first quarter. The second drive ended with quarterback Nicholas Vattiato finding his tight end, Hunter Tipton, for the 11-yard touchdown completion to cut the deficit to three points (24-21) with 5:11 left in the third.

UD’s offense would punch right back, as the team marched 75 yards in nine plays to end with Nick Minicucci finding Kyre Duplessis for the wideout’s second touchdown of the day to give their team a 31-21 lead at the end of the third.

The Blue Hens hold on to win 31-28!

Fast forward to the 3:05 minute mark in the fourth quarter, where the Blue Raiders fumbled the ball and the Blue Hens’ senior defensive tackle Keyshawn Hunter recovered it to set his offense up at the MTSU’s 24-yard line.

All the Hens’ offense had to do was run the ball and let the time slip away, but the team got cute, and their backup quarterback, Braden Streeter, threw an interception that allowed Middle Tennessee a shot at a comeback win. Streeter entered the game as Minicucci exited the game with an injury.

MTSU took advantage of the turnover and drove 89 yards in 11 plays to end with Nicholas Vattiato finding his wideout, AJ Jones, for the six-yard score to slice the deficit to 31-28 with 1:03 left in the game.

The Blue Raiders had no timeouts left and needed to get the ball back on an onside kick, but they didn’t, and the Hens hung on for a 31-28 victory.

Team Stats

Team Stats
1st Downs	24	27
3rd down efficiency	6-14	9-17
4th down efficiency	1-1	1-1
Total Yards	384	360
Passing	281	281
Comp/Att	31/50	28/44
Yards per pass	5.6	6.4
Interceptions thrown	1	1
Rushing	103	79
Rushing Attempts	22	36
Yards per rush	4.7	2.2
Penalties	9-80	4-25
Turnovers	2	2
Fumbles lost	1	1
Interceptions thrown	1	1
Possession	27:05	32:55