Next Game: at University at Albany 11/14/2015 | 7:00 PM ASN - CSN-NE - NESNPlus Wildcat Sports Network

DURHAM, N.H. – Senior quarterback(West Haven, Conn.) passed for a season-high 264 yards and a pair of touchdowns and sophomore defensive back(New City, N.Y.) led a ball-hawking defense with two interceptions to lead the UNH football to a 30-25 upset win over No. 5/No.7 Richmond Saturday evening in Cowell Stadium.The Wildcats improved to 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the Colonial Athletic Association.UNH snapped Richmond's seven-game winning streak. The Spiders fell to 7-2 overall, lost their first league game and are now 5-1 in the CAA.The win was the Wildcats' first over a Top 5 team since they were ranked No. 21 and beat No. 4 Maine, 24-3, on Nov. 23, 2013 in Cowell.The triumph kept alive UNH's hopes to make the FCS playoffs for a 12straight season.The Wildcats need to win their last two games – at Albany next Saturday (7 p.m.) and home against Maine on Nov. 21 (1 p.m.) – to have a shot at receiving an at-large invitation to the 24-team, tournament. A limited number of tickets remain for the Maine game and are available by CLICKING HERE , calling 603-862-4000, ext. 5 or visiting www.unhwildcats.com.Junior(Forked River, N.J.) had a career-high two touchdown receptions and called it a statement win."It's huge," Powell said. "Mostly everyone in the CAA thinks we're done, thinks we're down, thinks we're beating ourselves up and we're packing it in for the season. We came out and it was a statement game. We knew basically our season was riding on this. We don't make it, there's no shot at playoffs and we've been in there for a while so we want to be there."The Wildcats responded each time the Spiders made a run in the game."We came out, kept on playing, making big plays and confidence was big on the sidelines," Powell said. "And it's going to keep on going to next week."The UNH defense, which had not come up with a turnover in its last three games, had five against the Spiders.Besides Mensah's two interceptions, junior defensive back(East Bridgewater, Mass.) and junior linebacker(Westwood, Mass.) each had one. In addition, safety(Worcester, Mass.) recovered a fumble."Defensively, we got the ball out and that's huge," said coach. "It kept them from scoring and more importantly gave the ball back to the offense."UNH and Richmond each had 468 yards of total offense. It was the second-best total of the season for the Wildcats, who had 498 in a win over Central Connecticut State.The offense did not turn the ball over."We couldn't give them many chances," McDonnell said. "I didn't harp on it. I didn't preach that all week in practice. We always talk about turnovers, not doing it. As a mindset we've got to hang onto the ball and execute what we're doing. That's what we did. We kept drives alive. Guys made catches. Guys made runs. Guys made throws."Goldrich completed 21 of his 36 passes in the game. Junior(Hamilton, N.J.) started the game at quarterback, played the first series and led the Wildcats to a touchdown.Riese completed all four of his passes for 40 yards and a 19-yard touchdown to Powell.Sophomore running back(St. Augustine, Fla.) carried 19 times for 88 yards and sophomore(York, Maine) carried 11 times for 51 yards for the Wildcats in place of junior running back(Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) Crossan was out with a leg injury.The Riese to Powell touchdown pass tied the game at 7-7 after Richmond had scored on its opening drive.Two of the next three Spider possessions ended with interceptions by Mensah.UNH quickly converted the first pick into a touchdown. On the next Wildcat play, 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman(Canton, Mass.) went up to grab a Goldrich pass for a 42-yard gain to the Richmond 1. Goldrich ran the yard for the score."Threw the ball up there," Goldrich said. "He's a big kid and came down with it. Great play for him. Great play for us. Awesome. We needed that."The Wildcats converted a Richmond fumble on a punt return into another TD late in the first half. A(Needham, Mass.) punt bounced off a Spider and Edmonds recovered on the Richmond 49.Goldrich found(Springfield, Va.) for a 7-yard TD to finish off a nine-play drive with 57 seconds left before the break. Breda's kick left it 21-7 at the half.Richmond quarterback Kyle Lauletta found Brian Brown for a 34-yard scoring pass with 10:32 left in the third quarter and a two-point conversion cut UNH's lead to 21-15.UNH answered with another drive and 3-yard Goldrich to Powell TD pass. A pass for the conversion failed and it was 27-15.Richmond's Gordon Collins broke loose for a 45-yard TD with 1:09 left in the third period and Peter Yoder's 28-yard field goal with 10:28 left in the fourth period made it 27-25.The Wildcats responded by marching down the field to a 29-yard field goal by Breda with 6:35 to go.The Spiders got as far as the UNH 21-yard line and had a 3-and-7 for a first when Farrell came up with the team's fourth interception of the day.Goldrich and the offense collected three first downs to eat up all but 25 seconds of the clock and the Wildcats had their win."Real proud of the way the team played," McDonnell said. "I thought they showed a lot of resiliency. Told them how tough a game this was going to be after watching these guys on tape. Both their offensive and defensive schemes, I thought they were great. They threw a lot of punches. We countered."