There was no sense of panic and no thoughts of "here we go again" as the University of New Haven players found themselves trailing early in the second half of Saturday's game at upset-minded American International College.

The fact that the Chargers dominated AIC in the first quarter and for much of the first half only to be trailing could have brought back memories of UNH's last Northeast-10 Conference loss at Saint Anselm two years ago. Instead of bemoaning the situation, the veterans on both sides of the ball buckled up the chin straps on their helmets and went back to work.

A pair of long touchdown drives helped the Chargers to pull away for the 30-14 win to join Bentley as the only remaining undefeated teams in NE10 play.

"We were running by them making plays, the mindset was just 0-0 coming out at the half," said New Haven receiver Paul Cooper (Kings Park, N.Y./Kings Park), who had four catches for 91 yards. "We knew we could move the ball on them, the offense just stuck to the game plan and executed. Dev [Holmes] made great plays down the field, I knew that once the ball was coming to me that I had to go get it. The run game was great today, it got a little nervous [when AIC went in front] but us vets on the team know what it takes and don't want the feeling we had back in 2019 [when a road loss to a previously winless Saint Anselm team cost the Chargers the NE10 title]."

New Haven (5-1, 4-0 in the Northeast-10) used scoring drives of 83 and 76 yards to regain control of the game.

Cooper had a 29-yard catch on third down and another 10-yard reception setting up Connor Degenhardt's (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) 38-yard touchdown pass to Holmes as New Haven went back in front in the third quarter.

The teams combined for turnovers on the next three drives including a fumble recovery by Jonathan Ogungbenro (Cliffwood, N.J./Matawan) and an interception by Isaac Etienne (Winterhaven, Fla./Auburndale). The interception put the ball at the 1 late in the third quarter. When the fourth quarter began, the Chargers faced a third down on their own 5. Degenhardt completed passes of 14 yards to Kasi Hazzard (Hillside, N.J./Edison) and 33 yards to Holmes. New Haven didn't score on that drive but instead of giving AIC the ball back near midfield, the Yellow Jackets' next drive started at the 10.

"Getting the ball [inside] the 10-yard line and flipping the field was big for us," said Holmes, who had 142 yards on six receptions. "It changed the momentum because they probably felt like they had the momentum on their side. It was a bummer that we didn't score but giving our defense a shot and holding them, that was big."

Holmes had catches of 43 and 16 yards on New Haven's next drive that ended with Briant DeFelice's (Massapequa, N.Y./Farmingdale) 20-yard field goal to give the Chargers their first two-possession lead in the game. 

DeFelice's ensuing kickoff was knocked down by the wind and before the AIC players realized what was happening, UNH running back Jake Conlan (West Haven, Conn./Trinity-Pawling) fell on the ball. Three plays later Conlan ran in for the 15-yard touchdown to put New Haven up 30-14 with 4:24 remaining. 

"The wind is 30-40 miles per hour, we kicked off into the wind and the ball never went anywhere," New Haven coach Chris Pincince said. "The ball probably landed 15-20 yards in front of their returners. Jake Conlan (West Haven, Conn./Trinity-Pawling) is running hard covering the kick, the ball hits the turf and sits there. Maybe their guy thought it was a punt, it certainly wasn't intentional. That was Mother Nature and Jake Conlan (West Haven, Conn./Trinity-Pawling) playing harder than AIC."

Any hopes of an AIC comeback ended when Devonte Myles (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) recovered a fumble by McGuire, the NE10 leader in touchdown receptions. New Haven ran out the clock.

Even with the Chargers taking knees on the final two plays to kill the rest of the time the clock, the Chargers finished with 575 yards on 84 plays, both the most by a New Haven team since the 2015 season.

Shamar Logan (Brooklyn, N.Y./Erasmus Hall High School), who ran for 106 yards, had 46 rushing yards and 17 more on two catches on the opening drive leading to a 22-yard field goal by DeFelice.

On the next drive, after Holmes couldn't come up with a deep pass from Degenhardt, the Chargers went for it on fourth down. Degenhardt rumbled 19 yards to keep the drive alive. Degenhardt scrambled to the 2 and on the next play, he overthrew tight end Kevin Foelsch (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) on fourth down.

The Chargers did get the game's first touchdown on the next drive. Degenhardt started to run but as he was on the verge of being stopped, he flipped the ball to Logan who ran in for the 4-yard touchdown run with 7:26 left in the first half.

AIC was bottled up on its first three drives but Samad Davila ran five times for 31 yards and a 33-yard pass to Jackson Ramsey set up Prince Olubakinda's 8-yard touchdown pass to Chase Speller to make it a 10-7 game with 1:05 left in the first half.

Degenhardt found Cooper for a 46-yard gain. After a holding call, Brett Huber's (Milford, Conn./Foran) 14-yard reception put the ball at the 2. Degenhardt spiked the ball just before time expired in the second quarter. The officials conferred and ruled that 1 second remained. DeFelice kicked a 19-yard field goal on the final play of the half as UNH took a 13-7 lead into halftime.

New Haven knew it should have had a more commanding lead after two quarters. The Chargers outgained AIC 125-2 in the first quarter and the yardage was 172-18 in New Haven's favor after the first UNH touchdown.

"We have to be able to run the ball better [in the red zone], we aren't doing a very good job of that right now. I go for it on fourth down instead of taking the punt.

"We left at least seven [points] out there, maybe 14 and at the end of the day our defense did a wonderful job of flipping the field there in the second half, making a couple of plays," Pincince said.

Myles led the Chargers with eight tackles as New Haven's defense held AIC to 244 yards of total offense including just 24 in the fourth quarter as New Haven played down the stretch like a team that started mostly juniors, seniors or graduate students.

"Having a lot of veteran guys on offense and defense, we've played a lot of college games so we know that adversity is going to come through the season," Holmes said. "It is going to be a roller coaster [ride] every game."

A couple of freshmen did join in the fun. 

Neil Brown (Woodbridge, Conn./Amity Regional) came in at right offensive tackle when William Ayers (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow) was injured early in the game and drew praise from Pincince for his work. Cornerback Christian Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton), coming off a two-interception game, was in man-to-man coverage on the dangerous McGuire late in the game when the Chargers were protecting the lead.

Jayson DeMild, who came into the weekend leading the Northeast-10 in touchdown passes and passing efficiency, missed the game due to injury and was replaced by Olubakinde who was 10 of 17 passing for 150 yards and two touchdowns.

Degenhardt finished with 315 yards passing and 37 rushing. Zach Mauro (Woodbury, Conn./Nonnewaug) added 92 rushing yards as the Chargers, running mostly behind center Mike Zecchin (Thiells, N.Y./North Rockland) and guards Michael Wilson (Atlantic Highlands, N.J./Middletown South) and Michael Cappuccilli (Walkill, N.Y./Wallkill), finished with 260 rushing yards. 

"Our kids are still building, they are still getting to know each other," Pincince said. "We played a true freshman at right tackle today after Will Ayers on the first series gets hurt, Mike Cap [Cappuccilli] up front is doing a wonderful job and we are piecing it together with all these guys who are playing hard. It is hard to travel in our league, it is hard to generate enthusiasm sometimes when it sounds like there are only a couple hundred people [in the stands] and it is hard to start a game when they start it at noon time in another state. Our guys handled it a little better this week than we did against Pace and hopefully next week [against Stonehill] we'll have an even better effort."