PHOTO GALLERY

WEST HAVEN, Conn. - A total of 64 seconds remained in Saturday's showdown of the New Haven area rivals when all the attention turned to the video board on the other end of Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium.

Instead of one player of the game, receivers Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy) and Javon Turner (Newark, N.J./Paramus Catholic) shared the honor after combining for three touchdowns in the 38-9 win over Southern Connecticut State before a crowd of 4,168. The teammates were on opposite sides of the offensive line when a break in the action allowed both of them to revel at the moment. First, they both pointed at the scoreboard and each took a couple of steps toward each other. After a quick handshake, they teamed up once again for a victory hug.

"Ever since we got here for camp, me and Javon have always been close,," said Holmes, who finished with 199 yards on five receptions including touchdown catches of 93 and 30 yards. "He knows one of my close friends Juwan Green [a former teammate of Holmes at Albany who is currently on the practice squad for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons] because they played at Lackawanna together so since the first day, we have been joking around so to be co-players of the game is a special moment for both of us."

Turner, who had just two catches in the first two games of the season, provided the first big play for the UNH offense.

Southern Connecticut ran 12 offensive plays in New Haven territory on the Owls' first three drives of the game but had to settle for field goals of 34 and 43 yards by Szymon Gawlick to take the early 6-0 lead.

Turner ran free in front of the New Haven sideline when Connor Degenhardt (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) lofted a pass into Turner's sure hands. Turner took care of the rest for the 70-yard touchdown reception. Briant DeFelice (Massapequa, N.Y./Farmingdale) added the extra point with 12 seconds left in the first quarter to give the Chargers the lead they would not relinquish.

"I think it was really big, it got our defense going," said Turner, who finished with 133 yards on five catches. "From there, our offense knew we could put points [on the board] every time we got the ball."

The Chargers would take a 10-6 lead into halftime after DeFelice's 22-yard field goal. New Haven would score touchdowns on four of its first five possessions in the second half.

It started with a 5-yard scoring run by Shamar Logan (Brooklyn, N.Y./Erasmus Hall High School) which was set up by Turner's 38-yard catch. The Owls threatened on the next drive as a 47-yard pass from Joe Bernard to Ryan Soules gave SCSU a first down on the 2 but back-to-back tackles behind the line of scrimmage by the New Haven defense led to the Owls settling for Gawlick's 24-yard field goal.

Degenhardt, who was 14 of 21 for 355 yards and four touchdowns, connected with Kevin Foelsch (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) on a 5-yard touchdown late in the first quarter. Foelsch was congratulated by nearly every player on the home sideline after his first career reception for the Chargers.

Holmes took over from there with TD catches of 93 and 30 yards in the fourth quarter.

"You have to give thanks to Connor because whenever that ball is in the air, it is ours and nobody else's so Javon made great plays today, and hopefully we will be doing it the rest of the season," Holmes said.

The strong finish to the game by the New Haven defense was a bit overshadowed by the Chargers' offensive eruption in the second half.

The Owls ran 10 plays inside the New Haven 20 yard line but were limited to the three field goals.

"Defensively, our motto has always been bend, don't break," said New Haven senior linebacker Ryan Hodgins (Flanders, N.J./Mount Olive) who had 10 tackles including three tackles for loss. "We kind of stuck to that did what we had to do. They had three field goals and we were OK with that, we just didn't want any touchdowns this week. Our biggest thing was to get turnovers this week, it is our first week getting turnovers so that was our biggest thing going into this so we had a fumble recovery [by Khalim Cisse (Willingboro, N.J./Willingboro)] and two picks [by Devonte Myles (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) and Samuel Valerio (Wharton, N.J./Morris Hills)], that kind of was the difference of giving the offense more chances to punch it in. We took that opportunity and run with it. We were banging our heads on the goal post all day."

Cisse and Jermell Brandon (Baltimore, Md./Monroe Area) added eight tackles each and helped pressure Bernard, who started in place of injured SCSU starting quarterback Jackson Ostrowsky, into several key incompletions.

New Haven coach Chris Pincince remained undefeated against SCSU as the head coach or assistant coach and he didn't need much prodding to speak about the pride the program takes in winning against their top rival after the Chargers (2-1, 1-0 in the Northeast-10) won for the 12th straight time against the Owls.

"We truly believe that this game is the most important game that we play all year and our kids stepped up today," Pincince said. "I have never lost to Southern, that is our goal, it is not arrogance, we are not guaranteeing anything but if we prepare the way we should, we should win the football game. That is what we talked about, it is what Connor Degenhardt (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) talked about, that we believe that we are going to win this football game. I can't stress enough the importance of this to our school and our university and how far we have come from 40 years ago."

Diante Wilson ran for 75 yards, Izaiah Sanders had seven catches for 77 yards for SCSU (2-2, 1-1) and Hasan Dominick led the Owls with 10 tackles. 

"[New Haven is] a well-run organization, a good coaching staff, excellent players and they did an awesome job today," SCSU head coach Tom Godek said. "It was a tight ball game there and they came out with a vengeance in the second half and made it a runaway."