The opening quarter mercifully came to an end on a rainy Saturday night in Rindge, New Hampshire and what followed might have been the best quarter of football in the young season for the University of New Haven football team.

Daelen Menard (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Chaminade Madonna) connected with tight end Kevin Foelsch (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) on a pair of touchdown passes, Hunter Cobb (Sandy Hook, Conn./Newtown) had a short scoring run and the first of two interceptions by Christian Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) set up another score during a 27-point quarter as the Chargers were well on their way to a 41-14 win over Franklin Pierce.

"It was kind of ugly right there," Foelsch said of the first quarter. "It has kind of been a theme for us and that is not very good. In the second quarter, we got some plays rolling. The first quarter we missed on stuff, we got penalties and missed some throws. The second quarter, that was our potential right there, what we could do on every single drive. It was nice to see and something I hope we keep doing going forward."

Ais had two of the Chargers' four interceptions while Menard had four touchdown passes as New Haven won its third straight game and is 2-0 in the Northeast-10.

New Haven turned the ball over on its first drive and Alex Benitez scored from 10 yards out to give Franklin Pierce the early 7-0 lead.

That was the way the game stayed until the second quarter when Menard completed four passes including one to a leaping Foelsch for the 7-yard touchdown to tie the game.

"It was a big confidence boost for the offense," Menard said. "At 7-0, we were fine but we just knew we had to put one in and build off that."

On the next New Haven possession, Franklin Pierce jumped offsides on 4th-and-1 and on the next play, Menard hit a streaking Foelsch for the 41-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline.

"That was awesome, a little play action right there," Foelsch said. "They bit hard on it, I used my speed and got wide open. Daelen threw a nice ball and got right under it and it was easy money right there. It was an awesome play right there. We did what we needed to do in that second quarter and we finished the game pretty strong."

The best catch of the night might have come with the Chargers trying to stop Franklin Pierce from scoring late in the first half.

Ais broke on a throw right in front of the New Haven sideline and turned what could have been a huge catch for the Ravens into a momentum-changing play for the opportunistic New Haven defense.

"It is just a great feeling," said Ais, who got his second interception on another 50-50 ball in the second half. "All of your teammates just cheer you on, congratulating you. It was a good set up for the offense to score to expand the lead."

New Haven did that as Menard connected with Elijah Jeffreys (Somerville, Mass./Somerville) on a 30-yard touchdown pass to take a 27-7 lead at halftime.

"Franklin Pierce is not a team to play around with," Ais said. "They knew that we came to play, we knew that they were ready to play so it was just a matter of who makes more plays and I think we did a good job of doing that."

Menard connected with Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy) for a 36-yard touchdown and then Devin O'Malley (Pawtucket, R.I./St. Rafael Academy) returned an interception 77 yards for a score.

The four interceptions, including one by Musa Hemby (Trenton, N.J./Hunterdon Central), gives New Haven 10 in the first four games.

"All were great 1-on-1 plays," New Haven coach Chris Pincince said. "Christian Ais' (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) two interceptions were spectacular. Dev O'Malley, just like we drew it up in practice. He did the same thing in practice and displayed that unbelievable athleticism."

Franklin Pierce added a touchdown pass from Jordan McAfee to Jahmir Dixon against the second-team defense to cap the scoring.

"We made great decisions throwing the football, obviously the turnovers helped," Pincince said. "Daelen makes a couple of really good throws. Elijah Jeffreys (Somerville, Mass./Somerville) makes a hell of a play and Kevin Foelsch (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) is one of the better players in the country. If we get him 1-on-1, we feel confident. We took our shots and Daelen made some nice throws. We caused a shank of a punt at the end of the half."

Menard has thrown seven touchdown passes in the last two games and his accuracy on the deep throws has been on display in the last two weeks.

"He is just playing football," Pincince said. "This is his fourth football game in the last five years and that is what some people don't understand. He didn't have any game experience over the last four years [at Boston College] and it is going to take time. Everybody wanted him to be this great player in game No. 1. He is learning, he is growing, and he is running our offense. He does something new every single day from a correction standpoint. He is doing the things that we are asking him to do right now."

New Haven has scored 75 points in the last two weeks even without last year's 1,000-yard rusher Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton). Next up is a Friday night game to face American International College.

With a short week of preparation, it was beneficial to be able to pull most of the starters early in the fourth quarter.

"We didn't play many starters in the fourth quarter," Pincince said. "I think the whole defense was out."