#19 Blue Hens Take Pitt To the Wire In 17-14 Loss

Saturday, September 28

Pittsburgh, PA

12:30 p.m.

University of Delaware

3-2 , 1-0

Pitt

3-2 , 0-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Delaware

Pitt

Photo by: Mark Campbell

9/28/2019 6:10:00 PM | Football

Box Score

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Fight, fight, fight for Delaware.

The University of Delaware football team embodied its fight song to the core on Saturday when the Blue Hens gave ACC foe Pitt everything they could handle and more at Heinz Field. In the end, the Panthers, who were coming off a win over #15 UCF, were able to squeak out the 17-14 win.

Redshirt sophomore Gene Coleman II had a career game with five catches for 61 yards and a TD, while classmate Nolan Henderson finished 14-of-31 with 127 yards, 2 TDs and zero turnovers. True freshman Jourdan Townsend, who grew up less than an hour from Heinz Field, grabbed his first collegiate touchdown in the third quarter.

Defensively, Kedrick Whitehead posted his third straight double-digit tackle game, finishing with 13 on the day, while Drew Nickles had one of his best performances with 12 tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Redshirt junior Tim Poindexter had his first career INT to set up a Blue Hens touchdown.

"I was very proud of our performance, very proud of our toughness, and our resiliency and character," Head Coach Danny Rocco said. "Our kids played extraordinarily hard, played with conviction. They truly believed that we would win the football game. We've been in some tight games that we had won at the end. We couldn't quite put the formula together here today."

From the opening kickoff, the Blue Hens defensive unit let it be known that it would be battle all day long, limiting the Panthers to no points and just 14 plays in the first quarter.

Pitt would take the lead early in the second, but Poindexter's interception would set Delaware up for a short scoring drive, which finished with Henderson finding Coleman from 7 yards out to even the score at 7-7.

The Panthers would take a 10-7 lead into the break, but on the second play of the third quarter, Nickles would force the fumble and set up the Blue Hens once again for a short scoring drive.

This time, Henderson found a diving Townsend to make it a 14-10 Delaware lead with 12:53 to play in the quarter.

Delaware would force a miss field goal and two more three-and-outs from Pitt to hold a lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Panthers would finally break through with just over 10 minutes remaining. The Blue Hens would try to get something going against a stout Pitt defense, but was unable to as the Panthers held on for the 17-14 win.

Up Next

Delaware is off next Saturday, but returns to action on Saturday, October 12^thwhen it travels to Elon for a crucial CAA matchup. Kick time is set for 2 p.m.