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Victorious Hens now prepare for Richmond

Andy Hall threw for a career-high 283 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Blue Hens.
1:40 p.m., Sept. 8, 2003--After an impressive opening night victory, the University of Delaware football team is preparing for an Atlantic 10 Football Conference game against the University of Richmond at 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13, at Delaware Stadium.

The No 14 ranked Fightin’ Blue Hens got the 2003 season off to an exciting start by defeating The Citadel 41-7 before a boisterous crowd of 20,612. UD senior quarterback Andy Hall threw for a career-high 283 yards and three touchdowns, and senior running back Germaine Bennett scampered for 109 yards and one touchdown in the victory.

Hall, who returned after off-season rotator cuff surgery, threw for touchdown passes of 23 yards to David Boler, 45 yards to tight end Rick Lavelle and 16 yards to Justin Long as the Blue Hens won on opening day for the 13th time in the last 14 seasons.

Hall, a second-year transfer from Georgia Tech, posted his fourth career 200-yard effort and went over 2,000 yards for his brief career for the Hens. Sophomore Brian Ingram was Hall's favorite target, setting career highs with nine receptions for 113 yards.

Delaware (1-0) piled up 476 total yards and held The Citadel (1-1) to just 266 yards in posting its biggest opening day victory since a 49-7 romp over Lehigh in 1996. The Hens also remained unbeaten in four games against The Citadel at Delaware Stadium.

On the opening kickoff, Delaware was penalized for an illegal block and on the first play from scrimmage, Hall was intercepted by T.J. Rose, who returned the ball 20 yards to the UD 20-yard line.

But the Blue Hen defense set the tone for the rest of the night, stuffing The Citadel, which lost one yard on three plays. The Citadel’s Travis Zobel then missed a 39-yard field goal.

“Our defense really set the tone for us early,” K.C. Keeler, Delaware head coach, said. “They stepped up after our tough start. Andy Hall played pretty much the way he has been playing all pre-season and we were able to run our offense the way we wanted to. For an opening game, we kept the mistakes to a minimum, which makes this a nice win.”

The Hens came back two possessions later to open the scoring when Hall capped an 81-yard drive with a 23-yard scoring strike to Boler. The Hens made it 14-0 on the next possession when Bennett went for a 31-yard scamper that was highlighted by a complete flip into the end zone, for which UD was penalized.

Related links:
Delaware football
Richmond football
Kicker Brad Shushman helped UD increase the lead to 17-0 with his first of two field goals, this one from 25 yards out, just 10 seconds before halftime.

A 45-yard pass from Hall to Lavelle and a Shushman 28-yard field goal increased the Delaware lead to 27-0 before The Citadel, which opened the 2003 season the previous week with a 64-10 win over Charleston Southern, finally got on the board on the first play of the fourth quarter when Nehemiah Broughton scored from three yards out to cap an 87-yard drive.

But, Delaware came right back on Long's diving 16-yard touchdown pass with 12:37 left and backup quarterback Ryan Carty capped the scoring with a two-yard run with 2:10 remaining.

The Sept. 13 game against Richmond will be Freshman Family Weekend and WSFS Bank Day at Delaware Stadium.

The game will be broadcast on Comcast CN8.

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