UNH's defensive front swarms Albany running back Karl Mofor during Friday night's game at Wildcats Stadium in Durham. (Courtesy photo by Jess Speechley/UNH Athletics)

DURHAM, N.H. – This one got away.

Playing under historically unique circumstances in a cold and blustery Wildcat Stadium, the University of New Hampshire football team had a couple of chances late to sneak away with a victory, but was not able to pull off the comeback and fell to Colonial Athletic Association rival the University at Albany, 24-20, on Friday night.

Never before had the Wildcats played a regular season game in March. They likely haven’t played many – if any – games with temperatures in the mid-20s with a windchill in the single digits.

For the first time in more than 75 years – when World War II caused a three-year suspension of play – the program had gone well over a full year since playing a game.

Plus, head coach Sean McDonnell had been absent from the sidelines for a year longer than his team – since Nov. 17, 2018 – and because of COVID-19 regulations no fans were allowed in the stadium for the first time in . . . forever?

So yes, Friday night was historic and unique.

But strip all that away and here’s what you have: A game very important to a shortened season, the CAA standings and perhaps a national tournament picture, that came down to crunch time.

Albany made the plays when it mattered most.

“It was good to be back out there,” McDonnell said. “But I’m disappointed. I’m really disappointed because as I tell the kids, that’s what defines us and we were sloppy tonight. We got penalties. We had offsides. All these things start at the top. Obviously, I didn’t communicate well enough how important the little things are to win a football game. We’ll figure that out and get that going.”

McDonnell stressed leading up to the opener that there is little room for error in a season that will include only six games, all of them CAA contests.

Now the Wildcats have had a misstep out of the gate.

There were plenty of good signs, to be sure.

The defense, led by a front group of ends Brian Carter and Gunner Gibson and defensive tackles Elijah Lewis and Niko Kvietkus, played well against the run and got pressure on Albany’s talented quarterback, Jeff Undercuffler.

They held the Great Danes to 32 yards rushing, thanks in part to getting four sacks of Undercuffler for 36 lost yards.

The Wildcats recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown – Zedane Williams blocked it and J.J. Jerome hustled after it and covered the ball in the end zone – for the first time since a Sept. 27, 2014 game against Dartmouth.

Sophomore quarterback Max Brosmer led the Wildcats on a long TD drive to start the season and passed for a pair of touchdowns to junior receiver Sean Coyne.

The Wildcats had their chances to win the game late. Penalties hurt. Missed connections, too.

“That was real encouraging, but we just couldn’t come up with it,” Gibson said.

The Wildcats are off now until they play Delaware at home on Saturday, March 20 to start a string of five straight Saturday games.

One theory, McDonnell noted, is that it’s better to get right back at it after a tough loss and work at straightening things out.

The coach and quarterback said in their postgame talks that the bye week is coming at a good time.

“I think we need to do a lot of teaching, we’ve got to do a lot of coaching and do a lot of learning in the next week and see what Delaware brings,” McDonnell said.

“I think the bye week is going to help us get all the gears tightened and make sure we’re all on the same page offensively,” Brosmer said. “I think it’s good.”

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