Tight end Kyle Lepkowski battles for his first career touchdown catch in the first period of the Wildcats' win Thursday night over Stony Brook. (Photo courtesy of UNH Athletics)

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – Sophomore quarterback Bret Edwards (Lowell, Mass.) tossed his first three career touchdown passes and the University of New Hampshire football team rode a huge start by its defense to a 27-21 win over Colonial Athletic Association rival Stony Brook on Thursday night in Kenneth Lavalle Stadium.

The victory marked the 99th career CAA win for UNH coach Sean McDonnell, who was coaching just his second game in more than 1,000 days. McDonnell is the league’s active leader in CAA regular season victories and only two coaches have ever reached the 100-mark.

The Wildcats take on Towson, another CAA opponent, in their home opener in Wildcat Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 11 for Salute to Service Day.

Edwards connected with sophomore tight end Kyle Lepkowski (Adamstown, Md.) for his first TD pass in the opening quarter and later hit senior Brian Espanet (Hopedale, Mass.) for two scores. The second score put UNH up 27-0 early in the third period.

They held off a Stony Brook rally from there.

Edwards completed 17 of his 25 passes for 233 yards in his second career start. He took over the starting job when sophomore Max Brosmer (Roswell, Ga.) suffered a season-ending knee injury during pre-season camp.

The defense helped stake UNH to a 20-0 lead at the half. Besides keeping Stony Brook off the scoreboard, that unit came up with three turnovers in the second period, two of which set Edwards and the offense up inside the Stony Brook 6-yard line.

Senior safety Pop Bush (Nocatee, Fla.) led the defense with 10 tackles, three of them for loss. He also intercepted a pass and returned it 65 yards, caused a fumble that led to the first UNH score in the second period and had a quarterback sack on a 4th down play from the Wildcat 5-yard line.

Redshirt freshman linebacker Zedane Williams (Springfield, Mass.) recovered the fumble that Bush caused and redshirt freshman cornerback Jonathan Collins Jr. (Williamstown, N.J.) picked off a pass and returned it 26 yards to set up another UNH touchdown.

McDonnell coached UNH in the one game it played last March before the season was called because of COVID-19. He sat out the 2019 for medical reasons as he battled cancer.