UMass Beats Sacred Heart 37-10 with Help from Special Teams
Fourteen of UMass's 37 points came from a punt return and an interception return. Take those away and the Minutemen still win 23-10, but nobody would have written it up as a rout. As it happened, UMass beat Sacred Heart 37-10 and never trailed.
T.Y. Harding got it started with a 49-yard touchdown catch from William Watson III just 44 seconds in, then took a punt back 82 yards for a score at 11:44, making it 14-0. Derek Morris added a 33-yard field goal and Watson ran in from eight yards just before halftime for 23-0 (Morris missed the extra point). Reece Adkins scored from a yard out early in the third quarter, and Jahmad Harmon returned an interception 34 yards for 37-0 about 90 seconds later.
Sacred Heart did not score until Ryan Bocklet's 35-yard field goal with 5:29 left in the third, by which point UMass already led 37-0, and Cole Snider's one-yard run in the fourth made it 37-10.
The UMass offense ended up with 315 yards, 163 passing and 152 rushing on 26 carries, and it threw no interceptions and lost no fumbles. Watson was 9 of 10 for 152 yards and a touchdown, and ran for another.
UMass is 2-0 and Sacred Heart is 0-1. The Minutemen gave up 10 points total, and none of them came in the first half or on a play that mattered to the outcome. For fantasy, Watson's 22.1 led the way, but it was well under his 29.9 from Week 1.