Sept. 7, 2003

Newark, DE - 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 as No. 14 ranked University of Delaware posted a season-opening 41-7 football victory over The Citadel Saturday night at Delaware Stadium.

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 win over Lehigh in 1996. The Hens also remained unbeaten in four games vs. The Citadel in Newark.

Delaware was penalized for an illegal block on the opening kickoff and Hall was intercepted on the first play from scrimmage by T.J. Rose who returned it 20 yards to the UD 20-yard line. But the Blue Hen defense set the tone for the rest of the night. Citadel lost one yard on three plays and Travis Zobel missed a 39-yard field goal.

"Our defense really set the tone for us early," said Delaware second-year head coach K.C. Keeler, who improved to 11-0 all-time as a head coach in season openers, including a 10-0 mark at Rowan University. "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 their next possession when Bennett moved through the Citadel defense for a 31-yard scamper that was highlighted by a complete flip into the end zone. Brad Shushman helped UD up the lead to 17-0 with his first of two field goals, this one from 25 yards out, just 10 seconds before the break.

A 45-yard pass from Hall to Lavelle and a Shushman 28-yard field goal upped 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 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.