Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com

Among the bright spots in the University of New Hampshire's 24-13 loss to Villanova on Saturday was the performance turned in by senior wide receiver Mike Boyle.

Boyle, who wasn't heavily recruited coming out of Plymouth Regional High School, made five catches for 101 yards in the contest.

Boyle (pictured) was named New Hampshire's Mr. Football following his senior season at Plymouth. The Bobcats were 44-0 and won four state championships during his high school career. He scored 27 touchdowns as a senior and led New Hampshire to a 41-14 victory over Vermont in the 2004 Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl.

"He's the best player on our offense," UNH coach Sean McDonnell said. "He's a kid who can run, he can catch. He blocked extremely well on Saturday. He's a senior leader. He's a senior captain.

"He's had a successful, successful career here because he's a hell of a football player -- and he's a winner. He's been very, very consistent for us in doing everything we need him to do. Not just catching the football, but returning kicks and running the ball on our speed sweeps and our option stuff.

"We're pleased he's healthy, because when he's healthy he's a heck of a football player."

Work at home 

UNH (7-2 overall, 4-2 Colonial Athletic Conference) will take on the University of Massachusetts (6-4, 3-3) at Cowell Stadium on Saturday (noon), but McDonnell said home-field advantage isn't worth much in this rivalry.

I don't think it matters where we play this game," McDonnell said. "It's a war every time we play. We go down there and we buckle it up, and when they come up here they're gonna have it saddled up.

"You look at the teams they've played this year and the teams that they've lost to, and those teams don't have many losses. They've lost to a very good JMU team, a very good Texas Tech team, a very good Richmond team and a very good Maine team. It's UMass, and we're gonna be challenged again."

After Saturday's contest, UNH will wrap up its regular season with a game at Maine (7-3, 4-2) Nov. 22. The Black Bears extended their winning streak to five games by beating UMass, 21-20, last weekend.

"We gotta go play,"McDonnell said. "This (UMass) is one of our fiercest rivals in the league, and then our border rival the next week. Our kids are looking forward to playing the games, and are excited about it, but we know how challenging it's going to be. It's starts with a very physical, good football team in UMass. Gotta find a way to win this football game."

Postseason possibility?

UMass coach Don Brown on his team's chances of qualifying for the FCS playoffs: "New Hampshire got in last year with seven wins. I think our strength of schedule is around third or fourth in the country. If we could get to eight wins, that would give us the minimum seven Division I wins. You never know, but the bottom line is you gotta take care of the business that's in front of you and we're playing our huge rival New Hampshire this week, which is always a big game if you're a UMass Minuteman."