No. 7 Delaware beats 10th-ranked Villanova for CAA title
AP
Apr 17, 2021
PHILADELPHIA (AP) Nolan Henderson threw two touchdown passes, and No. 7 Delaware beat rival and 10th-ranked Villanova 27-20 on Saturday, snapping an eight-game losing streak to the Wildcats and winning the Colonial Athletic Association season title.
The Blue Hens (5-0, 4-0) clinched one of 10 automatic bids into the FCS playoffs while Villanova (2-2, 2-2) most likely ends it season. The Division I Football Championship Committee will release the 16-team playoff bracket on Sunday.
The Wildcats had possession at their 23 with 1:08 to play, but Nijuel Hill intercepted Daniel Smith's overthrown ball on first down to seal it. Villanova had committed only one turnover this season and had gone four straight games against Delaware without one.
It was the first time since 1998 that both teams were ranked in the top 10. Villanova entered having won 12 of the last 13 ''Battle of the Blue'' games.
Henderson was 20-of-24 passing for 270 yards. He threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jourdan Townsend with eight seconds remaining in the first half that gave the Blue Hens a 13-7 lead. Henderson's 18-yard TD pass to Bryce De Maille stretched it to 20-10 late in the third.
Khory Spruill's 3-yard touchdown run made it 27-10 with 8:20 remaining. The drive included Henderson's 45-yard pass to Thyrick Pitts, who surpassed 1,000 career yards receiving on the play. Pitts finished with five catches for 104 yards.
Smith completed 12 of 29 passes for 143 yards and threw two touchdown passes. Yet Smith, somersaulting after being tripped by linebacker Johnny Buchanan, was able to flick an awkward 1-yard TD pass to Charlie Gilroy that capped the scoring with 3:06 left.
---
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25
Copyright 2025 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.
This page provides an overview of our use of cookies and similar technologies (from here we will refer to all those as “Cookies”) and how to manage them. For more information please visit our Privacy Policy.
When you visit our properties and use our products and services (“Services”), we use Cookies to analyse and measure our performance, customize content and serve personalized advertisements. We may place our own Cookies (First-party Cookies) or allow our service providers to place Cookies (Third-party Cookies) on your device and collect information such as your device ID, browser type and IP address so they can help us better understand your interaction with our Services. Advertisers and other advertising technology partners may also use their own third-party Cookies to collect information about your visits, deliver advertisements tailored to your interests, keep track of the number of views of a specific advertisement, analyses the effectiveness of advertisements, or provide auditing, research and reporting for advertisers. Such third parties may also match you to an existing interest category (e.g. automobiles) that they’ve developed and provide you with more relevant advertising over time and across different websites.
When you click on save settings below, your preferences will be saved. You can change your settings at any time by using the consent settings module. Note that saving settings is linked to the particular browser and/or device you use to visit our Services. Saving your settings within one particular Service will not affect your choices on other Paramount Services, or if you visit this Service with another device or from a different browser. In addition, it won’t affect any of your activities on third-party services. You have other choices to manage cookies and other tracking technologies on the internet such as using industry choice programs or managing your preferences within your browsers or devices. For more Information refer to our Privacy Policy.
Essential
Always Active
These cookies are essential for the proper functioning of our Services. Essential cookies cannot be switched off in our systems. You can set your device to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the Service will not work.
Analytic & Performance
Always Active
These Cookies allow us to collect information about how visitors use our properties. Some examples include counting visits and traffic sources, so we can measure and improve the performance of our services. If you do not allow these Cookies we will not know when users have visited our properties and will not be able to monitor performance.
Functional
Always Active
These Cookies enable the services to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our services. If you do not allow these Cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Marketing and Advertising
Always Active
These Cookies may be set by us or through our services by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertising on this and on other properties. If you do not allow these Cookies, you will still see ads, but you will experience less relevant advertising.
Social Media
Always Active
These Cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the services to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites, building up a profile of your interests to show you relevant content and advertisements on the relevant social networks. If you do not allow these Cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.