NEWARK, Del.—Two straight stops at the goal line with just over a minute to play made a fourth quarter rally stand up and No. 6 Villanova (9-2, 7-1 CAA Football) won both the Battle of the Blue Trophy and the CAA Football regular season title with a come-from-behind 21-13 victory over Delaware (5-6, 3-5 CAA Football) at Delaware Stadium on Saturday afternoon. This is the first conference title since 2012 for the Wildcats, who will earn the CAA Football automatic bid to the Division I Football Championship. It is also the 14^th time in the last 16 years that Villanova has defeated the Blue Hens and the Wildcats eighth straight road win in the series.
 
This is the first regular season in which the Wildcats have lost just two games since 2014 (10-2) and the team's fifth one-loss conference season (7-1). Villanova and James Madison each went 7-1 in CAA Football this year to finish tied atop the conference standing. The Wildcats 28-27 win over the Dukes in Harrisonburg, Va. on October 9 was the tiebreaker which gave Villanova the regular season title and automatic bid to the playoffs. The field of teams for the 24-team FCS playoffs will be announced on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
 
Graduate student quarterback Daniel Smith (Leesburg, Va.) led two scoring drives in the fourth quarter to help the Wildcats erase what had been a narrow deficit since the middle of the second period. Villanova took the lead with 11:43 remaining on a one-yard touchdown run by senior running back Jalen Jackson (Richmond, Va.) and extended the margin to 21-13 with 8:57 left when Smith connected with junior wide receiver Jaaron Hayek (Wayne, N.J.) on a 24-yard touchdown pass. A defensive unit which has excelled the entire season then made two of its biggest plays of the year to secure the outcome.
 
Delaware had third-and-two from the two-yard line with less than 90 seconds to play and could potentially tie the score with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. A quarterback sneak on third down was snuffed out for no gain by senior defensive lineman Jared Nelson (Glastonbury, Conn.) and junior Garrett Zobel (Hatfield, Pa.), leading to a timeout with 1:12 on the clock. On the fourth down play, the Blue Hens were stopped inside the one-yard line by Zobel and junior linebacker Qwahsin Townsel (Egg Harbor Twp., N.J.) to all but end the game.
 
All that was left for Villanova was to make sure it could avoid being pinned inside its own end zone for a safety. Smith lined up under center and kept the ball for a two-yard sneak which gave the Wildcats just enough room to kneel down twice to end the game and bring the Battle of the Blue Trophy back to Villanova in a victory that avenged a rare loss to Delaware in the Spring. Since the installment of the "Battle of the Blue" moniker to the annual rivalry game between the Wildcats and the Blue Hens, Villanova has won 13 of the 15 meetings in the series. With the win on Saturday, the Wildcats are 8-0 at Delaware Stadium since last losing a road game to Delaware 17 years ago.
 
The matchup between two strong defensive teams hinted towards a low-scoring affair and there were just seven points scored in a span of more than 35 minutes that stretched from late in the first quarter until early in the fourth period. Those points came on the Blue Hens only touchdown of the contest, as a 16-yard touchdown run by Dejoun Lee with 5:10 to play in the second quarter gave Delaware a 10-7 lead. Neither team scored again until a field goal by the Blue Hens with 12:19 left in the game extended the Villanova deficit to 13-7.
 
For nearly the first 48 minutes of the game the only Wildcats points had come on a two-yard touchdown run by graduate student running back Justin Covington (Bronx, N.Y.) with 2:45 left in the opening period. From that point on the next eight Villanova possessions resulted in four punts, two turnovers on downs and an interception (the Wildcats also had the ball when the first half ended).
 
It took only one play for Villanova to gain the momentum it had been searching for all afternoon.
 
The ensuing kickoff after the Delaware field goal in the fourth quarter went out of bounds at the five-yard line and the Wildcats started from their own 35 with 12:19 to play. On the first play of that drive Smith looked downfield for Hayek, who hauled in a 64-yard reception that took Villanova all the way down to the Blue Hens one-yard line. Jackson scampered in for a score on the very next play, graduate student kicker Cole Bunce (San Jose, Calif.) kicked the extra point to give the Wildcats the lead and good fortunes stayed on the Villanova side the rest of the way.
 
The quick score by the Wildcats offense had a visible effect on the energy level of the defense as well. With the lead in hand, Villanova forced a quick three-and-out by Delaware on tackles by graduate student linebackers Forrest Rhyne (Waynesboro, Pa.) and Amin Black (Philadelphia, Pa.) which preceded an incomplete pass on third down. After a punt back to the Wildcats, the offense needed just three plays to go 66 yards and extend the lead to what ended up being the final margin of 21-13.
 
Smith threw a 41-yard pass to junior wide receiver Rayjoun Pringle (Dumfries, Va.) and Covington picked up one yard on the ground before Smith looked to a wide open Hayek in the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown pass.
 
The late surge helped Smith finish 12-of-26 through the air for 208 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He also led the Wildcats with 47 rushing yards on the day. Hayek had five catches for 117 yards and his fourth touchdown in the past three games. He notched his fifth career 100-yard receiving game and third this season.
 
Rhyne continued to show the form that has made him one of the top players in the FCS this season, although Villanova's defensive effort was far from a one-man show. Rhyne reached double digits in total tackles for the fourth time in the last five games, the sixth time this season and the 14^th time in his career. He had 13 total stops on the day and finished the regular season averaging double figures in total tackles per game (112 total tackles, 10.2 per game).
 
Black added nine tackles on the afternoon while Townsel and sixth-year safety Nowoola Awopetu (Staten Island, N.Y.) had eight stops apiece. Townsel was in on the final stop of the game at the one-yard line and senior cornerback Christian Benford (Randallstown, Md.) had an interception and two pass breakups to extend his lead atop the FCS stats in passes defended on the year. His interception was his seventh this season and the 15^th of his career, while the two pass breakups brought his total of passes defended to 23 on the year (seven INTs, 16 breakups).
 
Redshirt freshman safety Ty Trinh (Owings Mills, Md.) registered his first career interception in the second quarter during a stretch of the game where three consecutive possessions resulted in passes being picked off. That sequence started with Benford's interception at the Wildcats one-yard line with 13:36 to go in the second period, continued with Smith throwing an interception at the 19-yard line three plays later and culminated with Trinh making an easy interception of an Anthony Paoletti pass with 11:00 to play before halftime.
 
Villanova started the day ranked seventh in the country with 21 turnovers gained this season, then forced two more miscues on the two INTs thrown by the Blue Hens. Delaware starting quarterback Zach Gwynn was 14-of-27 through the air for 143 yards and an interception, while Paoletti was 1-of-2 with the early interception and his only completion on the Blue Hens final offensive snap of the game which ended on the doorstep of the goal line.
 
The only Delaware touchdown of the game came on Lee's 16-yard run in the second quarter, keeping intact the Wildcats remarkable streak of not allowing a passing touchdown. The last touchdown pass thrown against the Villanova defense was in the third quarter of the Penn State game on September 25. Since then the Wildcats have gone seven full games without allowing a touchdown through the air. The opposition has attempted 203 consecutive passes without throwing for a touchdown and Villanova's streak now matches the longest by an FCS team since a seven-game streak by Colgate during the 2018 campaign. It is also the longest streak by the Wildcats not allowing a touchdown pass in their FCS history (since 1985).