NEWARK, Del.—Villanova brought one trophy with it to Delaware Stadium and is returning home with two after a rousing 35-7 victory in its regular season finale on Saturday afternoon. After the latest win against their historical rivals the Wildcats are bringing the Battle of the Blue Trophy back home for the 15^th time in the 17-year history of the "Battle of the Blue" era. With it is the CAA Football championship trophy which is in Villanova's possession for the second time in the last three years.
 
The final regular season CAA Football standings have a three-way tie at the top with the Wildcats joined by UAlbany and Richmond in posting 7-1 league records. All three teams are officially co-champions for the 2023 season, but a tiebreaker based on point differential versus conference opponents favored Villanova and awarded the Wildcats the league's automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. The field of 24 teams for the Division I Football Championship will be announced on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in a live selection show on ESPNU.
 
Before the Wildcats could celebrate with two trophies, they had to earn one. The latest edition of the rivalry between No. 10 Villanova (9-2, 7-1 CAA Football) and No. 7 Delaware (8-3, 6-2 CAA Football) had higher stakes than any meeting in recent history. Each team needed a win to claim at least a share of the CAA championship, and perhaps to earn a top-eight national seed and a bye in the first round of the playoffs. It was, true to form in the history of the rivalry, a grudge match for much of the first half with the score tied at 7-7 with under two minutes to play before halftime.
 
A touchdown with 1:44 remaining in the second quarter gave the Wildcats the lead for good at 14-7. It was the first punch to land in an onslaught of 28 unanswered points the rest of the way. Villanova scored touchdowns less than four minutes apart in the third quarter and sealed the game with its first defensive points of the season on a 69-yard interception midway through the final period. Once the final seconds ticked off the clock the Wildcats celebrated on the field with the Battle of the Blue Trophy which traveled down I-95 with them just a few hours earlier. Villanova then headed to the locker room where CAA Football commissioner Joe D'Antonio presented the team with the conference championship trophy.
 
"I am really proud of this team," Wildcats head coach Mark Ferrante said. "The goal that we accomplished today started as soon as our season ended last year. These guys did a great job coming together not only in preseason, summer training and spring ball, but even the offseason training that started before that. As I have said all year, we have a lot of maturity, a lot of experience, and the guys played that way most of the season. So, hats off to this group. I am really proud of the guys and really happy for the team."
 
Fifth year quarterback Connor Watkins (Williamsport, Pa.) was 17-of-27 for 222 yards and two touchdowns, both of which were thrown to fifth year wide receiver Jaaron Hayek (Wayne, N.J.) who had his best game of the season with six catches for 121 yards and the two scores.
 
Villanova's high-powered offense had another good – and balanced – day with 449 total yards, including the 222 passing yards and 227 rushing yards. Sixth year running back Jalen Jackson (Richmond, Va.) gained 130 yards on just nine carries and set a tone for the day with a 55-yard burst on the game's first play from scrimmage. Fifth year running backs DeeWil Barlee (Upper Darby, Pa.) and TD Ayo-Durojaiye (Damascus, Md.) each ran for touchdowns.
 
A defensive effort which held the Blue Hens to nearly 140 fewer yards than their season average was highlighted by sixth year linebacker Danny Abraham (Randolph, Mass.) who returned an interception 69 yards for a touchdown which closed the scoring at the 7:14 mark of the fourth quarter. It was the first defensive score of the season for the Wildcats and Abraham's first career pick-six. He added five tackles, including a tackle for loss, while senior linebacker Brendan Bell (Basking Ridge, N.J.) had a game-high 12 total stops (four solo, eight assisted) and Villanova's only sack of the game.
 
THEY SAID IT
 
"Throughout the week we have our seniors come up and talk to the team about what this game means to us and the program. I think it has a lot to do with tradition and the guys that came before us. I mentioned in my speech that there's no rivalry game unless the guys have played before us, so we do it for the people before us. We do it for the 'V' on our chest. We obviously knew we hadn't lost here since 2004, so it has a lot to do with tradition and upholding the standard of the Villanova way." – Jaaron Hayek
 
"It's a phenomenal feeling. I don't think it has really set in yet. Last year was kind of an up and down year for us. We were able to fortunately win the 'Battle of the Blue' last year at home and send the senior class out on a good note. This year, it started in December with us coming together, meeting in a room and we decided that this was what our culture is going to be this year. The upper classmen are going to have to lead by example and be vocal with those underclassmen. All the work we put in is paying off; now it's a new season and we've got to go 1-0 each week if we want to keep playing football." – Connor Watkins
 
"We just tried to play our game, keep it simple for us and keep everything in front of us. [The pick-six] was just kind of Madden-esque. I saw the running back leak out and [the quarterback] started rolling across his body. I saw him lock eyes with the running back and at that point it was kind of see ball, get ball. I was just thinking about not getting caught but afterwards, seeing the reaction of the sideline I definitely started to envision the commissioner with the trophy, so extremely grateful." – Danny Abraham
 
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS
 

• Villanova wins at least a share of the CAA Football title for the second time in the last three years and finishes the regular season with an identical record (9-2, 7-1 CAA) to the 2021 team which won a share of the conference championship and also garnered the league's automatic bid to the playoffs.

 

• Villanova has now won eight conference championships overall since joining what was then the Yankee Conference in 1988 … The Wildcats were outright league champions in 1997 and have won seven shared titles.

 

• Head coach Mark Ferrante has been a part of all eight conference championships in Villanova history, including the last two as head coach … He was an assistant coach on Andy Talley's coaching staff for the program's first six league crowns.

 
INDIVIDUAL MILESTONES
 

• Fifth year wide receiver Jaaron Hayek had six receptions for 121 yards and two touchdowns … He passed Brian Westbrook (1997-01), Josh Dolbin (1994-97) and Murle Sango (1998-01) on the Wildcats list of career receiving leaders and is now fourth in school history with 2,702 yards … Hayek recorded the 11^th 100-yard receiving game of his career which is the third-most in school history … He is fourth in school history with 29 career receiving touchdowns.

 

• Sixth year running back Jalen Jackson rushed nine times for 130 yards … He passed Aaron Forbes (2015-18) and Justin Covington (2016-21) on Villanova's list of career rushing leaders and is now sixth in school history with exactly 2,400 yards … Jackson ranks second in school history with an average of 6.30 yards per carry (381 attempts for 2,400 yards) and is ninth in school history with an average of 54.5 rushing yards per game.

 

• Fifth year running back DeeWil Barlee rushed a team-high 12 times for 58 yards and a touchdown … He moved up three spots on the program's career list and into the top-10 in school history with 2,225 career yards … Barlee passed Terry Butler (2001-04), Martin Gibson (2002-05) and Jeff Johnson (1989-92) to move up to ninth in the Wildcats record book.

 

• Fifth year running back TD Ayo-Durojaiye had seven carries for 23 yards and a touchdown … He passed Kevin Mosley (1990-93) and Gene Filipski (1952-53) to move into 20^th place in Villanova history with exactly 1,600 career yards.

 
PLAYER NOTES
 

• Danny Abraham recorded Villanova's first defensive points of the season with his 69-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter … It is the first pick-six for the Wildcats since Jalen Goodman had a 23-yard return last season at Maine … Goodman had an 81-yard INT return earlier this season which did not result in a score.

 

• Jalen Jackson has six career 100-yard rushing games and three this season … He now has 833 rushing yards this year which is tied for 19^th in a single season in school history.

 

• Rayjuon Pringle had five catches for 59 yards in today's game … His 951 receiving yards on the year are the ninth-most in a single season in the Villanova record book.

 

• Brendan Bell has four career double-digit tackle games and two this season … Both of this year's 10+ tackle efforts have come in the past three contests overall … He had 14 tackles at New Hampshire and 12 in today's contest.

 

• Connor Watkins had a career-high 17 completions in today's game and came within one pass of tying his career of 18 completions which was set against UAlbany last season.

 
BATTLE OF THE BLUE
 

• Villanova has played – and beaten – Delaware more times than any other opponent in its history … The series dates back to 1895 and the Wildcats have an all-time record of 34-22-1 against the Blue Hens … Villanova has won 16 of the last 18 games between the teams and nine in a row at Delaware Stadium since a 2004 loss there.

 

• The Villanova-Delaware rivalry has been billed as the "Battle of the Blue" since 2007 and the Wildcats have won 15 of the 17 games in which the Battle of the Blue Trophy has been presented … Villanova's streak of eight straight wins over Delaware from 2012-19 is the longest winning streak by either team in the history of the series.

 

• Beginning in 1964, there has been a Villanova-Delaware game in all but one year that the Wildcats have played a football season … The lone exception was in 1985 when Villanova reinstated football following a four-year absence.

 

• Villanova and Delaware are the only two current CAA Football members who have an all-time winning percentage higher than .600 in regular season conference games … The Wildcats are 172-114 all-time in league play and the Blue Hens are 181-120 … Villanova's winning percentage is one ten-thousandth of a percentage point higher than Delaware (.6014 to .6013).

 
TEAM NOTES
 

• This is the second time in the last three years that the Wildcats finished the regular season with a 9-2 record … Prior to 2021, Villanova's most recent year with only two regular season losses was a 10-2 campaign in 2014.

 

• This year marks the eighth time that the Wildcats won at least seven conference games and the sixth time that Villanova had no more than one loss in league play.

 

• Villanova is headed to the FCS playoffs for the 15^th time overall and the ninth time in the last 16 seasons … The Wildcats are 13-13 all-time in the Division I Football Championship, winning their first national title in 2009 and making two other semifinal appearances (2002, 2010).

 

• Head coach Mark Ferrante has been a part of all 15 of Villanova's playoff appearances as an FCS program, including 12 as an assistant coach and three as a head coach.

 

• Villanova has won six consecutive games since a 31-10 loss at UAlbany on September 30 … During the winning streak the Wildcats have outscored their opponents by a 219-77 margin while averaging a +23.7 margin of victory.

 

• Villanova's six-game winning streak is the longest since it started 6-0 in 2019 … The last time the Wildcats had a longer winning streak was a stretch of seven consecutive wins in 2014.
• Villanova is 13-7 (.650) in the month of November during the Mark Ferrante head coaching era (since 2017).