Hens begin season with shutout over West Chester

Head coach K.C. Keeler was pleased with the result and the chance to see his team take the field against a real opponent.

"Training camp goes so long sometimes you lose the details of the game," Keeler said. "You have to get that out of your system live. We got some great live work out there."

Pierce rushed for 119 yards on 13 carries. He broke the 100-yard mark before halftime and scored on a 22 yard run that gave the Hens a 14-0 lead in the second quarter.

 "Same stuff I've been seeing during training camp," Keeler said. "I really liked him a lot in the spring ball, came in in great shape. He just was a man on a mission."

Pierce, who sat out most of the second half with the Hens up by three touchdowns, became the first Delaware freshman running back to rush for more than 100 yards in the home opener since Phil Thaxton did it in 2007.

 "It was a lot of pressure for me," Pierce said. "But I came out, I did what my coaches taught me, and it helped."

 He said he was very nervous before the game, but it was still a great experience for him even though he still wants to improve his rushing even more.

 "I had a few mistakes that I can go and watch the film on," he said. "My line did a great job and I just read off of them. I think I did a pretty decent job but I got a lot to work on."

Senior defensive back Anthony Walters led the Hens' defense to the shutout with two interceptions. Walters, Delaware's all time leader in career interceptions, now has 11 for his career.

"We had good film," Walters said. "I knew both times what play they were running. The first one I don't know why he threw it. I was praying he threw it and he did and I was just like ‘the receiver's smaller; I'll just go get the ball."

Walters, who has rotated between corner and safety throughout his career, got both his interceptions while playing safety. He had to miss part of training camp due to a hamstring issue and was worn out after his first game action as he joked around at the postgame press conference.

 "Today felt like a two-a-day," he said. "I didn't get a lot of camp time. I probably lost five pounds today, and I'm a lot more tired than I was at corner. I don't know if I'm getting old or I'm out of shape. I'm in great shape, I'm getting old."

Senior captain Tyrone Grant also added an interception for the Hens' defense. Keeler said the forced turnovers add to their game plan, which is based on ball possession, creating turnovers, and limiting their own turnovers.

"We talk about ball security so much," he said. "Our whole theme is that nothing good can happen when they have the ball so we need to possess the ball."

Devlin did not throw the ball that much, but when he did he was effective. Devlin finished with 14 completions for 163 yards. He opened the scoring when he found Nihja White in the flat for a seven-yard touchdown late in the first quarter. Thaxton and Tommy Crosby also caught a touchdown apiece even though most of the concentration was getting Pierce a lot of carries.

"Pat's just so steady," Keeler said. "We wanted to establish the run, we wanted to give ‘A.P.' as many opportunities as possible."             

The Hens did show some rust however. Keeler pointed out that they fumbled too often and both the secondary and the offensive line had missed assignments at times. He said they will not be able to do that next week and win with No. 9 South Dakota State coming to town Sept. 11.

"We had a lot of missed assignments," Walters said. "It was our first game so we can kind of afford it but in a big game next week we can't miss any."

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