Delaware

Delaware football vs. UTEP live updates. Blue Hens have big early lead

Published

1 month ago

November 29, 2025

Delaware football vs. UTEP live updates. Blue Hens have big early lead

Joe Silver’s 1-yard run scoring run has extended Delaware’s lead to 31-14 with 2:01 left in the first half over UTEP at Delaware Stadium.

The 6-play, 62-yard drive featured Nick Minicucci’s 47-yard pass to Kyre Duplessis on the play before the touchdown.

UTEP had just cut the Blue Hens’ lead to 24-14 with 5:05 left in the second period when Skyler Locklear passed 64 yards to Josh Schuchts his second long TD toss.

Matthews, Moul plays spark Hens

Delaware has turned two more big defensive plays into points.

Blake Matthews stopped Miners running back Ashten Emory for no gain on fourth-and-2 from the UTEP 42.

Delaware then added Nate Reed’s 37-yard field goal with 10:24 left in the first half to extend its lead to 17-7.

But the Blue Hens quickly added to that on Gavin Moul’s 16-yard return of a fumble for another TD that made it 24-7.

Delaware has outgained the Miners 178-74 in total yards.

Freshman Scott Moore gets first TD

After being stopped on downs at the UTEP 37 on one series, Delaware covered the necessary ground on the next to extend its lead.

The Blue Hens lead the Miners 14-7 at Delaware Stadium after a 4-yard TD pass to freshman tight end Scott Moore with 14:26 left in the second quarter.

Delaware ate up big chunks of yardage on the 9-play, 69-yard march, which was all first and second downs. Nick Minicucci’s 12-yard pass to running back Joe Silver, back after missing several games with an injury, was the longest.

Blue Hens, Miners trade TDs

The first career interception by Blue Hens freshman Jamarion Kolagbodi has yielded dividends for the Blue Hens.

The cornerback picked off a UTEP pass on the game’s first play at Delaware Stadium.

Delaware took over at the 50 and nine plays later quarterback Nick Minicucci scooted up the middle on fourth-and-2 for a 17-yard touchdown with 11:11 left in the first period.

Another key play was Minicucci’s 7-yard pass to Sean Wilson on fourth-and-5 from the UTEP 45.

But the Miners quickly tied it 7-7 after Skyler Locklear floated a 49-yard TD pass to Kenny Odom, who’d gotten a step on his coverage as he sped downfield on the next series.

Close games galore

Delaware’s last four home football games have been decided in the final seconds.

There’s no reason to expect anything different in the Blue Hens’ 2025 regular-season finale.

Delaware (5-6, 3-4) and UTEP (2-9, 1-7) kick off at 1 p.m. in the Conference USA game at Delaware Stadium on Nov. 29.

A victory makes Delaware bowl eligible in its first FBS-level season, though NCAA rules regarding transitional programs mean there must be a shortage of bowl-worthy teams for the Blue Hens to get a bid.

The last four Delaware Stadium matchups have ended on Nick Minicucci’s overtime touchdown run that beat UConn 44-41, a missed field goal in a 27-24 loss to Western Kentucky, a late onside kick recovery to beat Middle Tennessee 31-28 and Nate Reed’s 51-yard field goal that nipped Louisiana Tech 25-24.

It has certainly been riveting football theatre.

Watch on ESPN+

UTEP, moving next year to the Mountain West, making this the first and likely last meeting between the schools, has had its own down-to-the-wire decisions, including in its last two games. The Miners were tied with Missouri State in the fourth period before losing 38-24 and were beaten by a late long field goal against Jacksonville State 30-27.

Such is the nature of Conference USA and life in the bowl subdivision, the Blue Hens have learned.

“This conference has been so, everything’s a close game,” Delaware coach Ryan Carty said. “There are so many overtime games. There’s so many times where those one-score games kind of go one way or another at the end of the game.’’

The Hens expect nothing different against UTEP.

“They’ve been in almost all of them,” Carty said of the Miners. “It seems like every week they’re either having a comeback victory or comeback loss, they’re in a three-point game, they’re in a seven-point game, one-possession game . . . Coach [Scotty] Walden has done such a great job of keeping these guys fighting together and fighting till the end. They play hard and they play physical and they finish games.”

Hen scratch

Delaware will honor 22 players in Senior Day activities pregame . . . Fintan Brose and Jack Hall will play in their 55^th Delaware games, which will tie them at No. 3 in UD history . . . Nick Minicucci is No. 1 in CUSA and fourth nationally with 290.5 passing yards per game, a UD single-season record. He is first in CUSA and No. 8 in FBS with 307.3 total yards per game. His 3,196 yards passing this year are fourth most in a UD season . . . Delaware is No. 1 in CUSA in both punt (15.7) and kick return (23.5) yardage . . . Delaware is 30-1 under Ryan Carty when scoring 30 or more points . . . UTEP has No. 2 passing defense (213.73 ypg) in CUSA but allowed 606 yards and seven touchdowns last two games . . . UTEP has No. 5 third-down defense in FBS (.294).

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.

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Delaware

MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

Published

5 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

A dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach on Jan. 8, according to the nonprofit Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute.

The juvenile male was first seen Jan. 6, floating at sea about 2 miles off the Indian River Inlet, a MERR Facebook post said. The bloated 30-foot whale ultimately beached near a private community in the early afternoon of Jan. 8, the post said.

MERR is attempting to coordinate with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to get equipment to move the whale out of the water and onto the beach to perform a necropsy, the post said. Right now, there isn’t enough information to determine a cause of death.

Delaware saw at least three dead whales last year, in the Indian River Bay, at Delaware Seashore State Park and at Pigeon Point. The first two were humpbacks, while the Pigeon Point whale was a fin whale.

A necropsy on the Delaware Seashore whale found blunt force trauma across its back, indicating it may have been struck by a ship, MERR Director Suzanne Thurman said.

Recently, on Jan. 4, a dead fin whale was found on the bow of a ship at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in New Jersey, which is located in the Port of Philadelphia on the Delaware River.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Facebook.

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Delaware

Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

Published

17 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

A Pennsylvania man is accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from a cemetery in Delaware County.

Jonathan Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, is charged with abuse of corpse, criminal mischief, burglary and other related offenses, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse revealed on Thursday, Jan. 8.

Léelo en español aquí

Between November 2025 and Jan. 6, 2026, 26 mausoleums and underground burial sites had been burglarized or desecrated at Mount Moriah Cemetery, which stretches from Yeadon Borough, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, investigators said.

As police investigated the thefts, they caught Gerlach desecrating a monument at the cemetery on Tuesday, Jan. 6, according to officials. Gerlach was taken into custody and investigators executed a search warrant at his home in Ephrata.

During the search, investigators recovered 100 human skeletons from Gerlach’s home as well as eight more human remains inside a storage locker, according to Rouse.

“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night guys,” Rouse said. “This is an unbelievable scene that no one involved – from myself to the detectives to the medical examiners that are now trying to piece together what they are looking at, quite literally – none of them have ever seen anything like this before.”

Rouse said some of the stolen skeletons are hundreds of years old.

“We are trying to figure out exactly what we are looking at,” Rouse said. “We quite simply at this juncture are not able to date and identify all of them.”

Rouse also said some of the skeletons are of infants and children.

“It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific,” Rouse said. “I grieve for those who are upset by this who are going through it who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child because we found remains that we believe to be months old infants among those that he had collected. Our hearts go out to every family that is impacted by this.”

Sources also told NBC10 the thefts are related to a similar case in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Investigators said they are looking at Gerlach’s online community — including his social media groups and Facebook page — to determine if people were buying, selling, or trading the remains.

Gerlach is currently in custody at the Delaware County Prison after failing to post $1 million bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

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