By Dominic Konareski
Voice Writer
New Haven opened a brand-new college football season for Week 0 play against the Marist Red Foxes. The 2026 kickoff marks the second season that the University of New Haven is a Division I program, a move that occurred suddenly to much applause. Due to the late move that came just before the 2025 season began, New Haven was unable to play against any conference opponents due to the majority of schedules being completed.
The New Haven Chargers joined the Northeast Conference, a FBS Division I conference that sees fellow Connecticut team competing, with Central Connecticut State being not only a conference rival, but also a state rival.
Even though this Week 0 matchup against the Red Foxes was a non-conference game for the Chargers, the goal remained the same: Begin the season 1-0. New Haven came into their home blue turf of DellaCamera Stadium with Mark Powell under the official head coaching role.
Powell, a West Haven native, was at the Chargers helm leading the charge all of 2025 in an interim role. Powell led New Haven to a 5-5 season, marking their first year as a DI football program, overall it was a record that could be considered as an ‘upset’ as many predictions had New Haven only winning 1-2 games last season.
For the Chargers it was AJ Duffy under center. The former FSU quarterback transferred to New Haven last year, leading them to that 5-5 season. Now a grad student in his final year, Duffy looks for big numbers to boost his draft stock. The Red Foxes called on Sonny Mannino once again to start. Mannino is now in his third year starting with Marist, after being a 0-star recruit out of high school.
Fans sporting the Chargers’ blue and gold came to a jam-packed DellaCamera Stadium for the 6 p.m. kickoff for Friday night football. According to ESPN, the estimated attendance was 7,030 both in and around the stadium – which has a reported seating capacity of 5,000 in its grandstands.
The game started off with the Chargers notching a 38-yard field goal by Liam Quigley to take a 3-0 lead in the first quarter in what was a time consuming 5-minute drive. Marist would respond with just under two minutes to go in Q1 with a 5-yard rushing touchdown by Mannino to take the lead, in what was a 9-play drive that went 70-yards down the field.
The second quarter opened up with AJ Duffy throwing a pick 6 for 25 yards, putting New Haven in a slight danger zone of being down 14-3. It would take the Chargers roughly 10-minutes to respond and eliminate some of the deficit. A 7-play drive that went 59-yards ended in New Haven’s first passing touchdown of the season, with AJ Duffy hitting Issac Glaudin for 39-yards into the end zone. Halftime would hit with UNH down 14-10 heading into the locker room, knowing their defense would get the ball to begin the third quarter.
Kickoff for the second half would see instant trouble for New Haven with a blocked punt being returned for a touchdown not even a minute into the third quarter. New Haven would get into scoring range for the foot of Liam Quigley to do his work with a 35-yard field goal to lessen the score to 21-13 with 10:57 left in the third. With 1:32 remaining before the field direction flips, AJ Duffy would flip a pass to Nate Burleson Jr., and take it 46-yards into the endzone to the sound of the famous Chargers’ scoring cannon going off.
This late score in the third quarter would allow UNH to attempt a two-point conversion in hopes to tie the game going into the fourth. Duffy’s conversion pass would fail, but nonetheless the Chargers had life and a chance to win with a field goal going into the final 15-minutes of regulation.
The fourth quarter was the same for the Chargers defense. All of it has been very rock solid besides the touchdown allowed in the first. The D-line would hold strong and that is what kept UNH in constant winning opportunities while giving them the game-changing drive.
The clock read 6:04. New Haven, Mark Powell and offensive coordinator Brian Scott did what every coach dreams up in tight game time management. UNH drove the ball down field and scored – most importantly they took the lead. Liam Quigley hit a chip-shot 19-yard field go-ahead field goal to give UNH a one point lead with 4:07 remaining.
The Chargers’ defense would hold Marist to a three-and-out that turned into a failed fourth down conversion on what was 4th and 8 after the UNH defense had multiple loss of yard plays against the Red Foxes. UNH would get the ball after the turnover on downs, allowing them to run out the clock, sealing the 22-21 win.
AJ Duffy would end the game 22-for-37 passing with 311 yards and a 2-1 TD-INT ratio, while also seeing him rush for 35 yards. Zaon Laney would rush for 45 off of 17 attempts, averaging 2.6 per-attempt with the longest of the night being a 16-yarder. Issac Glaudin would fall just a yard short of 100, with 99 receiving yards via 7 receptions with a TD. Nate Burleson Jr would place second for the team with his only two receptions of the game combining for 78-yards. Tommy Troy was the final New Haven player to eclipse 50 or more yards with 67 off of two receptions.
New Haven’s defense was excellent, allowing just 160 yards. UNH’s D saw Ricky Encarnacion lead with 8 total tackles. Irv Briggs and Israel Bey both got to the quarterback, ending the night with 1 sack each.
Liam Quigley was a perfect 3-for-3 kicking, which allowed New Haven to stay in the fight offensively and ultimately led them to this Week 0 victory.
Marist passing saw Sonny Mannino struggle with just 70-yards in what was a sub 50% completion night at 9-for-19.
New Haven will stay home for another week, and are set to face Stonehill on Saturday, Sept. 5 at noon. This will be New Haven’s first conference bout of the season.
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