Orange Come Back to Win 'Battle: Northeast'

The long wait for the Syracuse Orange to be on their home football field was over.

Syracuse was first to receive the ball and after an overthrown pass by quarterback Steve Angeli in the direction of running back Will Nixon, Angeli found tight end Dan Villari on 2nd-&-10 for a 17-yard gain, resulting in the first first down at home in the Dome in the 2025-26 season.

Later in the drive, Orange Head Coach Fran Brown would elect to go for it on 4th-&-2 from the Huskies' eight-yard line.

Villari would attempt to carry the ball up the middle, but would only get halfway there, with Syracuse turning the ball over on downs at the UConn seven-yard line.

The Orange would get some help from the Huskies by accident when quarterback Joe Fagnano's pass on 3rd-&-5 from his own 49 was short en route to tight end Louis Hansen, who was wide open, leading to the Huskies punting the ball away.

On Syracuse's second drive of the day, running back Yasin Willis was said to have fumbled deep in his own territory, but that call was overturned by the officials after review.

However, on 3rd-&-1, Willis would lose instead of gain the yard needed for the first down and the Orange would call on punter Jack Stonehouse for the first time in the game.

UConn would gain three first downs on their second drive of the game to take the clock down to zeroes as they and Syracuse headed into the second quarter with neither having points on the board.

But that would be short-lived for the Huskies as Fagnano throw a lateral pass to wide receiver John Neider, who looked downfield, having time, and sent the ball to tight end Alex Honig who was completely uncovered by the "E" of the Orange end zone, giving the Huskies a 7-0 lead just five seconds into the second quarter (14:55 mark).

Syracuse's following drive, their third of the game, would go 13 plays and result in gaining no points, after Angeli was sacked and fumbled the ball on 4th-&-2 and the ball was recovered by linebacker Bryun Parham.

The Orange defense would bail out that offensive blunder, forcing a three-and-out for the Huskies after defensive end Kevin Jobity, Jr., sacked Fagnano for a 10-yard loss on third down.

But Syracuse's offense would continue to stall, and they would punt the ball back to UConn after their own three-&-out.

Seeing a pattern? The Huskies would go three-&-out on their next drive as well.

But the Orange would not allow them to punt the ball away.

Punter Connor Stutz would receive the ball high on the snap and seeing the Orange coming to him, he tried to tuck it and run, which is where he met Orange defensive end Denis Jaquez, Jr., for a 12-yard loss and a turnover on downs, giving the Orange the ball inside the redzone of the Huskies, at the 19-yard line.

Syracuse's fifth drive of the game would start out with a one-yard loss on the ground by transfer wide receiver Tyshawn Russell, followed by back-to-back incomplete passes from Angeli.

But, the Orange would come away with something for the first time in this game when true freshman kicker Tripp Woody connected on a field-goal attempt from 38 yards away, his first-ever collegiate field-goal try and field-goal make.

This score made it 7-3 Huskies with 3:37 to play in the first half.

As Syracuse's offense continued to be quiet, UConn's got loud again when running back Mel Brown got to the left sideline and outran the Syracuse defense for a 45-yard touchdown run, bringing up the memory of last season when fellow UConn runningback Cam Edwards had his own 40+ yard run in the Dome, that a 71-yard score.

Brown's touchdown with 1:02 left in the second quarter gave UConn a 14-3 lead.

Angeli would get some help from the Huskies on the following Orange drive when a collision between Huskies' teammates prevented an interception from being gathered in.

How did Angeli respond? By going 4-for-5 on his next five passes, including wide receiver Darrell Gill, Jr., holding on for a 20-yard gain, taking a hit and getting himself down inbounds, for a first down on the UConn 14-yard line.

Angeli would throw to the end zone on the very next play and again got help by mistake from the Huskies when safety Tyrece Mills did not keep his hands on the ball.

So, after two missed interception attempts by UConn, Syracuse's attempt, a 32-yard field goal by Woody, would go through the uprights to make it 14-6 UConn as time expired on the first-half clock.

The Huskies opened up the second half with a 10-play drive that took over five minutes off of the game clock, and would add three more points to their total thanks to a 35-yard field goal by kicker Chris Freeman that brought the score to 17-6 Huskies.

Syracuse would hold onto the ball for less than two minutes, punting away their first drive of the second half.

The Orange defense would force a three-&-out just barely after allowing 18 yards on a 3rd-&-20 pass-play from Fagnano to wide receiver Reymello Murphy.

Syracuse's second drive of the second half ended after two incomplete passes by Angeli and a sack for a seven-yard loss when Parham took Angeli down to the ground.

With under 2:30 to play in the third quarter, the Orange would force the Huskies to punt away their third drive of the third quarter, giving the Orange the ball on their own three-yard line with 2:05 on the third-quarter game clock.

Three-&-out seemed to be the theme for Syracuse in this match-up as they ended the third quarter this way, going into the fourth still down 17-6 as the offense continued to be quiet in the "Loud House".

With 13:49 to go in the game after the Orange forced a punt, Angeli would air out to Gill for a 40-yard gain to begin this possession, but Angeli would be sacked by linebacker Oumar Diomande for a seven-yard loss on third down and Woody would follow with a miss from 48 yards away, giving the ball back to the Huskies on the UConn 30-yard line.

The Syracuse defense would force a three-&-out, giving their offense another try at the end zone with 10:45 to play.

This try would end in an interception thrown by Angeli, with the Huskies starting the drive that ensued from their own 45.

With 7:15 remaining, the Orange would get the ball back after the defense did not allow the Huskies to come away with any points following their aforementioned interception of Angeli.

Syracuse's next drive would see Angeli drop back on 4th-&-4 from the UConn 47 and, taking advantage of a Huskies' defense that looked like they were not ready, sent a pass to wide receiver Justus Ross-Simmons who took off for a 47-yard score, the first touchdown for the Orange in the Dome here in the 2025-26 season.

Following Nixon being stopped on the two-point conversion attempt, the scoreboard read 17-12 UConn with 5:41 remaining,

On 3rd-&-4, Syracuse would provide UConn with a new set of downs courtesy of an offsides penalty.

Later in this drive, wide receiver Skyler Bell would take the end-around from Fagnano, coming from left to right to carry the ball on 3rd-&-11.

Syracuse defensive back Duce Chestnut would stop Bell for no gain and UConn would punt the ball back to Syracuse inside three minutes to go.

Fran Brown had used two timeouts on this drive by the Huskies, leaving the Orange with the two-minute timeout and one timeout of their own remaining with an opportunity to seal a victory by getting back into the Huskies' end zone.

On the final drive for Syracuse, Angeli would go 6-for-7 and Willis would get the six yards needed on back-to-back carries, rushing in for a touchdown that gave the Orange their first lead of the game with 48 seconds remaining.

A two-point try by Fran Brown would work this time around, with Angeli finding Gill in the back of the end zone, making it 20-17 Syracuse.

Fagnano and Bell would keep the UConn offense on the field inside a minute to play when they linked up for a 27-yard pass-play over the middle on 4th-&-10.

Bell was the only person that Fagnano completed the ball to on this drive, with three passes for a total of 62 yards, getting to the Syracuse 23-yard line.

Freeman would come onto the field to attempt a 41-yard field goal with six seconds left on the game clock.

His attempt would land through the uprights, tying the game at 20-apiece with one second remaining.

The Orange would not attempt a play, sending the game into overtime.

Syracuse would have possession first in overtime and Angeli would go 3-for-3 as well as Nixon carrying the ball once for two yards. The third pass by Angeli was bobbled and held onto by Ross-Simmons for the score that moved the Orange to a 27-20 lead after the extra point by Woody, forcing the Huskies to have to get into the end zone on their first overtime attempt.

A 3rd-&-11 pass attempt by Fagnano from the Syracuse 26 would fall incomplete.

However, instead of fourth down, the Huskies would have a new set of downs when pass interference was called.

On the next fourth-down try from UConn, Fagnano's pass would go low and the ball would bounce the way of Syracuse as the Orange get their first win of the season, 27-20 in overtime.

The victory moves Syracuse to 1-1 on the season (1-0 home, 0-1 neutral) and UConn to 1-1 as well (0-1 on the road, 1-0 at home).

Angeli went 33-for-53 (62.3%) for 417 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.

Villari had his first career 100-yard receiving outing in his collegiate career, gaining 104 yards on seven catches to lead the Orange.

Willis was atop all Syracuse running backs with 48 yards on 11 carries, including the touchdown that gave the Orange their first lead of the game, with 48 seconds remaining.

Jobity, Jr., had the lone sack for Syracuse on Fagnano, and defensive back Duce Chestnut led all Orange with eight total tackles, seven of those being solo.

Fagnano finished 24-for-43 (55.8%) for 259 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions.

Bell led all Huskies with 105 receiving yards on 11 catches.

On the ground, Edwards was atop all UConn running backs with 75 yards on 21 carries, followed closely by Brown who had 72 yards on just five touches, including one score.

Defensively, Parham, Diomande, and linebacker Donvan Branch each recorded a sack, while Diomande led the team with nine total tackles.