updated 8:38 p.m. ET Sept. 23, 2006

HANOVER, N.H. - New Hampshire receiver David Ball isn’t trying to run past Jerry Rice into the record books as much as leap over him.

A high school basketball and high jump champion, Ball grabbed a jump ball in the corner of the end zone for his third touchdown Saturday and the 50th TD catch of his career, tying Rice’s all-time Division I-AA mark. With a chance to surpass the future Hall of Famer, Ball watched most of the second half as the Wildcats beat Dartmouth 56-14.

“He’s as gifted a receiver as anybody in the country. He’s acrobatic and he can run with the ball when you give him some room,” Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said. “Their reputation is such that sometimes guys just backed up. We’ve never played a team of this caliber before.”

Each of Ball’s three TDs came with a different style. He caught a swing pass that he turned into a 37-yard score in the first quarter, and a short hook pattern inside the 5 in the second before he went through and over a defender at the goal line.

With 2:43 left in the half, Ball ran to the right corner of the end zone and used a 6-inch height advantage — and jumping skills learned in track and field — to elevate over 5-foot-9 cornerback Chris Blanco for a 6-yard touchdown.

“Once I saw that coverage,” quarterback Ricky Santos said. “I knew right where it was going.”

And that was just in the first half. With UNH (3-0) opening a 35-0 lead, the only question was whether coach Sean McDonnell would leave him in long enough for the record.

Ball played the first two series of the third quarter, but on the Wildcats’ first play from scrimmage in the second half he coughed up the ball after a 30-yard reception when he was hit by John Pircon. Andrew Dete recovered for Dartmouth (0-2).

“All I really think about is I fumbled the football and ended the game that way,” Ball said. “I’m sure it’s going to sink in some time.”

He was in the end zone — and open — on the next drive, but so was Aaron Brown. Santos went to Brown instead for a 24-yard TD pass that made it 42-7; Ball raised his empty hands to celebrate.

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“On some plays, even if it looks like I’m not involved, if I can draw two people to me I can make a contribution,” Ball said.

Jerry Rice was a decoy sometimes, too.

“Definitely,” Ball said.

Growing up in small-town Vermont, where eight-man football was the standard, Ball also played basketball in high school and competed in track and field — high jump, long jump, triple jump — to get his competitive fix. Even after spending a postgraduate year at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, McDonnell wasn’t quite ready to offer him a scholarship.

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