Lee Marriner / AP

New Hampshire wide receiver David Ball scores his 50th career touchdown, tying him with NFL great Jerry Rice for the NCAA Division I-AA touchdown reception record Saturday.

Now, Ball and Santos have the Wildcats ranked No. 1 in all of Division I-AA.

“I’m still trying to figure out how they ended up at UNH,” McDonnell said with a laugh. “One guy I didn’t want and one guy, I told him he wasn’t good enough.”

McDonnell knows now how wrong he is, and much of Orange, Vt., made the 50-minute drive on Saturday to a virtual home game near the Vermont border to remind him.

“A lot of friends and family were here,” Ball said: “Both sets of grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts. It was unbelievable.”

The Dartmouth public address announcer made note of Ball’s achievement, first when he scored No. 50 and again at the end of the game. Ball’s supporters on the UNH side of the stands rose and cheered wildly.

“I just didn’t want to look back and see everybody that was there,” he said. “I didn’t want to feel the pressure.”

Ball caught two touchdowns in the season-opening victory over Northwestern — a landmark win for a Division I-AA school against a Big Ten foe. Ball did not score in a 62-7 win over Stony Brook, again coming out at the half of a blowout.

Santos is on a record hunt of his own, needing 16 more yards passing this season to set the school record.

“I guarantee you he’ll have 16 yards next week,” McDonnell said wryly. “Would I like to have all this stuff by me right now? Yeah. It would be awesome. But we didn’t get it done.”

Ball grew up idolizing Rice, who caught 50 touchdown passes from 1981-84 at Mississippi Valley State. He went on to set NFL records of 1,549 receptions for 22,895 yards and 197 receiving touchdowns.

“The most exciting thing about being mentioned with him is I’m happy people view me as they view him,” Ball said. “There are a lot of people who view him not only as a great football player, but as a great teammate and a great person. A lot of what set him apart was his character on and off the field.”

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