NEWARK, Del. – Delaware put a quick end to Southern Illinois’ first trip to the Division I-AA playoffs since 1983.

Germaine Bennett ran for 104 yards and two touchdowns, and the Blue Hens scored 27 first-quarter points to breeze past the Salukis 48-7 Saturday.

Second-seeded Delaware (12-1) next hosts the winner of Saturday’s late game between Northern Iowa and Montana State.

A swirling 20 mph wind chilled the 14,572 fans but wasn’t a hindrance to Delaware’s Andy Hall, who went 10-for-18 for 101 yards and two touchdowns. He has 205 completions this season, breaking the school record of 201 by Rich Gannon in 1986.

Making its first appearance in the I-AA playoffs since winning the national championship 20 years earlier, Southern Illinois (10-2) committed six turnovers and yielded a touchdown on a blocked punt.

“We just got outcoached and outplayed,” Salukis coach Jerry Kill said. “Our strength this season was not turning the ball over and special teams, and we didn’t do well in either. Of course, Delaware had a lot to do with that. … I think their football team is going to contend for the national championship.”

Southern Illinois twice lost fumbles in the opening four minutes and trailed 27-0 after the first quarter. The Salukis allowed only 28 first-quarter points and committed only 11 turnovers in their previous 11 games combined.

“It was difficult for them to bounce back after we put 27 points on the board,” Delaware coach K.C. Keller said. “We did a couple of things early that set the tempo. When we got up on them the way we did, things sort of fell apart for them.”

Colgate 19, UMass 7

HAMILTON, N.Y. – When Chris Brown awoke Saturday for the biggest game of his life, he never looked out the window.

“I realized that it was probably going to be snowing and windy,” said Brown, junior quarterback at Colgate. “I knew we were going to have to play in it and prepared myself mentally. I was ready.”

So were his teammates. Brown hit J.B. Gerald for TD passes of 13 and 30 yards, and the Colgate defense held the high-powered UMass offense without a touchdown, to lift the Raiders to a 19-7 victory over the Minutemen in the first round of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.

The sixth-ranked Raiders (13-0), Patriot League champions, overcame a driving snow that pelted Andy Kerr Stadium throughout the first half and extended their winning streak to 19, the longest in school history. Colgate will face Western Illinois, which beat Montana 43-40 in double overtime Saturday, in next week’s quarterfinals.

The victory more than atoned for some harsh statements during the week from UMass coach Mark Whipple. He nearly was suspended for the game after criticizing the selection committee for forcing his team to play on the road.

“We’ve always stepped up since I’ve been here,” said Dick Biddle, in his eighth year as head coach at Colgate. “We don’t have to take a back seat to anybody. We knew we belonged.”

The Minutemen (10-3), champions of the Atlantic 10, took a 7-0 lead with 6:43 remaining in the first quarter but couldn’t overcome three lost fumbles and an interception. It was the first time the UMass offense was held without a touchdown since a 36-6 loss at Hofstra on Sept. 29, 2001.

Although they were more than an hour late arriving after a tense 45-mile bus ride from Syracuse in what was a virtual whiteout much of the way, the Minutemen offered no excuses.

“We practice in this a lot,” Whipple said. “That never affected us before. It was tough because our passing game is based on timing, and our timing was affected.”

So, too, was Colgate’s Jamaal Branch, the nation’s leading rusher. He was rendered ineffective by the slippery conditions – he ran 25 times for 59 yards, 109 below his average – but Brown picked up the slack.

“I knew what I had to do and I stayed within the system,” said Brown, who was 17-for-37 for 209 yards in outplaying Jeff Krohn of UMass, who passed for 28 touchdowns during the regular season. “I made short throws and threw the long ones when they were there.”

The Colgate defense held UMass to 299 yards of total offense. Krohn, who was 12-for-36 for 199 yards, was 17-5 in two years as the starter after transferring from Arizona State. Two of those losses came against North Carolina State and Kansas State of Division I-A.

“We didn’t come in and play the way we hoped to, regardless of the weather,” UMass safety Anton McKenzie said. “We needed to play our game and style of football.”

The Minutemen looked at home when the game began. Leroy Brooks blocked a punt by Jason Sutton and James Ihedigbo scooped up the loose ball at the Colgate 25 and ran it in for a touchdown with 6:43 left in the first quarter.

The Raiders, who won the toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff, finally broke through once they had the wind at their backs in the second.

Two plays after Michael Torres missed a 22-yard field goal for UMass, Brown completed a 45-yard pass down the left side to flanker Luke Graham to stun the Minutemen. Then, facing a fourth-and-16 play from the UMass 30, Shannon James was called for pass interference on Graham, and Brown followed by hitting Gerald over the middle for a 13-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7-all at 9:44.

The Minutemen failed to gain a first down on their next possession, and when punter Christian Koegel dropped the snap, he was tackled by Mike Chrystie and Colgate had a first-and-goal at the 6. Branch scored on a 2-yard run, his 26th TD of the season, to give Colgate a 13-7 lead with 8:14 left in the half.

The Minutemen elected to kick off in the second half to take advantage of the wind and drove to the Colgate 13 on their second possession. But Krohn threw three straight incompletions and the Raiders took over on downs. UMass managed to cross midfield only one more time – in the fourth quarter.

The Raiders secured the victory early in the fourth. Brown hit Gerald for a 30-yard score one play after Josh Wurst recovered a fumble by tight end Mike Douglas.

“They had the wind at their backs in the third and didn’t get any points,” Biddle said. “That was the game right there.”

AP-ES-11-29-03 1831EST