DURHAM, N.H. – All season, the New Hampshire Wildcats have been virtually unstoppable.

With the Atlantic 10 football championship and the No. 1 ranking in the country on the line Saturday afternoon, nothing was about to slow New Hampshire’s momentum.

New Hampshire broke open a tight game by scoring 21 unanswered third-quarter points on its way to a 59-47 victory over the University of Maine at Cowell Stadium.

An overflow crowd of 8,606 fans watched the Wildcats clinch a share of the league title and wrap up the automatic bid to the 16-team NCAA Division I-AA tournament.

“I haven’t seen a better team,” said UMaine coach Jack Cosgrove, whose team finished the season 5-6 after winning three of their last four contests.

“They’re clearly No. 1,” he said of UNH (10-1, 7-1 A-10). “They’re going to be a great representative of our conference in the playoffs.”

The game wound up being an offensive shootout. Each team amassed 555 yards of offense, although 228 yards of UMaine’s total came after the hosts had already built a 52-28 advantage.

The contest featured a combined 106 passes and 82 rushing attempts and the teams accounted for 59 first downs.

Sophomore quarterback Ricky Santos was a one-man wrecking crew. He rushed for 116 yards and three touchdowns and passed for 354 yards and four more scores.

“He’s the best player in the league. He’s going to get player of the year,” said UMaine quarterback Ron Whitcomb.

John McCoy rushed for 84 yards, while Jon Williams and David Ball made eight receptions each in the Wildcats’ diverse attack.

Arel Gordon sparked the Bears with 90 rushing yards and a career-high 14 catches for 85 yards. Whitcomb flirted with two school single-game passing marks, completing 36 of 60 passes, while rolling up 363 yards and five TDs.

Tailback Montell Owens ran for 79 yards and two scores and had seven receptions for 89 yards. Wideout Kevin McMahan caught five passes for 79 yards, including scoring receptions of 5, 22, 11 and 17 yards.

UNH led 24-21 at halftime, but finally established a cushion in the third quarter.

The Wildcats opened the second half with a seven-play, 77-yard scoring drive capped by a 21-yard pass from Santos to Ball in the end zone.

UNH then stopped UMaine, which had scored on three of its previous four possessions, to set up a 58-yard touchdown march. Santos lofted a 3-yard toss to Ball as the hosts made it 45-28 with 6:45 left in the third.

“They’re a veteran, confident offensive football team,” Cosgrove said. “They don’t just do this to us, they do it to everybody. We just didn’t get to the woodshed as early as other teams. They waited until the third quarter to take us out there.”

UNH erased any doubts about the outcome 31/2 minutes later. Jeff Pammer’s interception at the UM 49 set up a drive that culminated in a 27-yard screen pass from Santos to Ball that gave the Wildcats a 24-point cushion.

UNH added some insurance on its first possession of the fourth quarter on a 48-yard scoring pass from Santos to Michael Boyle to make it 59-28.

Senior safety Jarrod Gomes led UMaine with 10 tackles while senior Jermaine Walker (interception) and junior John Wormuth had nine hits each.

UMaine responded the same way it did after losing two straight midseason games by a combined score of 82-2. It fought back.

Whitcomb engineered three straight touchdown drives, completing a combined 13 of 21 passes for 162 yards.

An 11-yard toss to McMahan cut the deficit to 59-35 with 5:44 remaining, then an 8-yard scoring strike to Ryan Waller made it 59-41 with 1:19 left.

After successfully executing an onside kick, UMaine drove in for a 17-yard TD pass from Whitcomb to McMahan that got the Bears within 12.

“It was unfortunate that we came out at halftime a little bit cold,” McMahan said. “It took us until the fourth quarter to really get going. It’s a tribute to an excellent team and a pretty good defense.”

UMaine went down fighting, pulling off another onside kick and getting off a final play as time expired.

“I think this game kind of sums up our season: We didn’t give up, kept playing until the end,” Whitcomb said.

WILDCATS 59, BLACK BEARS 47

Maine (5-6) 7 21 0 19 – 47

New Hamp. (10-1) 10 21 21 7 – 59

UNH – Brown 6 run (McCormick kick)

UNH -McCormick 40 field goal

UM – Owens 2 run (Voliva kick)

UNH – Santos 2 run (McCormick kick)

UM – Owens 1 run (Voliva kick)

UNH – Santos 7 run (McCormick kick)

UM – McMahan 5 pass from Whitcomb (Voliva kick)

UNH – Santos 24 run (McCormick kick)

UM – McMahan 22 pass from Whitcomb (Voliva kick)

UNH – Ball 20 pass from Santos (McCormick kick)

UNH – Ball 6 pass from Santos (McCormick)

UNH – Ball 27 pass from Santos (McCormick kick)

UNH – Boyle 48 pass from Santos (McCormick kick)

UM – McMahan 11 pass from Whitcomb (Voliva kick)

UM – Ry. Waller 8 pass from Whitcomb (pass failed)

UM – McMahan 17 pass from Whitcomb (pass failed)

Maine UNH

First downs 29 30

Rushing att.-yards 45-192 37-201

Passing comp.-att. 36-60 30-46

Passing yards 363 354

Total yards 555 555

Punts-avg. 7-30.7 5-159

Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0

Intercepted by 1 2

Penalties-yards 10-82 8-73

Rushing

Maine: Gordon 8-90, Owens 24-79, Whitcomb 13-23; UNH: Santos 18-116, McCoy 13-84, Brown 2-5, LeVan 1-0, O’Brien 3-(minus-4)

Passing

Maine: Whitcomb 36-60-1-363; UNH: Santos 30-46-1-354

Receiving

Maine: Gordon 14-85, Owens 7-89, Ry. Waller 6-71, McMahan 5-79, Ababio 2-11, Salomon 1-18, Fersner 1-10; UNH: Williams 8-89, Ball 8-76, Brown 6-63, LeVan 5-71, McCoy 2-13, Boyle 1-42

A-8,606