UConn captured its sixth win of the season with a 38-19 victory over UAB on Saturday, making the Huskies eligible for a postseason bowl game for the second year in a row and the third time in the four-year tenure of head coach Jim Mora.

That news made a fine topper to the day for the Huskies, who couldn’t have known before the game started at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn., just how splendid the day would be.

UConn (6-3) won for the fourth time on its home field this season, with home games against Duke and Air Force the next two weeks. In the past two seasons, the Huskies are 10-1 in East Hartford.

Quarterback Joe Fagnano went over 10,000 passing yards for his career on an 8-yard pass to wide receiver John Neider in the fourth quarter and finished his day completing 76.7% of his passes (23 of 30) for 267 yards with four touchdown passes.

Skyler Bell caught eight passes for 149 yards – three of them for TDs. Cam Edwards ran for 62 yards and a score.

Defensive back Cam Chadwick picked off three interceptions, becoming the first UConn player to accomplish that since Andrew Adams did it exactly 11 years ago on Nov. 1, 2014, against UCF.

This performance should be enough to almost erase the disappointment of their loss a week ago in double-overtime at Rice. The Huskies’ three losses this season all have been on the road and in OT. Just 13 total points separate UConn from a 9-0 record.

“Really proud of the team, they way they responded after the adversity of last week, losing in overtime on the road,” UConn head coach Jim Mora said. “All three phases contributed. There’s things, obviously, that we have to continue to wok to clean up – our tackling and our angles in the open field – but we saw improvement defensively and we were consisted on offense.”

Building a Big Advantage

UConn took a 24-0 lead into halftime.

The Huskies tallied their first touchdown with 1:04 left in the first quarter, scoring on a 26-yard reception by Bell.

In a span of about seven minutes in the second quarter, the Huskies addied a touchdown on Edwards’ 1-yard run and another on a 9-yard pass from Fagnano to Bell. Chris Freeman converted two extra-point attempts and also kicked a 50-yard field goal.

In the second half, the teams traded touchdowns.

UConn struck first when Juice Vereen caught a 6-yard TD pass from Fagnano, but the Blazers got on the board after backup quarterback Ryder Burton – who replaced starter Jalen Kitna – hit Brandon Hawkins Jr. for a 68-yard completion.

The Huskies responded as Bell and Fagnano connected on a 39-yard pass play, and the Blazers followed with their own TD as Hawkins the ball into the red zone from 32 yards out.

The score stood 38-12 in UConn’s favor after UAB failed to convert a pair of two-point conversions.

The final UAB touchdown came with seven seconds remaining.

On the day, UConn gained 374 yards to 372 for UAB, and the Blazers led in first downs, 23 to 20. But UConn didn’t turn over the ball and scored 10 points off turnovers.

“(Generating turnovers) is definitely what we harp on a lot,” Chadwick said. “It just gives people like Skyler and Joe a chance to get the ball back. … This was our chance to show the world that we’re back, nothing’s changed. We just had to learn from (the loss), fix it and we’re back.”