By Andy Walter

NEWARK — Delaware’s football players had already run out onto the field to celebrate their first victory in a month.

But then the officials said, not so fast.

With both the Blue Hens and Dixie State’s players sent back to their sidelines, the referees reviewed the video to see whether a Delaware player had committed a targeting penalty on the game’s final play.

Finally, the official determined that there was no penalty and the Hens had indeed outlasted the Trailblazers, 17-10, before a crowd of 8,391 at Delaware State Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

It was a pretty anti-climactic ending to the ho-hum victory that snapped a three-game losing streak for Delaware (4-4) and kept Dixie State (0-8) winless.

“I didn’t know what was going on, to be honest,” safety Kedrick Whitehead said about the ending. “I had faith we were going to stop them either way, whether they had another play, another two plays, it didn’t matter to me.

“It doesn’t matter how we win or what we win by,” the Middletown High grad added. “We come away with that ‘W,’ that’s all that matters.”

The Trailblazers, who came all the way from Utah for the first meeting between the two Division I FCS programs, had reached the Hens’ 32 yard line with five seconds remaining.

Dixie State quarterback Kobe Tracy rolled out and flung the ball toward the end zone — where it sailed over everyone’s heads, landing harmlessly out of bounds. Once the potential targeting call was waved off, Delaware had survived.

After earning their first victory since Oct. 2, the Hens weren’t really in a position to get too picky about the way they won.

To be fair, Delaware actually did some good things, especially in the first half.

A week after totaling just 109 yards of offense in a loss to James Madison, the Hens had piled up 312 yards by halftime on Saturday. They scored just their second first-quarter touchdown of the season, limited Dixie State to negative-four yards rushing for the game and quarterback Zach Gwynn had his best passing day, completing 19-of-28 passes for 215 yards with no interceptions.

On the other hand, Delaware twice fumbled inside the Dixie State 20, surrendered 314 passing yards to Tracy and went scoreless in the second half after taking a 17-7 second-quarter lead.

“We came into the locker room at halftime and I felt really good about what we were doing,” said UD coach Danny Rocco. “It could have been 24-7 and we could have been in a really, really good spot. But, in the second half, we got very little going offensively.

“We’re 4-4 and we’re going to have to play a heck of a lot better next week when we get back into conference play.”

Senior running back Dejoun Lee finished with an even 100 yards and a TD on 23 carries. It was his fourth 100-yard day in the last six games and made him just the ninth player in school history with over 4,000 all-purpose yards.

Lee wasn’t sure what changed in the second half.

Delaware managed only 98 net yards with three punts and a fumble on five second-half drives.

“In the first half, we finally felt like we were playing like ourselves a little bit,” said Lee. “In the second half, we didn’t play the way we wanted to.”

Delaware’s offensive line has been a work in progress all season — in part because of injuries and health.

With 1:16 left, the Hens had a chance to put the game out of reach when they faced a fourth-and-one at the Dixie State 34. But QB Anthony Paoletti was stopped for a one-yard loss, giving the Trailblazers their last-gasp chance.

“We’re not executing consistently enough to be a good team or to beat a good team,” said Rocco.

“We’re getting beat at the point of attack more often than we should be. We’re certainly getting beat at the point of attack more than we were in our last cycle (in the spring). ... We’re not that same team right now in being able to gash and crease and get those plays in our run game. So we are grinding it out.”

Grinding it out may not work next week when the Hens host William & Mary in a CAA matchup. The Tribe knocked off No. 4 Villanova, 31-18, on Saturday to improve to 6-2.

Delaware realized the way it played on Saturday probably won’t be good enough to get a second straight victory. Lee, for one, still hasn’t given up on the hope that there’s a better team that still might show itself.

“This team’s potential is out of this world,” said Lee. “And I can say that confidently and I mean it. That’s the hardest thing about the way this season has gone and it makes us so hungry to finish it the right way. We know we can.”

Extra points

Whitehead had a team-high 10 tackles while safety Andrew Pawlowski had an interception. ... Paoletti scored Delaware’s first touchdown on a three-yard run. It was his third TD of the season. ... Rocco on the number of video reviews during the game: “I don’t think I’ve been in a game where I have seen so many stoppages from the box,” he said. ... Rocco on Gwynn’s play: “Zach, I thought, was in rhythm, he got the ball out, I thought he made some good throws. I thought there were some moments out there today where he really was confident getting the ball down the field.” ... Rocco said there’s a chance that linebackers Colby Reeder (ribs) and Drew Nickles could return before the end of the season.