New Hampshire

When: Saturday at noon, Cowell Stadium, Durham, N.H. Radio: ESPN-AM (950). Records: Villanova, 1-4 overall, 0-2 Colonial Athletic Association; New Hampshire, 3-1, 1-0. Coaches: Villanova, Andy Talley (27th season, 189-111-1); New Hampshire, Sean McDonnell (13th season, 91-56). Series: Villanova leads series, 11-10. In 2009, the Wildcats routed New Hampshire, 46-7, in a Football Championship Subdivision quarterfinal at Villanova Stadium. WHAT TO WATCH How will the young Wildcats respond defensively to New Hampshire's multifaceted, hurry-up offense?

Drexel tried and tried, but the Dragons couldn't make it all the way back yesterday and dropped a 75-72 decision to New Hampshire. After winning its first-ever North Atlantic Conference game on Monday over Maine, Drexel (4-9 overall, 1-1 league) came out of the blocks slowly against New Hampshire (4-9, 3-1). "Coming in, we knew it was going to be difficult," Drexel coach Bill Herrion said. "We knew we would have to play very well to win. I was a little disappointed with the way we started.

Five fumble recoveries and a big day for Delaware all-America safety Warren McIntire helped the Blue Hens roll over New Hampshire, 44-22, yesterday in a Yankee Conference game. The fumble recoveries were a big part of Delaware's 28-0 first-half lead, which helped erase the sting of last week's 21-20 non-conference loss to West Chester. Defensively, McIntire recovered two fumbles, forced another, and broke up a pass. "We played much better (than last week) in every way," said Hens coach Tubby Raymond, whose club improved to 3-1 (3-0)

Upper Dublin graduate Mike Chain, Methacton alum Mike Walsh and Gwynedd-Mercy grad Tiffany Gallagher are swimming this season for the University of New Hampshire. Walsh, a senior, holds the team's fastest 1,000-yard freestyle time this season (9 minutes, 43.20 seconds) and fastest 1,650 freestyle time (16:49.56). He is ranked second on the team in both the 500 freestyle (4:48.01) and 200 freestyle (1:46.57). "Probably Mike's best strength is his mental toughness," coach Josh Willman said.

LITTLETON, N.H. - A bus headed from Canada to Boston with Korean tourists crashed in rural New Hampshire late Monday, sending 17 of the 25 people on board to hospitals, Littleton Fire Chief Joe Mercieri said Monday night. Mercieri said by phone that several people on board were considered to be in critical condition, with the injured taken to four area hospitals. Littleton is near the Vermont border and Interstate 93. Mercieri said PRT Tours of New Jersey was tour operator and the bus company was Big Boy Coach Inc. of Flushing, N.Y. A man answering the phone with Big Boy Coach said he was on the way to New Hampshire but had no information on the crash.

Now that the permafrost portion of the presidential primary season has ended, a few observations: Yes, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts has earned the title of Democratic "front-runner. " His wins in New Hampshire and Iowa demonstrate an ability to hang tough, especially considering his campaign staff was in shambles only recently. And no, the race isn't over. Several candidates have earned further consideration by voters in larger, more diverse states. (The closest our region will come to having a meaningful say in the contest is when Delaware holds its primary Tuesday.

NASHUA, N.H. - They came into New Hampshire with the most to lose, two candidates swamped in Iowa by a wave of political change. They had little time for course corrections. So Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney worked hard this weekend to be seen as "change agents," a challenging task since both are candidates of the political establishment. And they sought to call into question the change credentials of their principal opponents in tomorrow's first-in-the-nation primary.

Norman Richardson scored a season-high 23 points and Hofstra, despite blowing a 23-point lead in the second half, beat New Hampshire, 75-70, last night in Hempstead, N.Y. The Pride won their fifth straight overall and eighth in a row over the Wildcats. The Pride (13-4, 6-2 America East) shot 75 percent (18 for 24) in the first half in taking a 49-30 lead. They extended the lead to 56-33 with 17 minutes, 3 seconds left on a three-point play by Danny Walker, but they made only two more field goals the rest of the game.

Sixth-seeded Drexel's "3M" attack led the Dragons to a 69-59 upset of third-seeded New Hampshire yesterday in a quarterfinal of the America East women's basketball tournament in Burlington, Vt. It's the first time since 1995 that a sixth seed has advanced. That feat was also accomplished by Drexel with a victory over New Hampshire. The Dragons will meet Northeastern tonight in a semifinal game. Maureen Michaels led the Dragons (12-15) with 20 points, including nine in the last 3 minutes, 24 seconds of the game.

Republicans, unified and disciplined on Capitol Hill, are about to break into open warfare over the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Despite some high-profile withdrawals in recent weeks, the prospect of facing a damaged and vulnerable President Clinton is drawing a swarm of Republicans interested in challenging him in 1996. When New Hampshire Republicans gather this evening for a dinner to start the year leading to their primary, the first in the nation, nine potential candidates for the 1996 presidential nomination will line up to court their favor.

RICK SANTORUM, prairie dog! The political brushfire that the former Pennsylvania senator set in the cornfields of the Iowa caucuses last month - only to peter out in the moderate Atlantic breezes of New Hampshire and Florida - was rekindled yesterday with upset wins in Missouri's primary and Minnesota's caucuses. And in the Colorado caucuses, with almost half the precincts reporting, Santorum had a commanding lead over Mitt Romney, as the champion of social conservatism pushed for what would be a stunning hat trick.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. - The night of the South Carolina primary, Kevin Rouse, a lifelong Republican, was having a blast, celebrating his birthday with friends at his art-house bar here. The following morning, with Rouse's blessing, his friends posted a massive banner covering the entire side of the building: RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT . "I don't think he's going to win, but I think he's good to support," explained Rouse, as he finished straightening out the umbrellaed wrought-iron patio tables after his blowout party.

AIKEN, S.C. - Rick Santorum yesterday branded Mitt Romney a liberal, said Newt Gingrich's policy positions have been "all over the place" and laughed that Ron Paul has been running for president "since 1938," looking to capture the GOP presidential nomination even if it takes harsh words for fellow Republicans. Santorum, a longtime footnote in the GOP contest now attracting scrutiny, tried to punch his way to the top of the pack with scathing critiques of his rivals ahead of Saturday's South Carolina primary.

There are two stories out of New Hampshire. The big story is Mitt Romney. The bigger one is Ron Paul. Romney won a major victory, with nearly 40 percent of the vote, 16 points ahead of No. 2. The split among his challengers made the outcome even more decisive. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were diminished by distant, lower-tier finishes. Rick Perry got less than 1 percent. And Jon Huntsman, who staked everything on New Hampshire, came in a weak third, with less than half of Romney's vote.

By David Shribman New Hampshire shrugged. The great if often cranky arbitrator of presidential politics told America that its neighbor Mitt Romney was good enough to be the GOP nominee, but maybe not sparkly enough to ignite a Republican romance. The first primary sent the former Massachusetts governor on to the next round as the undisputed front-runner, providing him with momentum, if not passion, as the campaign swings south. He's the man to beat - and there are strong indications that no one in this field can beat him. New Hampshire 2012 will be remembered for two important questions, one political and one philosophical, that emerged from a week of intense campaigning.

  CONCORD, N.H. - For months Mitt Romney's name has seemed to carry the modifier fragile before the noun front-runner . But for all the hemming and hawing voters expressed as they solidified their choices during the last few days, a close look at results of an exit poll shows a sweeping victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary Tuesday for Romney. There was no gender gap. Romney swept every age category except among voters aged 18 to 29, who went for libertarian Ron Paul.

LEESVILLE, S.C. - The retail politicking for this state's Jan. 21 Republican primary begins Wednesday in earnest. And some here are predicting a battle at least as bruising as past South Carolina contests. For the last week, Rick Perry could savor having this state's voters to himself. But as New Hampshire's votes were being counted, his rivals were preparing to fly south and a multimillion-dollar TV advertising blitz was already under way. "We've seen the nice biographical ads so far, with their families and sunsets," said David Woodard, a Clemson University political science professor.

IN PAST YEARS, New Hampshire primary voters have had something in common with Mitt Romney: They've liked being able to fire overconfident presidential frontrunners - and shake up the conventional wisdom. But yesterday the flinty-eyed electorate of 2012's first-in-the-nation primary - the same folks who ended the presidency of Lyndon Johnson and stuck out their icy tongues at George W. Bush and Barack Obama - came up with a new way to stick it to the pundit man. They voted for inevitability.

MANCHESTER, N.H. - The students in Mr. Walsh's government and politics class at Franklin High School south of Boston were up well before the crack of dawn on Monday. By 7:30, after two hours on a bus, they were eating breakfast at Moe Joe's Family Retreat, waiting to meet GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul. By 8 a.m., they'd been sucked into a political vortex and spit out the other side. It was exactly what they'd hoped for. "All of a sudden, there were all the lights," said John Weich, 18. The 76-year-old Texas congressman materialized at his table in a crush of cameras, a delicious crumb surrounded by ravenous ants.