DURHAM -- IT LOOKS LIKE the University of New Hampshire football team will be going with one of its younger quarterbacks to start the season.

Head coach Sean McDonnell said that either Andy Vailas, a sophomore out of Bedford and Bishop Guertin High School of Nashua, or redshirt freshman Sean Goldrich of Connecticut will likely get the call in the season opener at Holy Cross on Thursday, Aug. 30.

Senior James Brady had a slight edge coming out of spring football and into pre-season camp in the race to see who was going to win the No. 1 quarterback job and replace Kevin Decker, who was the Colonial Athletic Association Offensive Player of the Year in his lone season as a starter.

But Brady has been slowed in camp by tendinitis in his throwing shoulder and was not in uniform on Saturday.

“It started a little bit in the summer and in the first couple of days of camp it wasn't good so we shut him down for a little bit,” McDonnell said. “We'll probably hold him back for at least another week or so.”

That scenario makes it unlikely Brady would be ready to go against Holy Cross.

None of the three quarterbacks has been tested under fire.

Vailas had a better day than Goldrich on Saturday, but the competition between them has been tight through the first week and a half of camp, said Ryan Carty, who is in his first year as offensive coordinator.

“They both made some good plays today and they both made some bad plays,” Carty said. “I don't think it was completely indicative of how it had been going, but we've got to check the tape out and see what actually happened out there.”

Vailas threw touchdown passes to R.J. Harris and Jimmy Giansante and had a couple of nice runs. Goldrich had a pair of passes intercepted, one by redshirt freshman Keith Parkinson to end his first series and another by sophomore Tre Williams.

Both quarterbacks got chances with the first and second offensive units and part of the evaluation process is looking at what the matchups were on the field, Carty said.

“There's a difference in grading in fans' eyes and in ours as coaches,” Carty said. “What I think happened is both of them had a very good mental day, which is a good thing.”

Vailas, 6-foot-2 and 187 pounds, and Goldrich, 6-foot-3 and 205, bring similar athleticism and other attributes to the position.

“Sean is a little bit bigger and probably not as elusive,” Carty said. “They're both around the same speed in the 40, which is awesome in our offense. Both of them like to run around. We need these guys to do that. ”

The differences are slight, he said.

“I think Andy's probably a more natural thrower, but Sean, barring today, has been extremely accurate and that's something we like about him. He's going to put the ball right on you.”

McDonnell has said he wants to have a starter picked when game week preparation begins for Holy Cross and Carty said he is not concerned about the position.

“Both of them can do it,” he said. “We just have to choose which one we want and which one is doing the best leading into Holy Cross.”

Vailas appeared in two games last season. He completed three of his four passes and the other was intercepted. Goldrich redshirted and did not appear in a game.

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DONTRA PETERS sat out Saturday's scrimmage with a strained hamstring, but is fitting in well on the defensive side of the ball, McDonnell said.

“He's been doing very, very good,” the coach said.

The plan is to have Peters, the team's leading rusher the past two seasons, double up and play defensive back along with putting in some time at running back and on special teams.

Peters, a cornerback when he first came to UNH, will be a starter on defense, McDonnell said.

The pick by Parkinson was one of two the redshirt freshman had on Saturday.

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MCDONNELL was excited about last week's news that Stony Brook and Albany, long Wildcat rivals in the America East Conference for most sports, are joining the Colonial Athletic Association for football in 2013.

“It's terrific news, it's absolutely terrific news,” McDonnell said. “I really compliment (CAA commissioner) Tom Yeager and (UNH director of athletics) Marty Scarano and the athletics directors in this league for working hard to figure this out. We're getting two more teams that are state universities, are football teams in the Northeast and are playoff teams, which is great.

The CAA was going to be down to eight teams for 2013 with the loss of Georgia State and Old Dominion and Rhode Island and Yeager wanted at least nine teams to assure that each team played eight league games.

Now the league is back to 10 and it could soon be 11.

Yeager confirmed that the CAA has asked Rhode Island to reconsider its decision to leave after this season and the school is doing that. Rhode Island officials announced they were leaving the CAA for the Northeast Conference in part to cut down on travel costs. With these changes, they may tempted to stay with the changes and Yeager said in a press conference last week if they do, the league can go with 11 teams and does not need a 12th.

Albany was the Northeast Conference champion last year and Stony Brook won the Big South and the teams met in the Football Championship Subdivision tournament. Stony Brook won the first round game, 31-28, and lost to eventual runnerup Sam Houston State, 34-27, in the second round.

Allen Lessels covers UNH athletics for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. He may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.