Durham -- Andy Vailas or Sean Goldrich? Sean Goldrich or Andy Vailas? It's getting down to crunch time for the University of New Hampshire football team and head coach Sean McDonnell will likely name his starting quarterback for next week's opener against Holy Cross in a couple of days.

Either Vailas, a sophomore out of Bedford and Bishop Guertin of Nashua, or Goldrich, a redshirt freshman from Connecticut, will get the call to lead the Wildcats in the Aug. 30 night game at Holy Cross in Worcester.

“It's close,” McDonnell said late Sunday afternoon. “As in all things, you keep looking at production. You keep looking at ball security. You keep looking at who's making the right choices in the right place. It will be interesting to see how practice goes (today) and how Tuesday's scrimmage goes.”

While McDonnell and his staff try to nail down things at quarterback, they have a couple of major injury-caused holes on defense for Tuesday's noontime scrimmage in Cowell Stadium.

McDonnell said he'll probably have his starter at QB by Wednesday.

“It's very close,” he said. “Both have done some good things and both have done some things they could have improved on.”

Senior James Brady is getting back into the mix, too. Brady had a slight edge in the competition among the three quarterbacks coming out of spring football and into the fall, but has missed most of camp with tendinitis in his throwing shoulder.

“He threw the other day and is pain free,” McDonnell said. “He feels better. He should be ready to go against Holy Cross, but not as the starter.”

Brady and Vailas saw limited action last season backing up Kevin Decker while Goldrich sat out as a redshirt.

The Wildcats have been hit by a run of injuries at defensive end.

“We're banged up big-time there,” McDonnell said.

Sophomore Robbie Zauck and juniors Cody Mueller and Jay Colbert will sit out the scrimmage with concussion symptoms and Randi Vines hurt his knee.

“They should be back for Holy Cross, if everything goes right,” McDonnell said.

In the meantime, junior Jimmy Vailas, the brother of Andy, has been a mainstay at the position.

“He's been very consistent and has worked his tail off and gotten a lot of repetitions,” McDonnell said.

Jimmy Vailas, 6-foot-3 and 260 pounds, played at Bishop Guertin and at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden.
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THE SEASON gets under way for most UNH teams this Friday with the field hockey team, the defending America East champion, taking the honors with the first home game.

Robin Balducci's Wildcats play Massachusetts at home on Friday at 2 and stay home to face Ohio State at the same time on Sunday.

UNH went 17-5 overall and 4-1 in league play last season. The Wildcats beat Boston University, 4-2, in the America East championship game in Durham and then fell to Michigan, 5-4, in North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
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The volleyball, women's soccer and men's soccer teams all kick things off with road games on Friday.

The volleyball team opens in the Villanova Classic against Robert Morris on Friday and faces Maryland and Villanova on Saturday.

The Wildcats finished 10-20 overall and 8-4 in America East last season. They lost in the quarterfinals of the league tournament to Stony Brook, 3-1.

The women's soccer team plays an exhibition game at Franklin Pierce in Rindge today at 1 and starts the regular season against Fairfield on Friday in the TD Bank Vermont Classic in Burlington.

The Wildcats, who were 5-12-2 overall and 3-4-1 in America East last season, face Central Connecticut in Vermont on Sunday.

The men's soccer team takes on Oakland on Friday in Rochester, Minn., in the Golden Grizzlies/Spartan Crossover and then faces Michigan State in the event on Sunday.

UNH was 7-9-2 overall last season and 1-4-2 in America East.

The cross country teams will wait another week for their first competition. Providence and Maine will be in to run in Durham on Aug. 31 at 1 p.m.

The Wildcats are hosting the 2012 America East cross country championships on Oct. 27. A pre-conference meet is scheduled for Sept. 14.
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Allen Lessels covers UNH athletics for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. He may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.