BY PAUL WHITE

NORFOLK, Va. - There were three chapters in the football game played by the University of Massachusetts Saturday night, and Old Dominion won two of them.

The Monarchs dominated the first one, the Minutemen owned the second and Old Dominion wrestled away the third en route to a 48-33 victory before 19,818 fans at sold-out S.B. Ballard Stadium.

UMass (2-2) fell into a 25-0 first-half hole, responded with 26 unanswered points and then surrendered 23 straight to drop their second consecutive game.

"They didn't do anything we weren't expecting, anything spectacular," Minuteman linebacker Tyler Holmes said. "They just made more big plays than we did."

That was especially true early. The Monarchs, who resumed their football program in 2009, were making their Colonial Athletic Association home debut, and they marked the occasion by digging deep into their reserve of gadget plays. Old Dominion (4-1. 1-1 CAA) recovered an onside kick, had quarterback Thomas DeMarco pooch punt out of the shotgun formation and scored a 2-point conversion when their holder flipped a lateral to the kicker # all before the game was 10 minutes old.

DeMarco also picked apart an injury-riddled UMass secondary. The Minutemen were without starting cornerback Mike Lee and starting safety Ed Saint-VII. Corner Antoine Sharp (hamstring) was seeing his first action since the season opener. UMass started the game with Quayshun Smith, a true freshman, in its nickel package.

With his receivers often breaking wide open, DeMarco passed for 219 yards and three touchdowns before leaving the game late in the first half with an ankle injury. The Monarchs then turned to true freshman Tyler Heinicke, and he delivered 119 more yards on 8-of-11 passing and two touchdowns, including a 56-yard scoring strike to Reid Evans.

Injuries are "always a factor, and they hit some deep balls on us," said Minuteman coach Kevin Morris. "But on some of those our guys were in good position. They just didn't make the play."

Added Holmes: "We had a little inexperience in that area, but we expect guys to step up and make plays."

With the game seemingly spiraling out of control, quarterback Kellen Pagel and running back Jonathan Hernandez led a furious UMass rally. Abandoning the Minutemen's standard approach for a no-huddle, up-tempo style, Pagel tossed a pair of touchdown passes in the final 2 minutes, 30 seconds of the first half to get UMass to within 25-12, then added a 20-yard scoring pass to Jesse Julmiste to make it a one-touchdown game.

When Hernandez completed the UMass scoring onslaught with an 8-yard TD run with 5:30 left in the third quarter, the Minutemen had stormed all the way back to lead 26-25.

The game turned for good at the 2:39 mark of the third quarter, when Jakwail Bailey blocked a punt out of bounds for an Old Dominion safety to nudge the Monarchs back in front.

Old Dominion promptly marched 65 yards with the ensuing free kick and cashed in when Heinicke hit Larry Pinkard with a 38-yard touchdown pass.

Later in the fourth quarter, Heinicke connected with a wide-open Evans and Tyree Lee capped the Monarchs' scoring with a 13-yard TD run.

Meanwhile, UMass lost the services of Pagel, who left the game in the fourth quarter with an undisclosed injury. Morris would only say that Pagel "is being evaluated."

Redshirt freshman Brandon Hill came on in relief of Pagel and threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Marken Michel with 1:23 left in the game to end the night's scoring.

Pagel finished 25-of-40 passing for 245 yards, the three touchdowns and two interceptions. Hernandez ran for 131 yards on 25 carries.

"We came out kind of slow and gave them 25 points," Hernandez said. "It's all about focusing mentally and executing, and we didn't do that at first. It wasn't what they did. It was about us."

Old Dominion finished with 518 yards of total offense, to 423 for the Minutemen.