By KEVIN NOONAN

Massachusetts marched out of Delaware Stadium with an impressive victory over a good team. Delaware walked off its home field with a stinging defeat and a budding quarterback controversy.

Unranked UMass made the big plays when it counted, on both sides of the ball, in its 21-10 upset of No. 7 Delaware. The Minutemen (4-2) jumped to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and the next 45 minutes were basically spent running out the clock as Delaware (4-3 overall, 2-2 in the CAA) never mounted a serious challenge, mainly because of its own mistakes.

“That was a big thing for the team because we always focus on coming out fast,’’ UMass tight end Emil Igwenagu said. “We did a good job of doing that. … The 21 points in the first quarter was big.’’

Those 21 points also stunned the Delaware defense, which had shut out William & Mary the week before and came into the game as one of the FCS’s top units.

“We had poor tackling and we gave up too many big plays,” Delaware LB Paul Worrilow said. “We can’t put our offense in a hole like we did today.”

Those mistakes included two interceptions thrown by QB Tim Donnelly, who may have seen the end of his reign as the starter. He was replaced by Trevor Sasek in the fourth quarter and Delaware coach K.C. Keeler said he wasn’t sure which QB will start Saturday’s game at Rhode Island.

“You can’t lose the turnover battle 3-0, and a lot of that falls on me as the quarterback,’’ Donnelly said.

Statistically, the two teams were pretty even. UMass had a slight edge in total yards (345-332) and Delaware actually had more first downs (21-15). The difference, as it is so often, were the turnovers

Plus the UMass defense accomplished its main goal, which was to bottle up Delaware RB Andrew Pierce, who carried the ball 23 times for 87 yards, an average of 3.7 yards per carry. Pierce’s longest run was 12 yards, and other than a 51-yard pass from Donnelly to WR Nihja White, the Blue Hens’ big-play offense came up small.

“Our emphasis was to stop them from running, and I think we were able to do that and force them to pass,’’ UMass LB Tyler Holmes said. “They basically played into our hands.”

On the flip side, UMass RB Jonathan Hernandez rushed 15 times for 74 yards, an average of 4.6 yards per carry. But the star of the Minutemen’s offense was QB Kellen Pagel, who missed the previous game vs. Central Connecticut State because of a concussion. Pagel completed 20 of 39 passes (51.3 percent) for 245 yards, including a 6-yard TD pass to TE Emil Igwenagu that gave UMass a 14-0 lead.

Leading the way on defense for UMass was S Darren Thellen, who came up with two interceptions for the second straight week.

“This was an outstanding win,’’ UMass coach Kevin Morris said. “Any time you can come down to Delaware and walk out with a win, you’ve got to be pleased and proud of your effort.”