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The University of Maine Black Bear football team defeated McNeese State, 14-10, in front of a partisan Cowboy crowd of 12,450 in Lake Charles, La, Saturday night to advance to the second round of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.
UMaine (9-2) will face the University of Northern Iowa next Saturday in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI (10-2) won a shootout with Eastern Illinois 49-43 to advance.
Ahead 14-10 with the final seconds of the game ticking off the clock, the Black Bears faced a critical fourth down and one at the McNeese 45. UMaine needed just one yard to secure the first playoff victory in the 111-year history of the program since the Cowboys were out of timeouts.
Failing to convert on the fourth down meant McNeese would get one last play from scrimmage. Junior quarterback Jake Eaton, behind his surging offensive line pushed forward, reaching ahead for the precious inches.
Peeling bodies off of the pile the officials knew it was far too close to call and brought in the chains for a measurement. This afforded both teams a lifetime to ponder the day, their seasons, and for some, their collegiate careers.
The call silenced the rabid Cowboy football fans for the season; first down UMaine.
“They had resiliency, they just won’t quit,” head coach Jack Cosgrove said of his team. “They believe in themselves and someone always steps up. It does sound corny how we talk about those guys but they really are a special, awesome group.”
The game went into the half scoreless with both teams missing out on scoring opportunities. The Cowboys came out in the third quarter and put the first points of the game onto the scoreboard when McNeese place-kicker Charlie Hebert hit a 42-yard field goal to make it 3-0 Cowboys.
The Black Bears, however, responded.
Senior defensive back Lennard Byrd returned the ensuing kickoff 50 yards to the McNeese 45 yard line. The ensuing drive ended after three Royston English rushes when Eaton then hit senior tight end Chad Hayes from 27 yards out. Hayes dove into the end zone for the touchdown giving UMaine a 7-3 lead.
McNeese tailback Vick King, who finished the day with a whopping 195 yards on 33 carries, scored three plays into the Cowboys next drive, breaking loose for a 58-yard touchdown run. The score once again gave McNeese the lead, 10-7.
The back and forth struggle continued on the Black Bears next play from scrimmage. Eaton, who finished with 13 completions in 37 attempts for 175 yards, had a 33-yard run on a designed draw play that began a 65-yard drive that was capped by a four-yard English touchdown run.
“They’ve got a great defense, but we’ve got a great group (of offensive linemen),” English said after the game. “We just stuck it to them.”
English, who finished the regular season third all-time on the UMaine rushing list with 2,842 yards had another dandy, notching his fifth-straight 100 yard game. Engligh finished the game with 144 yards on 33 carries.
Although it seemed that McNeese was continually knocking on the Black Bears door in the fourth quarter, the UMaine defense got bigger and more stifling on every Cowboy drive. On what would be one of McNeese’s final drives, Cowboy quarterback Slade Naigle slipped and fell on a fourth down play to turn the ball over to the Black Bears.
The Black Bears forced their second turnover, an interception by Stephen Cooper, to take the ball out of the Cowboys hands for good.
McNeese coach Tommy Tate said that the Black Bear defense, especially late in the game, was the difference.
“We had two possessions late in the fourth quarter when I thought we would knock it in, but it didn’t happen. They have something to do with that.”
For a first-hand account of the game, read Monday’s Bangor Daily News.
Bangor Daily News