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After taking care of the University of Rhode Island at home last weekend, the University of Maine Black Bear football team hits the road again. This week UMaine travels to Harrisburg, Va. to take on Atlantic 10 Conference rival James Madison University.
The undefeated Black Bears keep last week’s No. 3 ranking in both the ESPN/USA Today poll and The Sports Network poll.
The game represents an interesting challenge for the Black Bears, who have won two of the last three meetings versus the Dukes, but have never won at James Madison.
This season’s conference-leading defensive unit may be better than last year’s crew, which held the Dukes to just 127 total yards in UMaine’s 13-3 victory at Morse Field. In that game, then junior Stephen Cooper registered 11 tackles including three for losses.
Cooper enters this week’s game as the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Week following his outstanding performance last week against Rhode Island, in which he had nine tackles, including seven solo and five tackles for loss, three and a half sacks and a caused fumble. He leads the team in tackles with 49, a total that put him second in the conference.
The Black Bear defense will have to contend with one of the better backs in the Atlantic 10 in JMU’s standout sophomore Rondell Bradley. Bradley has had a few great outings as tailback for the Dukes, carrying 27 times for 155 yards against New Hampshire, 26 times for 64 yards against Florida Atlantic, and a career-high of 32 times for 177 yards at Hofstra.
The Black Bear offense is in good hands despite the suspensions of both Stefan Gomes and Paris Minor. Senior quarterback Jake Eaton seemed to recapture the rhythm of the season opener with wide receivers Christian Pereira and Ryan Waller as the URI game continued.
Eaton got the ball to Pereira six times and Waller four times for 61 yards each.
“These guys, Chris, Kevin, Ryan, and Ivi are all capable of doing the same things that Paris and Stef do,” said Eaton of his receivers, “They are different players; but capable.”
Sophomore Pereira spoke about going from third to first on wide receivers depth chart.
“During the week, I thought about them [Gomes and Minor], my friends, more than I thought about football. But it was a real relief to finally get on the field Saturday to show everyone that I’m capable of doing just as much as them. After I got that first catch, I was relieved. Then I wanted the ball to come my way every time,” Pereira said.
Marcus Williams ran rampant over the Rhode Island defense last week for 198 yards pushing his Atlantic-10 leading rushing total to 529 yards (105.8 YPG). The 198 yards against URI is the highest rushing total by a UMaine back since Royston English’s 213-yard performance last season against URI. Williams will have his work cut out for him this week against a tough JMU front seven. The Dukes are only allowing an average of 84.6 yards rushing per game to their opponents.
The game will be televised around New England this Saturday afternoon on NESN as the Atlantic-10 Conference Game of the Week.
