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The University of Maine Black Bear football team plays its final road game of the regular season, traveling to Atlantic-10 rival University of Richmond to tangle with the Spiders Saturday.
After last week’s loss that snapped UMaine’s 11-game home win streak, the Black Bears fell out of the top 10 in the Sports Network poll to 11th in the country. Their record stands at 8-2 and 5-2 in conference, putting them into a four-way tie for first with the College of William & Mary, Northeastern University and University of Massachusetts, which lost to New Hampshire Saturday. Massachusetts is the only other team to defeat UMaine this season. The Spiders lost to Hofstra last weekend 26-16 and fell to 3-6, 3-4 in the Atlantic-10.
“We’re still tied for the conference lead,” UMaine head coach Jack Cosgrove said. “We still have the opportunity to take the conference championship, and that was the goal from the beginning of the season.”
The Black Bears were coming off of a bye week prior to the loss to University of Delaware, a possible reason for the lapse last week.
“Sometimes a week off isn’t exactly what you need at that time,” Delaware head coach K.C. Keeler said. “I don’t really know if that’s what affected them, but they didn’t seem as intense during the game as our guys were.”
The Black Bears look to get back to the balanced attack that led to their early success. Last week, sophomore running back Marcus Williams and his backup, Jimmy Henry, each managed only 22 yards and neither proved the threat UMaine needed to keep pressure off senior quarterback Jake Eaton.
This weekend the Black Bear defense, with or without senior linebacker Steven Cooper, is going to have to contain the Richmond’s rushing attack, led by red-shirt freshman quarterback Stacey Tutt. Tutt earned Atlantic-10 Rookie of the Week honors after scoring three rushing touchdowns against Northeastern Nov. 2.
The Spider defense is tough, led by sophomore defensive tackle Clifton Coker. This season they shut out James Madison University and University of Rhode Island in back to back weeks. They were so solid during their stretch of games, before the loss to Hofstra University, they improved from -5 to +8 in turnover margin, a stat ranking them third in the Atlantic-10.
