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The University of Maine Black Bears kept their conference title hopes alive with a 21-14 victory over the University of Richmond Saturday, but it may have come at a price. Starting quarterback Jake Eaton went down in the second quarter, did not return to the game and will be out of action indefinitely.
The win improves UMaine’s record to 9-2, 6-2 in the Atlantic-10 Conference. The Richmond Spiders dropped to 3-7 and 3-5 in league play.
“We got enough when we needed to. We made some plays and we got a chance to win 10, and that’ll be pretty special,” UMaine head coach Jack Cosgrove said after the win.
The Black Bears took control from the opening whistle, taking the opening kickoff and methodically moving downfield on an 11-play, 72-yard drive that was capped by senior quarterback Jake Eaton’s 11-yard scoring toss to first-year wideout Kevin McMahan.
After Eaton scored from the Spider 18 yardline to put UMaine up 14-0, the Black Bears recovered an onside kick attempt and appeared on their to be way to a third backbreaking score. However, on their next offensive play from scrimmage, Eaton was hit hard as he threw and was helped off of the field.
With just under five minutes left in the half, the Spiders attempted to steal momentum from UMaine. Freshman quarterback Stacey Tutt ended a Richmond drive hitting Boyd Ouden with a 68-yard strike that cut the Black Bear lead to a touchdown.
Freshman quarterback Chris Legree filled in for Eaton, completing two passes and hitting Atlantic-10 co-rookie of the week Kevin McMahan with a 38-yard play-action pass for the game sealing score.
“[Legree] is a great quarterback,” sophomore tailback Marcus Williams said, “and we have a lot of confidence in him, but we wanted to run the ball a lot more and take some pressure off him.”
The Black Bear defense combined with their running game to control the second half.
“They really had their option game going in the third quarter, and a good defense will find a way to rise up and diffuse that, and that’s what we did,” Cosgrove said. “In the fourth quarter, I think we did a good job of taking away Tutt’s run game.”
The Black Bears finish their 2002 regular season at home Saturday against the visiting Wildcats of the University of New Hampshire. A win would give UMaine a share of the Atlantic-10 Championship, making the Black Bears the first team to win the conference championship in back-to-back seasons since the University of Delaware Blue Hens did it in 1991 and 1992.
Bangor Daily News