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The University of Maine Black Bear football team closes out its regular season schedule with the annual battle for the Brice-Cowell musket against rival University of New Hampshire.
The Black Bears’ record currently stands at 9-2, 6-2 in the Atlantic-10 Conference. A victory Saturday would give the Black Bears a share of the conference title for the second straight season. A win versus the Wildcats coupled with a Northeastern University loss would give UMaine sole ownership of the conference crown and the Atlantic-10′s automatic bid into the Division I-AA playoff tournament.
New Hampshire comes to Alfond Stadium with a record of 3-7 (2-6) and welcomes the opportunity to play the role of spoiler in their rival’s title chase.
The game will feature the top two tailbacks in the Atlantic-10. Wildcat Stephen Lewis is the conference’s leading rusher, averaging 111.9 yards per game, and the nation’s leader in all-purpose yards per game with 209.4. With his 159 yard effort last week against Northeastern, Lewis went over the 1,000-yard mark for the second consecutive season. His 2002 total of 1,119 yards puts him ninth on the Wildcats’ all-time season rushing list. It is his second entry on the leader board; last seasons 1,300 plus yards put him fourth on the list behind Bill Burnham and Jerry Azumah. Lewis needs 124 yards against UMaine on Saturday to take over second place on the yards list.
Sophomore running back Marcus Williams’ 124-yard day against Richmond University put him over 1,000 yards for the season, making him only the seventh back in UMaine history to top that mark in a single season. He is also second in the Atlantic-10, behind Lewis, averaging 94.5 yards a game. Additionally, Williams is only the fifth back in UMaine history to break the 1,000-yard mark by the end of his sophomore season.
The New Hampshire defense features a mixture of faces, some familiar to UMaine fans, such as senior safety Czar Wiley, and some who will become familiar to Black Bear faithfuls, like freshman linebacker Allan Tallman. Tallman, a redshirt, is the team’s leading tackler with 65 tackles, 25 are unassisted. He also steps up his play against better opponents, taking apart the Villanova offense singlehandedly with 9 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery.
The New Hampshire defense will not have to deal with UMaine’s senior starting quarterback Jake Eaton this week. Eaton went down after throwing an interception in the second quarter of last week’s game against Richmond and did not return. After tests on Monday, the team announced that Eaton would not play this week. He will be re-evaluated at a later date.
Bangor Daily News