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The University of Richmond came to Alumni Stadium with a 14-game winning streak, a perfect record for the season, a No. 1 ranking, and everything to lose. The Black Bears walked onto the familiar turf with confidence after a big road win at Hofstra University, eager to show fans and returning alumni that they can hang in there with one of the best teams in the Football Championship Subdivision.
In the first half, the “Black Hole” defense gave the defending National Champions all they could handle, and UMaine held a lead at halftime, as they have in all their games this season. After the break, though the Black Bears’ second half woes came back to haunt them and Richmond’s offense finally took control of the game, scoring 28 unanswered points to win the game 38-21.
After allowing the Spiders (6-0 overall, 4-0 Colonial Athletic Association) to score on their opening possession in just under a minute, sophomore quarterback Warren Smith and the pass-heavy offense made several big plays, capping off a six-minute drive with Smith’s 1-yard keeper to tie the game.
“At times I feel like no one can stop us,” Smith said. “Almost all the drives we don’t do it, we shoot ourselves in the foot.”
“There’s only a few drives out there where I can say that they stopped us. It was either me making a wrong read or a penalty making a play come back or a dropped ball, something like that,” he added.
Following two Richmond punts, the Black Bears were pinned deep in their own territory when Smith’s pass sailed into the hands of junior defensive lineman Martin Parker at the UMaine 7-yard line. The defense held strong, forcing the Spiders to settle for a short field goal to go up 10-7.
The teams traded punts twice, jockeying for field position until the end of the half when a key pass interference call went against Richmond, allowing Smith to launch a 21-yard strike to junior receiver Tyrell Jones (9 catches, 78 yards, 2 TD), who made a leaping grab for the touchdown. Jones landed awkwardly on the turf after the reception and headed to the locker room before returning to play in the second half.
“I really don’t care, just as long as I catch it,” Jones said. “We always stress, you’d die for your brother, the person next to you, and I pride myself on that, so play hurt, play anything, just play.”
Richmond came out strong to start the second half, scoring on their first possession once again behind senior running back Justin Forte who picked up 48 of his 91 yards on the drive before senior quarterback Eric Ward (12-21, 108 yards, TD, INT) hit sophomore wide receiver Donte Boston for a 3-yard score.
At that point the tide began to turn for the Black Bears, who could not muster a solid offensive drive. Smith recovered his own fumbled snap, junior Jeremy Kelley was flagged for celebrating a 38-yard reception — his only catch of the day — and UMaine was forced to punt into the hands of senior defensive back Derek Hatcher. Hatcher followed his blockers up the right sideline for a 90-yard punt return to give the Spiders a 24 -14 lead.
UMaine coach Jack Cosgrove said he didn’t see what happened on the penalty but admitted that it was a game-changer.
“There’s a lot of plays you can look at and, you know, feel as if they might have had a direct impact on the end of the game, but who knows?” Cosgrove said.
Maine went three-and-out on its next drive, and despite a big interception by redshirt freshman defensive lineman Doug Alston, the offense could not put anything together and punted. Three plays later, sophomore running back Garrett Wilkins took the ball 57 yards for Richmond’s third score of the half with 12 minutes left in the game.
The Black Bears turned the ball over on downs in their next drive but promptly forced and recovered a fumble. Warren Smith’s second interception of the game to senior defensive back Michael Ireland led to Richmond’s final score of the game on a 5 -yard run by Ward.
UMaine drove 62 yards on their next possession — all passes with less than two minutes to play — and Jones caught his second touchdown of the day to make the score 38-21. The Black Bears recovered their third onside kick in three tries this year, but time expired before they were able to make anything happen.
The loss puts the Black Bears at 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the conference.
“We don’t have a whole lot of options. All you can do at this point is move forward and take it one game at a time and work on the things that you need to work on,” said senior wide receiver Mike Brusko, who caught seven passes for 92 yards.
Smith finished the game with 35 completions on 58 attempts for 327 yards. He also accounted for nine of the Black Bears’ 17 rushing attempts, which included three sacks. UMaine’s run offense finished the game with 2 yards, while Richmond ran for 252 yards, including 199 in the second half alone.
“Throwing the ball is working, so we’re sticking with it, but I just feel like we’re not doing the little things,” Smith said. “We’re going to build on the good things, but we’ve got a lot to fix. In the second half we didn’t execute like we did in the first half, and that’s kind of been our story.”
UMaine’s fourth loss deals a crushing blow to the Black Bears’ hopes of putting together a season like they had one year ago.
“We have to be realistic. We have to understand what’s in front of us and what we have for the rest of our season,” Brusko said. “Right now we have a four-game season. I don’t know what’s going to happen. The chances of us extending after that are extremely slim, and that’s just the reality of it, so we have to make the most of the last four weeks, if that’s what it is.”
“We have to play one week at a time and grow up quickly so that we can feel good about the way we finish the season.”
UMaine will have next weekend off with a bye week as they prepare for a Halloween showdown with the University of Massachusetts. The Minutemen knocked off the previously undefeated Wildcats of New Hampshire 23-17 on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on the Comcast Sports Network. Kickoff is slated for 3:30 p.m.
Bangor Daily News