Sports |

Football: UMaine throttles URI in final home game

Sophomore QB Treister brings victory in first start

Amy Brooks, Photo Editor

Tyrell Jones turns to weigh his options as his blockers take care of the oncoming Rhode Island defense. The Black Bears won their last home game of the season 41-17 over the URI Rams.

By Derek McKinley

Posted on Saturday, November 14th, 2009, 4:52 pm

Amy Brooks, Photo Editor

Landis Williams makes the catch on a Rhode Island punt return. Williams tied the record for most receptions in a game in UMaine history.

The University of Maine football team headed into their last game this season at Alfond Stadium hoping to erase memories of their loss to James Madison University last weekend and preparing for a showdown next week in Durham, N.H., with their rivals, the University of New Hampshire Wildcats.

Standing in their way on Senior Day was the University of Rhode Island (1-9 overall, 0-7 Colonial Athletic Association) who, despite being winless in the conference this season, dropped 42 points on the Wildcats last weekend in a losing effort.

Saturday, the Black Bears made sure the high-flying attack of the Rams didn’t spoil their final home game.

Chris Treister had a record-setting day, completing 39 of 45 passes for 461 yards and five touchdowns, and he ran for another in his collegiate debut as UMaine raced past Rhode Island 41-17.

Rhode Island won the toss and came out aggressively, converting two fourth-down attempts and capitalizing on a pair of UMaine penalties before stalling out in the red zone and settling for a 28-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Louis Feinstein.

The Black Bears then turned to the untested arm of the sophomore signal caller, Treister, who started in place of sophomore Warren Smith. Smith suffered a broken foot last weekend at JMU and is out for the rest of the year.

Despite only playing three downs this season — all of them coming last week at James Madison — Treister came out firing on his first drive, completing six of six passes for 74 yards, including a 10-yard strike to senior Landis Williams (17 receptions, 220 yards, 3 TD) to put Maine up 7-3 late in the first quarter.

“I was excited for [Treister] because there’s a difference between practicing and, obviously, playing a football game,” said Kevin Bourgoin, UMaine’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “And you never know what you’re going to get, but from a preparation, from a management, from an organization, from the time he’s put in understanding the offense and what we do, I didn’t have any doubt that he’d go out there and play the way that he did.”

UMaine showed off the pass-heavy offense they’ve tried to rein in over the last few weeks as the run game could not get anything started. The Black Bears finished the game with 46 yards rushing, half of them coming on Treister’s quarterback keeper in the third quarter.

“It was definitely fun. The biggest thing I talked to Coach Bourgoin about was just managing the offense,” Treister said. “We didn’t want to step in and take anything away from the offense and where it’s been going, so my biggest thing was just stepping in and being a good leader and doing my job; taking care of what I need to take care of and not trying to do too much.”

The Black Bears went into halftime trailing for the second time in as many weeks. Maine led or was tied at halftime in their first eight games. The Rams took the lead on a 35-yard catch and run from junior quarterback Chris Paul-Etienne (13-for-31, 137 yards, TD) to senior Shawn Leonard (6 receptions, 102 yards, TD), who was coming off a three-touchdown, 275-yard performance against UNH.

Maine had a chance to tie it up in the final seconds of the half, but backup kicker Josh Hesseltine, in for an injured Jordan Waxman, watched his 32-yard try bounce off the left upright as time expired.

After going three and out on their opening drive, senior and former starting quarterback Mike Brusko’s punt pinned the Rams at their own 13-yard line. The defense forced Rhode Island to punt, and sophomore defensive back Mike Kuhn came up with a big block to set up Treister’s 6-yard pass to Brusko in the end zone, putting the Black Bears up 14-10.

The Black Hole defense quickly forced URI to go three and out and then let Treister go back to work, targeting Brusko, Williams and junior Tyrell Jones for five passes. He then called his own number on first and 10 from the 23, bouncing off two would-be tacklers before diving into the end zone for UMaine’s third touchdown of the day.

Treister’s lone miscalculation came late in the third quarter, as he was picked off by Rhode Island’s freshman cornerback Ellis Foster, who streaked down the sideline and into the end zone to cut the Black Bear lead to 21-17.

“Nothing good can come out of putting your head down. You’ve got to have a short memory, so right afterwards I was like, ‘All right, next drive we’ve got to score,’” said Treister. “So you can’t dwell on a bad play, because you can’t take it back.”

With that in mind, the Black Bear offense came back strong as Treister completed a 31-yard pass to sophomore tight end Derek Buttles and a 41-yard touchdown pass to Williams to make it 28-17. URI has allowed 28 points or more to every team they have played this season.

The UMaine offense appeared to be chewing time off the clock after forcing a punt, calling five rush plays to three different runners before Treister uncorked a perfect 58-yard deep ball to Williams, who ran into the end zone untouched.

Following the touchdown, head coach Jack Cosgrove was, according to players, talking heatedly with junior wide receiver Jeremy Kelley about celebrating excessively — which Kelley was flagged for against Richmond three weeks ago — when he began feeling shortness of breath. Cosgrove sat down on the defensive bench before being taken away by ambulance for evaluation. Athletic department officials were tight-lipped about his condition.

Despite the potential distraction, Treister continued to rack up passing yards on the next Black Bear drive, including his fifth touchdown pass of the game, this one to Jones (nine receptions, 128 yards, TD) in the back corner of the end zone. A blocked extra point made the final score 41-17.

Treister ended the game having completed 39 of 45 passes — setting the record for completions set in 1997 — and setting a record for completion percentage with 86.4 percent. He also led UMaine’s anemic rushing offense with 33 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries, which includes two sacks.

“Don’t let him fool you. He’s happy; he’s excited, as well he should be. He should be smiling a lot, and he put a big smile on my face and on Landis’ face and gave us a nice way to go out at home, so I couldn’t ask for anything more out of him,” Brusko said.

Williams’ performance tied the university’s receptions record (17) with Rameek Wright in 1996 and Arel Gordon in 2006, and set a new mark for receiving yards in a game (220), breaking Gene Benner’s record of 215 yards that had stood for 40 years.

Maine (5-5 overall, 4-3 CAA) will look to carry the momentum into their season finale next week at UNH, where, because the Wildcats lost their game against William and Mary, the battle for the Brice-Cowell musket will also be a battle for the CAA North division crown. Kickoff for that game is slated for noon Saturday.