ORONO, Maine — Big plays and slow starts have haunted the University of Maine’s struggling football team all season long.
It was no different on Saturday afternoon when the University of Richmond Spiders rattled off six plays of 20 or more yards and scored on their first three possessions en route to a 31-21 win over the Black Bears at Alfond Stadium.
The Spiders improved to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association while UMaine fell to 2-6 and 2-3.
Richmond built a 21-0 lead and withstood a second-half UMaine rally which cut it to 28-21 with 8:25 left.
“We have to start faster,” said UMaine first-year head coach Jordan Stevens. “We’ve been digging ourselves a hole. It’s tough to play from behind.”
Richmond quarterback Reece Udinski, who entered the game leading the Football Championship Subdivision in completion percentage at 76.9 percent, completed 26 of 33 passes for 368 yards and two touchdowns.
“We emphasized this week that we wanted to start off fast,” said Udinski. “To score on our first three drives is awesome.”
It took the Spiders just 2:28 to score after taking the opening kickoff.
A 45-yard pass from Udinski to Leroy Henley set up Udinski’s six-yard run which capped a six-play, 70-yard drive.
On the next drive, he threw a 63-yard TD pass to Jakob Herres. Yet another big play, a 34-yard pass to Herres, paved the way for Udinski’s three-yard run that made it 21-0.
UMaine scored in the second period when Joe Fagnano threw a nine-yard pass to tight end Shawn Bowman.
However, All-CAA tight end Bowman suffered a potential season-ending leg injury later in the period.
“That was a huge loss,” Stevens said.
Richmond expanded the lead to 28-7 in the third period when Henley caught a 21-yard pass from Udinski. Richmond coach Russ Huesman said they hadn’t been generating many big plays this season.
“We’ve been emphasizing it, so it was nice to see some big plays today,” said Huesman.
The Black Bears battled back thanks to a pair of turnovers.
Justin Sambu forced a fumble that was recovered by Raffaele Salamone at the Richmond-10 and Montigo Moss made a tremendous one-handed nine-yard catch from Fagnano to make it 28-14.
A Benito Speight interception in the end zone launched a six-play, 80-yard drive that was capped by Zavier Scott’s 41-yard TD scamper on a reverse with 8:25 to go.
Pivotal play: The Black Bears had pulled within seven in the fourth quarter and had all the momentum.
But back-up running back Dante Black rattled off a 40-yard run to set up a 22-yard field goal by Andrew Lopez that all but clinched the win with 3:59 left.
“That was a huge, huge play,” said Huesman. “We had to run the ball to force them to burn their timeouts and to run the clock down. And we were hoping to get a field goal out of it.”
Herres finished with eight receptions for 174 yards and Henley had six for 119. Aaron Dykes had 62 rushing yards on 15 carries and Black had 61 on four carries.
Fagnano completed 22 of 41 passes for 208 yards. Moss and Michael Monios each had five catches for 71 and 42 yards respectively.
Elijah Barnwell had 48 rushing yards on 12 carries.
Tristan Wheeler’s 13 tackles and Philip O’Connor’s 10 led the Richmond defense while UMaine was paced by Kahzir Brown, Salamone, Adrian Otero and Shakur Smalls with eight tackles apiece.
Takeaway: Udinski is an elite quarterback with some top-end receivers. UMaine’s defense continues to surrender big plays and the Black Bears keep digging themselves a hole with slow starts and inconsistency all across the board.
Next: UMaine travels to Rhode Island on Saturday at 1 while Richmond hosts New Hampshire at 3:30.
