The Black Bears slosh past Richmond after a two-week layoff.
ORONO – The Maine football team had every reason to be rusty on Saturday after a two-week layoff since losing to Massachusetts. Instead, the only thing sloppy about the Black Bears’ game against Richmond was the weather.
Ron Whitcomb completed 18 of 25 passes for 269 yards and a touchdown, and Marcus Williams ran for 119 yards and a touchdown as the Black Bears took a rain-soaked 20-10 win over the Spiders in front of a Homecoming crowd of 6,839 at Alfond Stadium.
“I was impressed with a lot of things today,” said Maine coach Jack Cosgrove. “We didn’t turn the football over and we moved well on offense all game long.”
Richmond very nearly changed the flow of the game, and the score, with 7:20 remaining in the third quarter. On a fourth down from the Maine 2-yard line, Richmond elected to go for the touchdown. As quarterback Bryson Spinner reached the goal line, he reached over the plane and apparently scored a touchdown. The ruling on the field, however, indicated a fumble. According to the officials, Mathew King knocked the ball loose at the goal line. Although Richmond recovered the ball, the Black Bears took over on downs.
“No one touched me at all,” said Spinner after the game. “I reached over, thought I was in and then I hit the ground. The ball came loose after that.”
“That was a huge play for us,” said Williams. “After they got that stop, that fired us up on offense.”
On the ensuing drive, Maine went 98 yards on 11 plays, during which Whitcomb was 3-for-4 for 53 yards. The redshirt freshman also ran for 21 yards on the drive bafore Williams trotted in from nine yards out for the score.
“He looked like a fifth-year senior playing out there today,” said Richmond coach Jim Reid of Whitcomb. “When you have an offense like that running well, they’ll be hard to stop.”
Both defenses played well in the fourth quarter, and all three of the game’s punts happened in the final 12 minutes of the game. In all, Maine outgained Richmond 192 yards to 82 on the ground and 461-299 overall.
Maine’s day got off to a solid start, as the Black Bears’ offense drove 80 yards after the opening kickoff on 12 plays, scoring the game’s first points on a Whitcomb-to-Christian Pereira nine-yard strike. Whitcomb was a perfect 5-for-5 on the opening drive for 36 yards and the score. Williams carried five times for 28 yards on the opening drive, and finished the first half with 12 carries for 58 yards.
It appeared that Richmond would strike back with a touchdown of its own six minutes later, but Maine’s defense stalled the Spiders’ drive at the Maine 29-yard line. With a gusty wind behind him, Richmond kicker Joseph Fore booted a 46-yard field goal to salvage three points.
In the second, Maine twice drove to inside the Richmond 20-yard line but both times were forced to settle for field goals. Richomnd did get the touchdown it needed at 3:33 of the second quarter when Spinner found Harry Wilson and Jake Schools on consecutive pass plays, the latter going for 22 yards and a touchdown in the right corner of the end zone. On both plays, it appeared that the Richmond receiver pushed off the Maine defenders, and Maine’s sideline argued vehemently, but the referees threw no flags.
Whitcomb finished the first half with three straight incompletions after a first-and-10 situation at the Richmond 11-yard line, but still finished the half 12-of-16 for 167 yards and a touchdown.
Maine again has a two-week layoff before its next game, a critical A-10 matchup against Northeastern in Boston.
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