AMHERST, Mass. – Every University of Maine football fan has had the dream.

In the dream, Maine takes on a nationally-ranked opponent with a big reputation. Only for some reason the high-falutin’ team is incapable of throwing the football.

Maine finally found its dream opponent Saturday, and in the unlikeliest of places – Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium – home of perennial Black Bear tormentor Massachusetts.

Facing a 16th-ranked UMass squad that had attained that lofty status despite averaging 84 passing yards a game, Maine proceeded to tee off on the Minutemen’s ground attack, pick off three anemic UMass passes, then ride the ball-control running of senior tailback Ben Sirmans to a 21-13 victory in front of 6,001 witnesses.

Of special significance to Maine fans and the Bears themselves, the win upped the team’s record to 6-4 (4-3 YC), guaranteeing the program a winning season for the first time since 1989. It also snapped a 14-game road losing streak that dated back to Nov. 11, of ’89.

“It was certainly nice to get that (road losing streak) monkey off our back and it was certainly nice to get a winning season,” said third-year Maine head coach Kirk Ferentz, after being assured his first winning record in Orono.

“Both of those are signs we’re moving in the right direction,” Ferentz continued. “The other thing that was significant is, I think UMass is a top 10 team. I think the rankings are ridiculous. I think we beat an excellent football team.”

Maybe. But after Maine got through with them, the Minutemen (7-2, 5-2 YC) looked like a one-dimensional outfit with no business representing the conference in the I-AA playoffs.

Maine’s defense held UMass’s third-ranked rushing attack to six first downs and 146 yards, nearly 50 yards below its average. The Bears then concentrated on making life miserable for UMass redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew McNeilly, chasing him around and covering well enough to produce a 9-for-25 passing effort for 82 yards and three picks.

“We just put them in bad situations the whole game,” said Maine senior strong safety Lance Boston, who recovered a fumble to halt a UMass drive at the Maine-8 late in the game. “Our goal was to have them third and long a lot. They hadn’t been third and long more than 20 times all year. We wanted to make them pass the ball because they’re not a passing team.”

Bingo. UMass converted four of 14 third-down situations. Did Maine’s basic 4-3 defense with a nickel back on passing downs do anything special to accomplish this?

“We didn’t do anything new,” answered senior Maine linebacker Dan Girard, who intercepted one of McNeilly’s offerings. “We played our defense. It’s the same stuff we’d run basically the last eight games.”

With UMass’s offense neutralized, the game came down to how well Maine’s second-ranked rushing offense, coupled with the eversharper passing of quarterback Emilio Colon, would fare against the Minutemen’s top-rated YC defense.

It was close on the scoreboard for awhile (7-7 at the half). But Maine’s offensive line beat UMass off the ball from the outset, enabling Sirmans to bull for a career-high 165 yards and become the third back in school history to go over 1,000 for a season (1,150). The Maine line also set up two short TD runs by fullback Gordon Willey.

Colon capped another drive with a scrambling 27-yard scoring strike to tight end Adam Knudsen, the latter’s first career TD catch.

When UMass blocked a Maine punt with 2:54 left in a 21-7 game, recovering in the Maine end zone to make it 21-13, it got interesting. When the Minutemen recovered the ensuing onside kick at the UMass-49, it got more interesting.

But Maine’s defense forced two McNeilly incompletions, a dump off, and stopped him short on a scramble on fourth down.

Black Bears 21, Minutemen 13

Maine 0 7 7 7 -21

Massachusetts 0 7 0 6 -13

Me – Willey 5 run (Shaw kick)

Mass – Stefanski 2 pass from McNeilly (Maguire kick)

Me – Knudsen 27 pass from Colon (Tobin kick)

Me – Willey 1 run (Tobin kick)

Mass – Mumford recovers blocked punt in end zone

Maine UMass First downs 18 14 Rushing: att. – yards 60-240 36-146 Passing: att. – comp. 16-11 25-9 Yards passing 127 82 Total yards 367 228 Intercepted by 3 1 Punts – average 8-30 7-34 Fumbles – lost 1-1 4-3 Penalties – yards 11-77 5-35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Maine: Sirmans 32-165, Willey 14-43, Colon 11-25, Baur 2-5, Knight 1-2; UMass: George 10-70, Mumford 14-38, McNeilly 11-35, Thimas 1-3

PASSING – Maine: Colon 11-16-1-127; UMass: McNeilly 9-25-3-82

RECEIVING – Maine: Davis 3-48, Willey 3-29, Knudsen 1-27, Squires 1-8, Cates 1-7, Gaine 1-5, Sirmans 1-3; UMass: George 3-29, Read 3-38, Dembowski 1-10, Mumford 1-3, Stefanski 1-2