QB Fein, Black Bears struggling to rediscover passing game

ORONO – Breaking from University of Maine football tradition, coach Jack Cosgrove has built his offense around quarterback Mickey Fein and the passing game.

The Black Bears have often been able to overcome their lagging ground game by putting up some impressive passing numbers. Lately, UMaine has encountered difficulty in both facets of the game.

In consecutive losses to Rhode Island and Richmond, the Bears managed 479 yards and 23 points, combined. Rushing yards have been hard to come by, while Fein and his corps of receivers haven’t been clicking.

Even though Rhody and Richmond rank Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in Atlantic 10 total defense, the Bears haven’t been playing well offensively of late.

Fein missed several throws in Saturday’s Homecoming loss to Richmond, completing 17 of 45 passes. To complicate matters, his receivers had trouble holding onto the ball when Fein was on target.

“We’ve really got to come back down and address those things – throw it and catch it better – because that’s our bread and butter, there’s no question,” Cosgrove said of the passing attack. “We dropped balls [against Richmond] and we missed on some throws. We’re not good enough to have that happen, for us to be successful.”

Fein’s disappointment Saturday evening was obvious, but he’s confident the Bears can re-establish themselves on offense if they remain mentally tough.

“Right now, we’ve got to get back into a rhythm as a team, that’s the biggest thing,” Fein said. “These last two weeks have been tough, but we’ve got to stick together and learn from them and try to get back to what we were doing two weeks ago.”

Fein had a streak of 10 straight games with a touchdown pass snapped Saturday. It was the longest for a Maine quarterback since Mike Buck had scoring tosses in 18 consecutive games in 1987 and ’88.

Fein’s 134 passing yards were his lowest output since a 17-14 loss at Richmond on Oct. 4, 1997.

The Bears look to get back on track Saturday when they travel to Harrisonburg, Va., to take on 1-6 James Madison. It is the first of three straight road games for UMaine.

Bangor native Cheryl Rich and Dawn Strout of East Corinth have joined the coaching staff at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.

Rich, a former Converse All-American at Bangor High School, has been hired as an assistant under first-year women’s basketball coach Stefanie Pemper.

Rich, a 1982 Bangor High grad who played at the University of Vermont, spent the last 11 seasons as the girls basketball coach at Edward Little High in Auburn, where she guided the Red Eddies to Western Maine Class A tourney berths each of the last five years.

Strout, a former field hockey captain at the University of Maine, is the new head coach of the Polar Bears’ softball program. She was already on board as Bowdoin’s strength and conditioning coach and assistant field hockey coach.

Strout, a 1988 grad of Central High School, was an all-state pick in field hockey and softball for the Red Devils. She played four seasons of field hockey at the University of Maine, captaining the ’92 team.

Strout was an assistant field hockey coach at UMaine for three years and coached the Orono High softball team for two seasons. She also served as UMaine’s assistant strength and conditioning coach prior to joining the Bowdoin staff in 1997.

Ryan Day of Lamoine, the 1996 Class B individual state champion for Ellsworth High School, is continuing his golf career at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Day shot a 36-hole total of 148 recently in the St. Bonaventure Keenan Invitational at Olean, N.Y., finishing in a six-way tie for fourth place to help the Colonials finish third.