It wasn’t exactly what coach Jack Cosgrove was hoping for, but the University of Maine football team finally found a game to complete its 2006 schedule.

The Black Bears’ home opener will be played Sept. 23 against Division II Shaw University of Raleigh, N.C.

The addition of Shaw helped UMaine avoid a scenario during which it would not have played a home game until its Oct. 14 meeting with Villanova.

“I’m relieved that we can put an 11-game football schedule in front of our team,” Cosgrove said Thursday. “There’s a lot of hoops that he [athletic director Blake James] had to jump through and a lot of work that had to be done.”

UMaine was left in the lurch in February when an undisclosed school that had agreed to play a Sept. 2 game at UMaine instead backed out and signed to face another opponent.

“The rug got pulled from under us,” Cosgrove said. “Blake did a persistent job of trying to land a game.”

Cosgrove explained UMaine’s geographic location, coupled with its reputation in Division I-AA, have made it increasingly difficult for the Bears to schedule nonleague home games.

Even with Shaw in the fold, the Bears face a difficult early-season slate.

UMaine is idle Sept. 2, the opening day of the regular season. Not only do the Bears get a late start, they faces four road games among their first five contests. Those include a Sept. 9 season opener at Youngstown State (Ohio), which finished 2005 ranked 18th in The Sports Network I-AA Top 25 Poll.

The Bears follow that up with a Sept. 16 Atlantic 10 opener at William & Mary, then play the home opener. UMaine heads to Chestnut Hill, Mass., for a Sept. 30 clash against Division I-A Boston College of the Atlantic Coast Conference before closing out the testy stretch with an Oct. 7 league game at Towson (Md.).

The Boston College matchup represents the Bears’ third I-A opponent in three seasons.

“Each year it’s gotten a little bit tougher with Mississippi State, then you go to Nebraska and, as daunting a task as that was, BC is the 20th-ranked team in I-A right now,” Cosgrove said. “That puts them at the head of the class as far as the I-A teams that we’ve played.”

Cosgrove said the Bears will face I-A Connecticut in 2007.

UMaine then will be treated to back-to-back home games Oct. 14 against Villanova and Oct. 21 versus Hofstra, which is homecoming weekend.

The Bears have entered a new rotation against Atlantic 10 Southern Division teams. UMaine has picked up William & Mary, Towson and Villanova as its three nondivisional games while dropping James Madison, Delaware and Richmond.

UMaine closes out the 2006 campaign with A-10 North games Oct. 28 at Rhode Island, Nov. 4 against Northeastern, Nov. 11 at Massachusetts and Nov. 18 in the regular-season finale against traditional border rival and 2005 national runner-up New Hampshire.

“It’s a very difficult schedule, there’s no question about it,” Cosgrove said. “We know league that we’re in is awfully tough and competitive.”

Clark named Wildcats MVP

Danielle Clark of Corinna was named the Most Valuable Player for the University of New Hampshire basketball team during the Wildcats annual banquet held recently.

The 6-foot forward, who starred at Nokomis High in Newport, led UNH in scoring (15.1 points per game), rebounds (172), 3-point field-goal percentage (.395) and free-throw percentage (.837) last season.

Clark, who will be a senior next season, earned All-America East second-team honors and was an academic all-district choice while helping the Wildcats post a 15-13 record and reach the league quarterfinals.

Clark also will serve as a co-captain for UNH next winter.

DeWitt earns academic honor

Joey DeWitt of the University of Massachusetts Lowell has been selected for the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team.

DeWitt, a sophomore from Ellsworth, was among three River Hawk men’s team members to be recognized. He maintains a 3.47 grade point average in criminal justice and earned Northeast-10 Conference All-Academic accolades for track and field.

DeWitt was an All-New England performer as a member of UML’s indoor and outdoor 4×800 relay squads.

Bates’ Godsey gets recognition

Keelin Godsey, a recent graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, has been named to the Division III Silver Anniversary Team by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The team is made up of the top performers in each track and field event during the last 25 years. Godsey was chosen in the hammer throw.

Godsey won a second straight national championship and broke the meet record in the hammer at the NCAA Division III Championships last month with a throw of 206 feet, 5 inches. The 16-time All-American placed second in the shot put in and fourth in the discus.

Godsey finished 18th Friday in the women’s hammer throw at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis.

NCAA approves rule changes

The NCAA will allow a football coach to challenge one ruling by officials per game and have it reviewed by replay under a proposal approved recently by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel.

The NCAA allowed the use of video replays last season and nine of the 11 Division I-A conferences used some type of replay. The revision to include a challenge by coaches was later approved by the Football Rules Committee.

A challenge would be allowed only if the team has an available timeout. If the challenge is successful, no timeout will be charged.

In basketball, the NCAA rules panel also approved a rule than prohibits a player from calling a timeout while falling out of bounds or into the backcourt.

Division II and III schools also will be required to have game clocks that display 10ths of a second and shot clocks mounted on the backboards, but not until the 2010-11 season.

College writer Pete Warner can be reached at 990-8240, toll-free at 1-800-310-8600, by fax at 990-8005 or via e-mail at pwarner@bangordailynews.net

2006 UMAINE SCHEDULE

September

2 – Open

9 – at Youngstown State, 4 p.m.

16 – at William & Mary,* 7 p.m.

23 – Shaw, 2 p.m.

30 – at Boston College, TBA

October

7 – at Towson,* 3 p.m.

14 – Villanova,* 2 p.m.

21 – Hofstra,* 2 p.m.

28 – at Rhode Island,* noon

November

4 – Northeastern,* noon

11 – at Massachusetts,* noon

18 – New Hampshire,* noon

*-conference game