WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Ron Whitcomb came into the 2006 football season poised to break a handful of University of Maine passing records. Saturday night, the senior quarterback unveiled a new dimension of his game.

Whitcomb proved himself a legitimate run threat, posting career highs with 21 carries for 64 yards and two touchdowns to spark the Black Bears to a 20-17 Atlantic 10 football victory over William & Mary in front of 10,706 fans at Zable Stadium.

Whitcomb’s decision-making in UMaine’s spread attack also helped spring senior tailback Arel Gordon for his second straight 100-yard rushing performance (23 carries) as the Bears won for the first time in four tries in this historic city.

“I’m not a running back, obviously,” Whitcomb said. “It just happens. Whatever works, we’re going with it, at this point.”

Whitcomb also completed nine of 15 passes for 98 yards, including a scoring throw to freshman Landis Williams that staked the Bears (1-1) to a 20-3 bulge early in the third quarter.

“I think we made a huge step as a football team this week against a very good Atlantic 10 opponent,” said UMaine coach Jack Cosgrove. “We’ve never won down here, never even come close to winning down here.”

Whitcomb supplanted former QB Jake Eaton for third place at UMaine with 7,177 career passing yards and his nine completions give him 624, 10th best in A-10 history.

The 1-2 running punch of Gordon and Whitcomb led the Bears on a pivotal 60-yard touchdown drive on their first possession of the second half. A personal foul penalty and a 17-yard completion from Whitcomb to Manzi Pierre also helped set up Whitcomb’s 8-yard scoring run off the right side 4:40 into the third quarter.

“We read the defensive end,” explained Whitcomb, who has either run or passed for 12 of UMaine’s last 18 touchdowns. “If he comes crashing down, I run. If not, I give it to Arel.”

Devin McNeill’s PAT try hit the left upright, leaving UMaine on top 20-3.

The Tribe (0-2, 0-1 A-10) answered with two substantial scoring drives.

Quarterback Jake Phillips (22-for-43, 184 yards, TD) completed five passes for 34 yards to spark a 74-yard march that culminated in DeBrian Holmes’ 16-yard scamper off a swing pass lateral from Phillips.

The hosts cut the deficit to 20-17 with 8:30 left with an 11-play, 63-yard drive. Phillips went 5-for-6, hitting a wide-open Joe Nicholas on a 17-yard throwback TD play.

UMaine, which was outscored 21-0 in the second half by Youngstown State a week earlier, hung tough.

A defense spearheaded by a hard-charging front four (Mike DeVito, Matt King, Bruno Dorismond, Pat McCrossan) and a solid secondary headed by Manauris Arias and Jonathan Calderon gave The Tribe nothing the rest of the way.

The UMaine offense also took four big minutes off the clock with an eight-play possession.

“We persevered through a little bit of a comeback effort by William and Mary, which is a good offensive football team with an outstanding quarterback,” Cosgrove said.

Despite spotting W&M a quick field goal after fumbling away a bad option pitch, UMaine forged a 14-3 lead.

Gordon carried six times for 30 yards and Whitcomb netted 20 yards on four tries on UMaine’s initial scoring drive. Whitcomb’s 1-yard plunge on fourth-and-goal with 25 seconds left in the first quarter put the Bears ahead.

McNeill’s PAT made it 7-3.

“Ron carried a good amount last week, but I’m pretty sure that their game plan was to try and stop me on the zone read,” Gordon said. “Now that they were overloading all their best defenders to me when I took the play fake, it opened up Ron.”

The defense quickly forced a punt and the Bears took advantage. Whitcomb improvised on two completions, including a 17-yard dumpoff to Gordon. Whitcomb then lofted a 29-yard TD strike to Williams, who beat cornerback Derek Cox for his first collegiate reception.

McNeill’s kick gave the Bears a 14-3 edge with 10:52 to play in the half.

The Tribe responded with 69-yard march that consumed 51/2 minutes, but the emotional surge stalled when Blair Pritchard pushed a 38-yard field-goal try wide to the right.

The Tribe had another chance later after an eight-yard punt to the UM 41. However, DeVito teamed up with Pat McCrossan and then Matt King on consecutive sacks to take the hosts out of field goal range as the half expired.

The Bears limited W&M to 95 rushing yards in the contest.

Sophomore linebacker Andrew Downey made nine tackles and Arias six for the Bears. Alex Goyins broke up three passes. Josh Rutter led W&M with 10 tackles.

“I think everybody’s confidence is up, so coming down here, winning in a tough environment, hopefully that carries on to next week,” DeVito said.

BLACK BEARS 20, TRIBE 17

William & Mary (0-2) 3 0 7 7 – 17

Maine (1-1) 7 7 6 0 – 20

WM – Pritchard 25 field goal

UM – Whitcomb 1 run (McNeill kick)

UM – L. Williams 29 pass from Whitcomb (McNeill kick)

UM – Whitcomb 8 run (kick failed)

WM -Holmes 14 run (Pritchard kick)

WM – Nicholas 8 pass from Phillips (Pritchard kick)

Maine W&M

First downs 16 17

Rushing att.-yards 48-166 25-95

Passing comp.-att. 9-15 22-44

Passing yards 98 184

Total yards 264 279

Punts-avg. 5-29.2 4-31.2

Fumbles-lost 4-1 1-0

Intercepted by 0 1

Penalties-yards 4-45 4-40

Rushing

Maine: Gordon 23-100, Whitcomb 21-64, Randall 1-5, Team 3-(minus 3); W&M: Brooks 12-29, Holmes 4-26, McAulay 1-15, Mack 1-14, Phillips 7-11

Passing

Maine: Whitcomb 9-15-1-98; W&M: Phillips 22-43-0-184, Archer 0-1-0-0

Receiving

Maine: Gordon 3-32, L. Williams 2-36, Pierre 2-22, Randall 1-8, Mulligan 1-0; W&M: McAulay 5-53, Nicholas 5-46, Archer 3-25, Holmes 3-9, Mack 2-18, Trinkle 2-5, Atchison 1-17, Brooks 1-11

A-10,706