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AMHERST, Mass. – With their playoff aspirations and a shot at the Atlantic 10 title hanging in the balance, the University of Maine went for the win Saturday afternoon.
Despite having two chances, one to take the lead and another to tie the game, the Black Bears were unable to convert.
UMaine failed to execute a fake on a two-point conversion that would have given it the lead, then missed the ensuing PAT kick after a penalty negated the first attempt as No. 3 Massachusetts escaped with a 10-9 Atlantic 10 football victory over the 19th-ranked Bears at McGuirk Stadium.
“To have it end like that, that hurts,” said UMaine senior offensive guard Justin Roberts. “You’re not mad, you’re just hurt emotionally.”
Coach Jack Cosgrove’s Bears (6-4, 5-2 A-10) dominated, yet still had to try erasing a 10-0 fourth-quarter deficit against UMass (9-1, 7-0 A-10), which clinched the league title and its automatic berth to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.
UMaine’s valiant rally ended when freshman Devin McNeill, a walk-on placekicker from Portland, had his PAT kick sail inches wide of the left upright with 1:44 remaining.
“I thought I struck the ball well, it was just left,” said McNeill, a soccer standout at Portland High School who made his football debut last season as the Bulldogs’ kicker.
“The kicker, you’re the hero or the scapegoat. It goes with the position,” he added. “It [stinks] missing, just letting everyone down.”
UMaine still has a remote chance to earn an at-large bid, but first must beat New Hampshire on Saturday in Orono.
The Bears came to the defense of their young kicker.
“I told him, we win as a team, we lose as a team. It wasn’t him that lost the game,” Roberts said.
UMaine was in position to win after gritty senior quarterback Ron Whitcomb engineered back-to-back scoring drives in the fourth quarter. He scored untouched on a 1-yard run to cap a 51-yard drive as the Bears got within a point.
Cosgrove went for the win, calling a fake play to be run by holder and backup QB Mike Brusko out of a kick formation.
“You’ve got to have some courage and some guts during the course of a football game,” Cosgrove said.
UMass linebacker Jason Hatchell hurdled long snapper Chris Parcells and wound up tackling Brusko for a loss on that play, which was negated by a dead-ball “false start” penalty.
After being backed up five yards to the 8-yard line, the Bears were forced to kick. Cosgrove blamed himself.
“We were going to try to win the game with a fake,” Cosgrove said. “I disrupted the chemistry of the whole operation. It really comes back to a decision the head coach made.”
UMaine controlled play both ways. The defense limited a UMass offense, second in the league and sixth in I-AA with 401 yards per game, to a season-low 175 total yards.
End Matt King made eight tackles and linebacker Jovan Belcher had seven to help limit A-10 rushing leader Steve Baylark (126 ypg) to 50 yards on 17 carries.
“We battled for four quarters,” King said. “That’s all I ask of my seniors and myself.”
Aided by good field position, the Minutemen scored on their second possession. Rasheed Rancher’s superb diving catch of a 26-yard pass to the end zone by QB Liam Coen (10-for-20, 106 yards) punctuated an 58-yard drive.
UMass struck again on the first play of the fourth quarter, after marching 62 yards on 14 plays behind Baylark. UMaine stiffened and the hosts settled for Chris Koepplin’s 35-yard field goal with 14:55 to play.
The Bears responded, finally putting some points on the scoreboard. UMaine balanced the run and pass, with two first-down runs by Whitcomb (15 carries, 45 yards) setting up McNeill’s 34-yard field goal that made it 10-3 with 8:41 left.
On its ensuing possession, UMass gambled on fourth-and-1 from the UMaine 49 with 6:41 left. King stood up Baylark, who pulled away only to be stopped inches short of a first down by Andrew Downey and Jonathan Calderon.
“We just played the defense that was called and we ended up stopping him,” said UMaine tackle Mike DeVito. “He’s a great back and somebody I think that you have to focus on when you play against UMass.”
The Bears went back into attack mode with a good run-pass blend, including some heady runs by Whitcomb. He ran untouched around left end for a 1-yard TD that capped an 11-play drive and put the Bears in position to go ahead.
“Coach [Bobby] Wilder came up with a great game plan. We kicked their butt,” Whitcomb said.
“We had it. We had it.”
After failing on two conversion tries, UMaine attempted an onside kick by Luigi Sebastiani. It went into and out of the hands of teammate Arel Gordon (8 receptions, 85 yards). Tracy Belton of UMass came up with the ball, ending the Bears’ hopes.
Spearheaded by its tough offensive line, UMaine wound up with a 15-minute advantage in time of possession. Whitcomb completed 21 of 30 throws for 183 yards (1 interception) as the Bears netted 304 total yards.
The Bears came up empty on their first possession of the second half after chewing up 71/2 minutes with a 10-play drive. A sack of Whitcomb by Belton at the 36 led UMaine to punt.
“I thought we went toe to toe with a great football team today and we just didn’t finish some things off offensively,” Cosgrove said.
MINUTEMEN 10, BLACK BEARS 9
Maine (6-4) 0 0 0 9 – 9
Massachusetts (9-1) 7 0 0 3 – 10
UMASS – Rancher 26 pass from Coen (Koepplin kick)
UMASS – Koepplin 35 field goal
MAINE – McNeill 34 field goal
MAINE – Whitcomb 1 run (kick failed)
Maine UMass
First downs 19 10
Rushing att.-yards 37-121 25-45
Passing comp.-att. 21-30 12-22
Passing yards 183 130
Total yards 304 175
Punts-avg. 4-35.0 4-38.5
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0
Intercepted by 0 1
Penalties-yards 9-76 6-51
Rushing
Maine: Whitcomb 15-45, Gordon 12-35, Allen 5-20, Brusko 3-13, Fluellen 1-7, Pearson 1-1; UMass: Baylark 17-50, Rancher 1-4, Washington 1-4, Moore 1-4, Team 2-(minus 3), Coen 3-(minus-14)
Passing
Maine: Whitcomb 21-30-1-183; UMass: Coen 10-20-0-106, Woodward 1-1-0-7, Koegel 1-1-0-17
Receiving
Maine: Gordon 8-85, Pearson 6-34, Fluellen 3-25, Mulligan 3-25, Pierre 1-14; UMass: Rancher 3-37, Moore 3-22, London 2-36, Ihedigbo 1-17, Washington 1-9, Listorti 1-7, Baylark 1-2
A-13,166
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