UConn routs Bears Maine’s Farkes gets time at QB

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EAST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Maine football team has proved itself a formidable opponent for Bowl Division opponents in recent years.

Saturday night, the Black Bears were no match for Big East member Connecticut.

Lefthanded quarterback Tyler Lorenzen passed for 186 yards and two touchdowns and the Huskies stifled UMaine’s offense while cruising to a 38-0 victory in front of 35,413 fans at Rentschler Field.

UConn (2-0) mastered UMaine (1-1) in every facet of the game, giving the Bears little on which to hang their hats heading into Saturday’s Colonial Athletic Association opener at Villanova.

“We got spanked,” said UMaine coach Jack Cosgrove. “I never felt we were in the game at all – ever.”

The most intriguing aspect of the contest for the Bears was the introduction of redshirt freshman Adam Farkes into the quarterback mix.

Sophomore Mike Brusko started his second straight game, but Cosgrove utilized Farkes as a predetermined part of the game plan.

“I had intended to do that,” Cosgrove said. “I just felt it was an opportunity to get him into the game tonight [in the first half], regardless of the score.

“I think he’s got some ability,” he added. “He needed to get in a game. We needed to see what he could do.”

Brusko got off to a bad start. Linebacker Scott Lutrus stepped in front of his first pass of the game – on the second play from scrimmage – and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.

“That was tough and it put us behind early and then we had to play in a position that we didn’t want to,” said Brusko, who accepted blame for a poor throw.

“We got outplayed tonight by a better team,” he added. “We didn’t play nearly as well as we thought we could have.”

Brusko, who threw for only 64 yards in his debut, wound up completing seven of 11 passes for 24 yards. He played the first five series and two more early in the second half.

Farkes was inserted for the last two possessions of the first half, then finished off the game’s last five series. He went 8-for-15 for 64 yards and was intercepted once.

Farkes also finished as UMaine’s leading rusher with 26 on eight carries.

“It was good to get an opportunity to get in there, but I don’t want to look at my individual performance, because we got beat pretty good today,” Farkes said. “I think it’s clear that we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Cosgrove said Brusko remains the No. 1 QB, but admitted UMaine needs more production, particularly in the pass game.

“We have not thrown the ball for over 100 yards for two weeks in a row and we’re seeing 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-man fronts,” Cosgrove said. “If we don’t start finding some ways to be successful throwing the football, we’re going to have some issues as an offense.”

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady probably couldn’t have solved the Bears’ woes against a bigger, stronger, faster UConn squad. The hosts limited UMaine to seven first downs and 152 total yards.

The Bears never got past the UConn 34-yard line.

“We had a tough time matching up at times. They were a little bigger and stronger than us,” Brusko said. “We had some success at times, but we just got a little worn down.”

The game was so well in hand that both teams utilized mostly second- and third-string players for the entire fourth quarter.

Defensively, UMaine couldn’t get much pressure on Lorenzen, who was not sacked and also rushed for 42 yards.

Junior linebacker Andrew Downey was the defensive stalwart for the Bears while racking up a game-best 13 tackles.

“We gave up 31 points and that won’t cut it,” Downey said of the defense. “They’re a great football team and I think a lot of times we shot ourselves in the foot on missed assignments, etc.”

Reality hit the Bears during the last two minutes of the first half. Leading 10-0, UConn mounted a 65-yard drive behind Lorenzen’s 4-for-7 passing effort. His 6-yard scoring toss to Terence Jeffers in the end zone helped make it 17-0 at intermission.

“They did a real nice job with that,” Cosgrove said. “We had a chance offensively to take the ball down at the end of the half and prevent them from having enough time and we just really struggled on the offensive side of the football.”

The Huskies put the game out of reach with three substantial scoring drives during a span of 11 minutes in the second half.

HUSKIES 38, BLACK BEARS 10

Maine 0 0 0 0 – 0

Connecticut 7 10 14 7 – 38

UConn-Lutrus 25 interception return (Ciaravino kick).

UConn-FG Ciaravino 24

UConn-Jeffers 6 pass from Lorenzen (Ciaravino kick)

UConn-Jeffers 2 pass from Lorenzen (Ciaravino kick)

UConn-Lorenzen 2 run (Ciaravino kick)

UConn-Allen 31 run (Ciaravino kick), 14:15.

Maine UConn

First downs 7 20

Rushing att.-yards 31-64 42-183

Passing comp.-att. 15-26 18-29

Passing yards 88 196

Total yards 152 379

Punts-avg. 10-42.9 5-37

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Intercepted by 1 2

Penalties-yards 7-48 4-35

Rushing

Maine: Farkes 8-26, Fluellen 11-24, Henderson 4-9, Brusko 5-5, Walcott 2-2, Team 1-(minus 2).; UConn: Brown II 20-87, Allen 11-54, Lorenzen 7-42, Sherman 1-4, Hernandez 1-0, Team 2-(minus 4).

Passing

Maine: Farkes 8-15-1-64, Brusko 7-11-1-24. UConn: Lorenzen 17-26-1-186, D.Brown 1-3-0-10

Receiving

Maine: Fluellen 5-5, Mulligan 3-39, Pierre 2-22, Henderson 2-7, Williams 1-9, Cotrone 1-7, Walcott 1-(minus 1). UConn: Kanuch 6-76, Jeffers 4-29, Hernandez 2-37, Brouse 2-33, Brown II 2-7, Easley 1-10, Lorenzen 1-4

A-35,413