HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Rocky Butler threw four touchdown passes, three to Kahmal Roy, and also scored on a 1-yard run as Hofstra held off Maine 51-44 on Saturday night.

Butler, who also threw a 67-yard scoring pass to Charles Adams, was 11-for-20 for 215 yards and ran for 127 yards on 17 carries for the Pride (2-1, 2-1 Atlantic 10).

Roy caught scoring passes of 27, 31 and 30 yards, and finished with four catches for 107 yards.

Maine’s Jake Eaton tied his career-best with four TD passes and finished 24-for-33 for 324 yards. Stefan Gomes caught touchdown passes of 25, 7 and 12 yards and had nine catches overall for 110 yards.

Royston English had a 55-yard scoring run for Maine (1-1, 0-1) and finished with 112 yards on 17 carries as the Black Bears outgained Hofstra 527-418.

The offensive display was noticed by Atlantic 10 officials, as two players involved in the game received mention on the weekly honor roll.

Butler was named the A-10 offensive player of the week, while UMaine’s Lennard Byrd was the league’s top special teams player.

Butler’s elusiveness on broken plays gave the Bears fits, and Hofstra converted six of 12 third-down tries in the game.

Byrd piled up 127 return yards – 97 on three kickoff returns and 30 on two punt returns. He is 103 yards shy of the school career record for punt return yardage.

Chris Devinney’s 28-yard field goal and English’s 1-yard run gave Maine a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.

Hofstra scored the next 20 points on Roy’s 27- and 31-yard TD catches and Doug Shanahan’s 27-yard fumble return.

The Black Bears were effective on offense and answered nearly each Hofstra score with one of their own – UMaine rallied from 10-point deficits with TDs three times in the game – but never scored the equalizer or took the lead.

After Hofstra reeled off 20 points over a nine-minute span of the first and second quarters, the Bears bounced back on the first of three Eaton-to-Gomes scoring strikes.

The first, a 25-yard hookup, came just 46 seconds after a Pride TD made it 20-10.

Hofstra struck back with Butler’s TD run, and Eaton connected with Gomes again from 7 yards.

Butler added the 67-yard scoring strike to Adams to make it 34-24 early in the third quarter. Eaton again rallied the Black Bears, scoring on an 18-yard run.

Butler pushed the lead to 41-31 with his 30-yard TD pass to Roy. Eaton threw a 12-yard scoring pass to Chad Hayes, and Hofstra pulled away midway through the fourth on Vembu Bukula’s 8-yard run.

The Bears made it interesting in the late-going, as they pulled within seven again on Gomes’ third TD reception with just 2:05 to play.

UMaine lined up for an onside kick, which Hofstra recovered, then forced the Pride to punt the ball back with less than 30 seconds to play.

Eaton scrambled out of bounds on one play, then completed a game-ending pass to Gomes in the middle of the field as time expired.

The Black Bears hurt their own chances several times in the game, as they were penalized 12 times for 114 yards.

Stephen Cooper, Jarrod Gomes and Marcus Walton recorded seven solo tackles apiece for the Black Bears while Jason Howard made 12 solo stops for Hofstra.

PRIDE 51, BLACK BEARS 44

Maine (1-1) 10 14 7 13?44

Hofstra (2-1) 7 20 14 10?51

First Quarter

M ? FG DeVinney 28, 10:29.

M ? English 1 run (DeVinney kick), 6:14.

H ? Roy 27 pass from Butler (Onorato kick), 1:13.

Second Quarter

H ? Roy 31 pass from Butler (Onorato kick), 9:07.

H ? Shanahan 27 fumble recovery (kick failed), 7:17.

M ? Gomes 25 pass from Eaton (DeVinney kick), 6:31.

H ? Butler 1 run (Onorato kick), 2:21.

M ? Gomes 7 pass from Eaton (DeVinney kick), 1:01.

Third Quarter

H ? Adams 67 pass from Butler (Onorato kick), 13:55.

M ? Eaton 18 run (DeVinney kick), 11:25.

H ? Roy 30 pass from Butler (Onorato kick), 6:43.

Fourth Quarter

M ? Hayes 12 pass from Eaton (DeVinney kick), 11:13.

H ? Bukula 8 run (Onorato kick), 8:14.

H ? FG Onorato 22, 4:53.

M ? Gomes 7 pass from Eaton (kick failed), 2:05.

A ? 3,109.

Mai Hof

First downs 25 22

Rushes-yards 37-203 44-208

Passing 324 215

Comp-Att-Int 24-33-1 11-20-0

Return Yards 30 71

Punts-Avg. 4-35.5 5-40.6

Fumbles-Lost 5-1 2-0

Penalties-Yards 12-114 9-81

Time of Possession 31:03 28:57

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING?Maine, English 17-112, Eaton 10-58, Williams 8-28, Minor 1-9, Gelsomino 1-(minus 4). Hofstra, Butler 17-122, Bukula 23-82, Glee 4-4.

PASSING?Maine, Eaton 24-33-1-324. Hofstra, Butler 11-20-0-215.

RECEIVING?Maine, Gomes 9-110, Minor 8-128, Nwosu 3-53, Hayes 3-29, Gelsomino 1-4. Hofstra, Roy 4-106, Adams 3-97, Kemper 1-9, Lundell 1-9, Bukula 1-0, Thomas 1-(minus 6).