ORONO – Each year, the final home football game on Morse Field at Alfond Stadium – win or lose – usually leaves the University of Maine’s seniors reflecting on how things might have been.

This season, the Black Bears’ seniors can look ahead – toward possibly sharing the Atlantic 10 title and earning a playoff spot.

Riding the emotion of their last home game, UMaine seniors Royston English, Chad Hayes, Zack Magliaro, Lennard Byrd, Malik Nichols, Damon Boinske, Ernie Svolto, Justin Davis and David Ellis brought the 20th-ranked Bears to the brink of the postseason Saturday with a resounding 37-7 victory over Massachusetts.

UMaine improved to 7-2 overall, 6-2 in conference play, while posting its eighth consecutive win at home, this one in front of a small, disappointing crowd of 3,341. If the Bears can win Saturday at New Hampshire, they are expected to clinch a spot in the 16-team Division I-AA playoffs.

“This means a lot to me,” said Old Town’s Hayes. “It’s very emotional, but we’ve got to put it behind us and we’ve got to go get UNH; to stay focused for them.”

UMaine dominated from start to finish. The defense surrendered a first-quarter touchdown, then blanked Massachusetts (2-7, 2-5 A-10) while creating five turnovers.

Freshman linebacker Lofa Tatupu paced the Bears with nine tackles, including four for a loss, and two interceptions. Stephen Cooper provided seven tackles, with one sack, and an interception.

“Emotions were high,” Tatupu said. “Everybody was excited to be out there, especially the seniors, and we wanted to send them off with a win.”

UMaine, which had knocked off ninth-ranked Rhode Island a week earlier, did not look past UMass.

“We had our eyes open for a letdown and there wasn’t one,” said coach Jack Cosgrove, who wouldn’t speculate about the Bears’ postseason hopes.

“I don’t want to go any further than next week,” he said, turning his attention toward the seniors.

“Their resiliency is incredible,” Cosgrove said. “They don’t know anything as sweet as what this season has been, and to be in this position now, they’re savoring it. They don’t take anything for granted.”

Offensively, the Bears pounded the ball at the Minutemen on the ground. With center Ben Lezarski out with a strained knee, John Kmety stepped in at guard, Mike Leconte of South Portland moved over to center and little changed.

Tailback English put together his third straight 100-plus-yard rushing performance, wearing down UMass to the tune of 171 yards on 34 carries. He pushed his season total to 999 yards and moved past Doug Dorsey into fourth place on UMaine’s all-time rushing list with 2,684 yards.

“When you’ve got this kid [English] in the backfield and you’ve got the guys up front moving people, you’ve got all the confidence in the world,” Hayes said.

Junior quarterback Jake Eaton, dealing with UMass’ pressure defense, wasn’t particularly sharp throwing the ball. He completed 10 of 22 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns without being intercepted and the Bears didn’t commit any turnovers.

UMaine’s special teams also took care of business. Freshman placekicker Chris DeVinney of South Portland played a pivotal role, kicking field goals of 23, 31 and a career-long 37 yards while converting all four PATs.

Return specialist Byrd sparkled once again. He set up the Bears’ second touchdown with a 75-yard kickoff return and finished with 134 yards on four returns.

UMaine led only 20-7 at halftime despite holding a nine-minute edge in time of possession. However, the hosts scored on their first three possessions of the second half.

Five minutes into the third quarter, a 30-yard run around left end by English helped set up DeVinney’s 37-yard field goal at the 8:04 mark.

Byrd’s 22-yard return on the ensuing UMass punt gave the Bears the ball at the Minutemen’s 45. Eaton hooked up with wideout Stefan Gomes (6 catches, 113 yards) on first down, then found him three plays later on an 18-yard scoring pass. DeVinney’s kick made it 30-7 with 3:56 left in the quarter.

“A big key for us today was to get Royston going early, get the running game established, so like coach said we can get the play-action pass going and get some one-on-one matchups,” Eaton said.

Two plays later, Tatupu stepped in front of a Matt Guice pass at the UMass 40 and returned it 12 yards. UMaine needed only four plays to score as Eaton found Hayes over the middle on a 14-yard TD pass.

Guice had good numbers (22-for-34, 242 yards), but threw four interceptions and was sacked four times. UMaine limited UMass to 46 yards rushing.

The Bears are hungry to make some history Saturday.

BLACK BEARS 37, MINUTEMEN 7

Massachusetts (2-7) 7 0 0 0? 7

Maine (7-2) 10 10 17 0?37

Maine ?DeVinney 23 field goal

Maine ? Eaton 1 run (DeVinney kick)

Mass ? Quinlan 5 run (White kick)

Maine ? Gelsomino 2 run (DeVinney kick)

Maine ? DeVinney 31 field goal

Maine ? DeVinney 37 field goal

Maine ? S. Gomes 18 pass from Eaton (DeVinney kick)

Maine ? Hayes 14 pass from Eaton (DeVinney kick)

UMass Maine

First downs 16 18

Rushing att.-yards 27-46 49-193

Passing comp.-att. 22-34 11-23

Passing yards 242 176

Total yards 288 369

Punts-avg. 8-37.8 6-37.8

Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0

Intercepted by 0 4

Penalties-yards 7-52 14-120

Rushing

UMass: Quinlan 12-45, Howard 5-12, Hardy 1-5, Guice 9-(-16); Maine: English 34-171, Eaton 9-9, S. Gomes 1-8, Henry 3-4, Gelsomino 1-2, Team 1-(-1)

Passing

UMass: Guice 22-34-4-242; Maine: Eaton 10-22-0-165, Mellow 1-1-0-11

Receiving

UMass: Kinsey 5-91, Brown 5-45, Hardy 3-39, Howard 3-27, Quinlan 3-10, Campbell 1-12, Wysocki 1-12, Ward 1-6; Maine: S. Gomes 6-113, Hayes 2-22, Minor 1-21, Nichols 1-11, Gelsomino 1-9

A?3,341