RICHMOND, Va. – Saturday’s Yankee Conference football contest here between the 2-1 University of Maine Black Bears and the 2-1 University of Richmond Spiders isn’t going to make or break the season of either team.

What the 1 p.m. clash on the artificial turf of Richmond Stadium will do, according to the principals, is give the winner of this matchup of struggling programs a major boost in its quest to separate itself from its immediate, losing past.

Richmond (1-1 YC) has had four straight losing seasons since sharing the 1987 YC title with Maine. The Bears (1-0 YC) are coming off back-to-back 3-8 campaigns.

“There’s a big psychological difference between being 3-1 and being 2-2,” said Maine senior tailback Ben Sirmans Friday. “For us to come down here and lose this game would mean we’ll be fighting our way back up. We don’t want to go through that. We want to keep going, win this game, and accelerate before we get to our really tough matchups (against conference favorites Delaware and Villanova).”

On paper, Maine appears to be in a more fragile state than Richmond. The Bears have lost their last 11 road games coming in and need to break that streak to begin feeling like contenders. What’s more, while Richmond has been racking up big statistics, leading the conference in offensive yards per game (466) and scoring (42.7), Maine has looked inconsistent, averaging 366 yards and 24.4 points per contest.

How do the disparity in those numbers make third-year Maine coach Kirk Ferentz feel?

“Like we’re going to have to play our best football of the season to win,” Ferentz answered.

Maine’s game plan is simple. Control the ball offensively with Sirmans (98.7 yards per game). Keep Spider quarterback Greg Lilly, the No. 1-rated passer in the nation, and the rest of the explosive UR offense off the field. Don’t make mistakes.

“The key factor is whether or not we turn the ball over,” said Sirmans, noting Richmond is tied for the conference lead with 18 takeaways. “That’s how they stayed in the game with Villanova. That’s how they beat Rhode Island. They capitalized on their mistakes. As an offense, we can’t have any turnovers. So the name of the game for us is ball security.”

Richmond appears vulnerable to Maine’s game plan. While the Spider offense has been high powered, the defense has tended to brown out, yielding an average of 425 yards per game.

“We can’t afford to let Maine run the ball on us all day,” said UR head coach Jim Marshall.

When Richmond does have the ball, Maine’s defense is going to need to go on red alert. Not only does Lilly throw for an average of 235 yards per game, but tailback Uly Scott leads a ground attack averaging 231 yards an outing.

The Black Bear defense ranks first in the YC against the rush (47.3 ypg), but that’s primarily because Maine ranks last in the league against the pass (270.7 ypg).

“It’s a real tough dilemma,” said Ferentz, when asked how Maine’s defense will attack the Spiders. “We’re just going to have to rise to the challenge and get some pressure on him (Lilly).”

Other factors?

Maine is coming off an open date. Freshman punter Jerrod Thebarge has struggled in his last two games. Quarterback Emilio Colon is playing with a tender right shoulder. The weather is supposed to be sunny and warm (80s) and the Bears have yet to play on turf this season.

On the other side, Richmond has yet to kick a field goal this year.

“It should be an interesting game,” summed up Marshall.