University of Richmond Athletics
No. 4 Richmond Wins Thriller Over No. 5 Tribe On Last-Second Field Goal
11/21/2009 | Football
Nov. 21, 2009
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Howard's FG Series
Team Notes
· Richmond improved to 10-1, reaching the 10-win plateau in the regular-season for the first time in school history.
· The win allowed Richmond to earn a share of the 2009 CAA Football title - the team's fifth conference crown since 1998. No team in the CAA has won more over that span.
· Richmond takes possession of the new Capital Cup, which replaced the I-64 Trophy as the award given to the Richmond-William & Mary winner. Senior QB Eric Ward was named the inaugural Capital Cup Most Valuable Player.
· Richmond and William & Mary met Saturday for the 119th time on the gridiron - and in terms of number of games played - the rivalry is the oldest in the South and fourth-oldest in college football. The rivalry dates back to the 1898 season.
· Richmond has defeated William & Mary five-consecutive times, six of the last eight and seven of the last 10. The Tribe's lead in the all-time series was trimmed to 59-55-5 following Saturday's win by Richmond.
· Richmond's winning steak in the series in the longest since winning five-straight between 1919 and 1921.
· The last two games in the rivalry have each been decided by last-possession field goals - and senior Andrew Howard has booted them both. He kicked a 37-yarder in overtime at W&M last season to win 23-20 - the only OT game in series history - and today's 48-yarder as time expired in regulation.
· Richmond intercepted W&M QB R.J. Archer twice in Saturday's game and the team has now picked off 16 this season, with 15 coming in the last seven games.
· The win allowed Richmond to improve its record to 16-4 versus Top-25 opponents since 2007.
· The announced attendance of 17,527 stands as the 14th-largest crowd in UR Stadium history and the largest since 1998 when 18,914 were on hand for the William & Mary game.
· Richmond is all but locked into its third-consecutive playoff appearance and the eighth in program history. The Spiders were the 2008 National Champions, a 2007 Semifinalist and have advanced past the first round in their last four appearances.
Player Notes
· Senior QB Eric Ward, who was selected at the Capital Cup MVP, engineered yet another game-winning drive for the Spiders. He moved Richmond into long field goal range by completing two passes for 22 yards in 12 seconds. It stands as his eighth career winning/tying drive in the fourth quarter.
· Ward won his 40th career game as a Spider, improving his record to 40-11 (.784) overall, 11-2 in the month of November and 16-6 versus Top-25 ranked teams.
· Ward was 24-of-36 passing for 221 yards to mark his 14th career 200-yard passing game. The senior holds every career passing record at Richmond and moved into 10th on the CAA Football all-time passing list with his 8,628 yards.
· Senior K Andrew Howard booted the game-winner from 48 yards as time expired to mark his third game-winning kick in the last two seasons. He hit the OT winner at W&M last season and his PAT with 18 seconds left was the difference at Northern Iowa in the 2008 NCAA semifinals.
· The 48-yard field goal was the longest of the season for Howard.
· With two made field goals, Howard moved into second on the CAA Football career list for FGs made (51). William & Mary's Greg Kuehn holds the league's career record with 59 between 2002-05.
