University of Richmond Athletics
Richmond Takes Down Duke: Postgame Notes
09/06/2009 | Football
Sept. 6, 2009
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· Richmond's 10-game winning streak ties a school record originally set in 1972-73 -- Richmond beat Furman on Oct. 21, 1972 and did not lose again until Oct. 20, 1973 versus West Virginia. The Spiders last loss was Oct. 11, 2008 versus James Madison.
· Richmond has now won two consecutive games over Duke and trimmed the Blue Devils lead in the all-time series to 9-3, which dates back to 1924. The 2006 meeting was the teams' first since 1979.
· Richmond opened the scoring by blocking a punt and returning it five yards for a touchdown. Tyler Kirchoff blocked the punt and Jonathan Mayfield ran it in. It marked the Spiders' first blocked punt that resulted in a TD since Nov. 17, 2007 -- Justin Forte blocked it and Patrick Weldon returned it five yards for the TD.
· The safety allowed by the Spiders in the first quarter was the first against Richmond since Nov. 11, 2000 versus James Madison. That safety was recorded the same way - a punt snapped through the back of the end zone.
· Richmond took a 14-9 lead into the half and improved to 38-3 since the start of the 2004 when leading at the break (23-1 since 2007). The Spiders are now 29-6 since 2005 when scoring first, and 13-3 since 2007 on the road.
· Richmond has won three of its last four season openers - all on the road. At Duke in 2006, at then-No. 15 Elon last year and Duke this season.
· Eric Ward caught a 14-yard pass from Kevin Grayson on a QB throw-back play. It marks the third straight game (dating back to last season) that the Spiders have successfully run gadget plays. The others: Ward connected with Grayson on a flea-flicker for a TD in the UNI win, Ward caught a FB pass from John Crone for a TD in the National Championship.
· Ward is now 31-10 all-time as the Spiders' starting QB, including 2-0 versus Duke. His first collegiate win came in his first collegiate at Duke in 2006.
· WR Eric Ward was the first pass of Grayson's collegiate career and the second career reception for Ward.
· Ward surpassed former Spider QB Greg Lilly (1990-93) for second-place on Richmond's all-time passing list in the game. Ward now has 6,713 yards in his career (Lilly had 6,703). He'll need 1,795 more yards for the career record currently held by Bob Bleier (1983-86).
· Ward completed 12 passes to six different receivers, while six different Spiders were in on the team's 40 carries for 125 yards.
· The Spiders saw two true freshmen see playing time in the contest - TE Mike Poplaski (#87) and FB Kendall Gaskins (#27). Four other redshirt freshmen -- #33 Doug Howell, #46 Darrius McMillan, #52 Derek Mayo and #88 Kevin Finney saw their first collegiate action.
· Senior RB Justin Forte saw his first college action since breaking his leg versus Maine last season (Sept. 20). He averaged 4.3 yards on his 16 carries and scored.
· Richmond defense was the FCS's 12th-best against the run last season - allowing 94.0 yards/game. Duke mustered just 19 yards on 16 carries and three rushing first downs. Since the start of last season, Duke becomes the 13th opponent to gain less than 100 yards rushing and the fifth to gain less than 40.
· In Mike London's last three meeting versus Duke - in 2006 and 2007 as the defensive coordinator at Virginia and this year as the head coach at Richmond - he's 3-0 and has allowed just 82 yards rushing combined (27.3 yards/game) - 84 in 2006, -21 in 2007 and 19 in 2009.
· The announced attendance at Wallace Wade Stadium was 33,311 - Duke's largest crowd since 2001. The last four games Richmond has played - versus Duke and the final three games of the 2008 NCAA Playoffs - have been in front of an average crowd of 19,602.
