Spiders Drop Opener to Morgan State

Saturday, September 2

Richmond, Va.

6 p.m.

University of Richmond

0-1 , 0-0

Morgan State

1-0 , 0-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Morgan State

Richmond

09/02/2023 | Football

Box Score

Richmond, Va. – The University of Richmond football team fell in its season opener at home Saturday, 17-10, to Morgan State.

"It's on all of us," said Head Coach Russ Huesman. "We all have to take accountability… we can play better than that. We will play better than that. You have to give Morgan State a lot of credit. They played hard… they made bigger plays than us."

Richmond scored on its opening drive after picking up 75 yards on 12 plays including seven rushes by quarterback Kyle Wickersham in his first career start.

With the ball on the Morgan State 13 yard-line, Wickersham connected with tight end Brooks Heagarty on a 12-yard pass for Heagarty's first career reception. From there, Wickersham ran up the middle for a one-yard gain to breach the Bears' goal line.

Morgan State responded on its first possession of the game, picking up a touchdown on a seven-play, 63-yard drive similarly ending in a one-yard rush into the end zone by quarterback Carson Baker.

Wickersham was intercepted on the following Spiders possession, then two Morgan State drives later Richmond picked up its first interception of the season when redshirt freshman D'Angelo Stocker picked off Baker.

The Spiders following possession ended in a blocked field goal attempt to give Morgan State the ball at their own 31 yard-line with 37 seconds left in the second before an unsuccessful 47-yard field goal attempt as time expired in the half.

The 7-7 score would hold until the 1:26 mark on the third quarter when Andrew Lopez connected on a 28-yard field goal to make it 10-7 Spiders, then Morgan State tied the game on the following drive after a successful 38-yard kick.

Wickersham was sacked for the fifth time of the night and fumbled to give Morgan State the ball back on the Richmond 10-yard line with 6:27 left in the game. A play later, and Morgan State took the lead with a 10-yard rushing touchdown.

The Bears punted at the 2:12 mark to give Richmond its final offensive opportunity of the night, but the ball was mishandled and Morgan State regained possession where they ran out the clock with a 10-yard gain and three kneela by the quarterback.

The Bears turned the ball over on downs with one second left, then Wickersham connected on his longest pass of the night— a 32 yard reception by Ja'Vion Griffin— but time would expire, closing the door on Richmond.

Wickersham went 23-for-30 and an interception to pick up 169 yards passing and also led in rushing with 21 carries for 39 yards.
On the receiving end, Nick DeGennaro picked up 46 yards on nine targets and six receptions.

Tristan Wheeler picked up 17 tackles, the second-most in a single game of his career.

"We can't go into any game or practice thinking its going to be easy," said Wheeler. "Every game has to be the biggest one we play because it's the next one. We're going to go in with great attitude to practice and continue to build and learn from the mistakes we made this game."

Richmond will look to pick up next week when it travels to Michigan State. Kickoff is set for 3:30.