University of Richmond Athletics
Football Uses Big Plays To Overtake Maine, 26-21
Sept. 17, 2005
ORONO, Maine - The University of Richmond football team scored 23 first-half points and that would prove to be enough as the Spiders' defense posted a shutout in the second half in a 26-21 victory over Maine on Saturday night.
The Spiders trailed 21-7 with 5:12 remaining in the second quarter, but in those last five minutes, Richmond (1-2, 1-1 Atlantic 10) scored two touchdowns and then got a field goal from Joseph Fore as time expired at the half to take a 23-21 lead going into the locker room. The only other points in the game came on a 19-yard field goal by Fore in the third to put the Spiders up 26-21.
"It feels really good as a coach to be able to keep the ball on the ground late in the fourth quarter, put the game in the hands of your defense, and be comfortable that you will come out with a victory," Richmond head coach Dave Clawson said. "It says a lot of our defense that, despite the offensive struggles, they were able to maintain a high level of play."
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Spiders overall, and a four-game losing streak in the series with Maine. Richmond had not won in Orono since 1999.
Richmond's offense finally made some of the big plays that Clawson has been looking for and they did it at the perfect time. With the Spiders trailing 21-7, Josh Vaughan took a short screen pass from quarterback Stacy Tutt, broke two would-be tacklers and bolted 79 yards for a touchdown. The play was the seventh-longest completion in school history.
"I challenged the team last night and today that somebody needed to step up and make a big play, that's what good offenses do," Clawson said.
Vaughan's touchdown and extra point cut the gap to 21-14 with 4:09 left in the first half, but Richmond had another big play, this time coming from the defense.
Richmond's Damien McCallum forced a fumble and Joe Mallory picked it up and returned it 20 yards to the Maine 6-yard line. Tutt needed just one play to carry the ball into the end zone and close the gap to 21-20, but the extra point missed.
On the ensuing kickoff Maine fumbled again and Richmond's Brian Burnette recovered at the Black Bear 35-yard line. After a 13-yard run by David Freeman, a seven-yard run by Tutt and another one-yard run by Tutt, the Spiders had the ball at the Maine four-yard line.
On fourth down and goal from the four, Clawson Fore split the uprights to give Richmond a 23-21 at the break.
Fore's second field goal of the night, from 19 yards out, put the pressure on the Black Bears to score a touchdown, and the Richmond defense bent, but it did not break in the second half.
Richmond got on the board first when Lance Gray intercepted a pass and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown. That was one of two interceptions on the evening for Gray, who also came up with a key pick in the second half.
Trailing 7-0 at the start of the second quarter, Maine needed just four seconds to score their first touchdown and would score three unanswered in the second quarter to take a 21-7 lead with 5:12 remaining.
That's when Richmond's offense came alive and the defense kept doing what it's been doing throughout the first three games.
"We talked about big plays, plays that would change a game and change a season," Clawson said. "We made those plays tonight."