University of Richmond Athletics
No. 5/7 Richmond Comes Up Short At New Hampshire, 30-25
DURHAM, N.H. – The University of Richmond football team (7-2, 5-1 CAA) battled from the behind most of the game on Saturday at New Hampshire (5-4, 3-3 CAA) but were unable to complete the comeback, as the Wildcats were able to hold off the Spiders for the upset victory.
Richmond RB Jacobi Green continued his torrent hot streak, running for 154 yards on 22 attempts while adding four catches for 75 yards, putting him over 200 total yards for the second time in three weeks. WR Brian Brown hauled in eight catches for 108 yards, surpassing the century mark for the third-straight game. RB Gordon Collins took six kick returns for 152 total yards and used a career-long 45-yard rush to score his second touchdown of the season.
On defense Omar Howard and Selton Hodge set the tone with nine tackles each while Ayo Ogunniyi and David Jones each added eight. Winston Craig added three tackles and a pair of pass break-ups with Trevor Jones, Andrew Clyde and Dale Matthews Jr. each contributing tackles for loss.
Richmond started with the ball once again on Saturday afternoon and embarked on one of its longest drives of the season. Lauletta hit Brown for a 15-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage and the QB followed that up with a seven-yard rush. Two plays later it was Lauletta hitting Diggs for a first down the David Broadus came on under center and picked up seven on a QB keeper. Green rushed twice for a total of nine yards then Brown caught another ball for six more. Broadus picked up another first down with his legs and after a penalty pushed the Spiders back to the 14-yard line it was Broadus rolling left on an option and turning the ball up field for his first rushing score of the season.
New Hampshire responded quickly with a touchdown of its own then picked off Lauletta on the next Richmond drive to get the ball back. It took the Wildcats just two plays to go 43 yards and take a 14-7 lead with 2:16 to go in the first quarter.
Green started to shake loose during the next Richmond possession, rumbling for gains of 11 and 13 on back-to-back plays. That would be all for the offense on that drive however as a sack of Lauletta on third down forced the Spiders to punt for the first time.
The UNH offense continued to roll on the next drive, collected four more first downs to move quickly into the red zone. Two incomplete passes, the first two of the game for UNH, and a five-yard rush brought up fourth down for the Wildcats. The Richmond defense readied for the offense to come back on the field but a UNH timeout led to a field goal try. The attempt was wide right and Richmond took over still trailing 14-7.
Lauletta threw his second interception of the game on a deep ball to Brian Brown on the next drive but the defense stopped UNH in the red zone for a second-straight trip bringing up a 4th and six on the 11-yard line. UNH dropped back to pass but the attempt was incomplete and Richmond took over on downs.
Jacobi Green continued to bounce loose and picked up gains of 18 and 11 but the drive was stalled once again by incompletions. The Spiders appeared to complete a pass on a deflected ball that was kicked in the air and caught by Porter Abell on third down but the would-be first down was reversed and Richmond was forced to punt.
The Spiders forced a three-and-out but the ensuing punt struck a Richmond player running down the field in coverage and UNH recovered to regain possession of the football with 4:21 to play in the first half. The Wildcats capitalized with a touchdown as the clocked dipped below one minute to play in the half to make it 21-7.
A third Lauletta interception would end the half on offense for the Spiders. New Hampshire took a knee to run out the remaining ticks to take the 14-point lead to the locker room. The 14-point deficit is the largest so far this season for the Spiders at the halftime break and seven points on offense are the fewest in any half played by Richmond this season. Lauletta was just 9-18 with three picks while Brian Brown caught four of those balls for 45 yards. Green collected 76 yards on the ground in the first half on 11 tries.
The second half began with New Hampshire in possession of the football. The Richmond defense continued to hold off the Wildcats, forcing a punt that turned the ball over to Richmond for a very important drive.
Lauletta hit Brown for 13 yards then Green rumbled for 11 on consecutive plays to move the ball across midfield. Green picked up another first down with an eight-yard rush but the drive stalled there. On 4th and six from the UNH 34, Richmond opted to go for it rather than try to long field goal. Lauletta dropped back and hit Brown in the end zone who made an incredible one-handed, over-the-shoulder catch for the score. He would also catch to the two-point conversation to make it 21-15.
The UNH offense continued to respond, this time marching down the field in an eight-play 53-yard drive after a failed onside kick attempt by the Spiders. A TD pass from Goldrich to Powell capped off the drive but the two-point conversion attempt failed to leave the score at 27-15.
The two teams traded stops and with the Spiders in possession near midfield after a Green catch and run, Lauletta turned and handed the ball off to Gordon Collins for the first time in the game. Collins exploded through the line, bounced around a tackler and broke free for a 45-yard touchdown run, the longest single rush of his career. Peter Yoder added the extra point to make it 27-22.
The Spiders came up with another stop on defense and the offense went right back to work to start the fourth quarter. Green continued to rack up punishing runs and Brown went over 100-yards through the air for a third straight game to work the ball deep in the red zone. The drive would stall and Yoder converted a 28-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 27-25 with 10:28 to play in the game.
New Hampshire embarked on an efficiently run drive that worked all the way down to the Richmond one before getting backed up by a penalty. Two incomplete passes on first and second down brought up a big third down for the Richmond defense with the ball on the six. A false start penalty backed the ball up to the 11 and the pass would be broken up by Richmond DB Micah Keels and UNH kicked a field goal to make it 30-25.
On the first Richmond play, Lauletta hit Green on a screen and the RB took the ball 46 yards down the sideline and deep into UNH territory. The Spiders stalled at that point and on third and seven following a UNH timeout, Lauletta rolled left and attempted to hit Brown. The WR bobbled the ball and it fell into the hands of a Wildcat defender for an interception.
UNH did its part to run the clock down and turned it back over to the Richmond offense from its own 23 with just 21 seconds to play in the game. Richmond would not gain any yards and the game came to an end with New Hampshire coming out on top 30-25.
New Hampshire was one of four teams picked ahead of the Spiders in the CAA preseason poll and Richmond is now 1-1 against those teams. The other two teams await the Spiders down the stretch of the regular season. Richmond will visit Villanova on Saturday (Nov. 14) before welcoming William & Mary on Nov. 21 for the 125th meeting for the Capital Cup at Robins Stadium to conclude the regular season.