The University of Maine’s football team’s six-game winning streak came to a crashing halt on Senior Day Saturday afternoon as did its Coastal Athletic Association title hopes.
The University of Rhode Island’s league-leading Rams, the only CAA team that is unbeaten in conference play, thumped the Black Bears 45-13 at Morse Field in Alfond Stadium to earn a share of the conference’s regular season title.
The Rams, 9-2 overall and 7-0 in the conference, will just have to beat Hampton, which is winless in the conference, to win the title outright next Saturday.
UMaine fell to 6-5 and 5-2 and will finish at New Hampshire next Saturday.
URI has won 14 of its last 15 conference games.
URI, which earned its first postseason appearance since 1985 last season, showed why it was picked to win the CAA title in the preseason coaches poll as it completely dominated all facets of the game en route to its fourth straight win over UMaine.
Redshirt senior running back Antwain Littleton, Jr. a transfer from Temple who also played three years at Maryland, carried the ball 21 times for 202 yards and two touchdowns; redshirt junior quarterback Devin Farrell completed 16 of 22 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns and graduate student running back Brendon Barrow had seven carries for 65 yards and two TDs.
Marquis Buchanan had six catches for 138 yards and a TD.
UMaine quarterback Carter Peevy completed 21 of 34 yards for 278 yards and a TD. He also ran for one. Scott Woods had five catches for 114 yards and a TD.
UMaine’s leading rusher with Sincere Baines with 36 yards on 11 carries and UMaine linebacker Christian Thomas had a game-high 19 tackles.
URI jumped out to a 14-0 lead and took a 28-7 advantage into the intermission as the Rams rushed for 127 first-half yards against a Black Bear defense that was ranked No. 1 in the CAA against the run, giving up an average of just 119.9 per game.
The Rams also capitalized on two costly UMaine mistakes, turning them into 14 points, while limiting the league’s third-best rushing team (173.1 yards per game) to 29 first-half yards on 16 attempts.
UMaine marched from its own 25 yard line to the URI-26 on the game’s first drive but Sam Tremblay’s 43-yard field goal attempt was blocked for his first miss in 10 tries this season.
The Rams took over at their own 26-yard line and strung together a 13-play, 74-yard drive culminating in Littleton’s two-yard touchdown run with 3:29 left in the first period.
That supplied them with a lead they would never relinquish.
UMaine’s first major mistake occurred on the next drive when a bad snap sailed over the head of Black Bear punter Anthony Pecorella’s head and URI’s Leisaan Hibbert tackled Peccorella at the UM five yard line.
Three plays later, Farrell tossed a two-yard TD pass to an open Dontay Bishop in the corner of the end zone with 41 seconds left in the period.
The Black Bears clawed their way back into the game in the second quarter when Peevy followed a 34-yard pass to Scott Woods with a 40-yard TD pass to Woods with 12:50 left in the half.
But it took the Rams just 50 seconds to respond as Littleton rattled off a 65-yard run to set up Barrow’s 12-yard TD scamper.
The Black Bears’ second big miscue occurred later in the second period.
Trailing 21-7, a blocked punt by the Black Bears, which would have set them up inside the URI-20 yard line ,was erased by an offsides penalty. That extended the Rams’ drive.
And URI cashed in when second team All-American wide receiver Buchanan took a little flair pass from Farrell, cut inside and sprinted 63 yards untouched into the end zone.
The Black Bears had a golden opportunity to pull within 14 points late in the half when they moved the ball down to the URI-three yard line.
But Baines was stopped for a one-yard gain on third-and-two and Peevy failed to pick up the one yard needed for a first down on fourth down as he tried a quarterback run out of the shotgun formation.
URI extended the lead midway through the third period on Barrow’s three-yard run and, after Peevy answered with a four-yard TD jaunt, it took URI just 20 seconds to respond as Littleton reeled off a 52-yard TD run.
Garth White made it 45-13 with a 27-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.
