ORONO — The University of Maine’s football team earned its first win of the season on Saturday, although it very nearly allowed a pair of 21-point leads to evaporate in its 37-30 win over North Carolina A&T.
The Black Bears won the first ever meeting between the Coastal Athletic Association teams at Morse Field in Alfond Stadium. Both teams are now 1-4 overall and 1-1 in the CAA.
The Black Bears led 37-16 entering the fourth quarter and, even after Aggies quarterback Kevin White threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Antoine Bell with 12:09 remaining, UMaine was still holding a 14-point lead with under two minutes remaining.
But Elijah Kennedy returned a punt 85 yards for an Aggies TD to cut the lead to 37-30 with 1:43 remaining.
UMaine running back Nick Laughlin recovered the North Carolina A&T onside kick but the Aggies had all of their timeouts and forced a three-and-out by UMaine.
Following an Anthony Pecorella punt into the end zone and with just one time out remaining, White matched the Aggies to the UMaine-22. But a pass into the end zone was broken up by Malcolm Folk and, on the last play of the game, White overthrew a receiver in the end zone.
The Black Bears never trailed, marching 88 yards on eight plays with the opening kickoff and scoring on Sincere Baines’ 51-yard scamper.
UMaine extended its lead to 14-0 early in the second period when quarterback Carter Peevy capped a 12-play, 82-yard drive with a two-yard TD run.
The Aggies answered just 1:52 later on Wesley Graves’ three-yard run which finished off a four-play, 65-yard drive.
Trevin Ewing’s 81-yard kickoff return set the Black Bears up at the Aggies 13-yard line but the Black Bears had to settle for Sean Tremblay’s 35-yard field goal.
A blocked punt by Sherrod Hudson set up the Black Bears deep in Aggies territory and Rashawn Marshall cashed it in with a 15-yard run to make it 23-7.
The Black Bears tried a trick play on the extra point and it failed miserably as Noah Carpenter had trouble handling a bad snap and wound up throwing an interception to Tre Mittman, who raced the length of the field for two points.
So instead of leading 24-7 or 25-7, the lead was 23-9 for UMaine.
The Black Bears answered with an 81-yard touchdown pass from Peevy to Cape Elizabeth’s Laughlin to extend the lead to 30-9 with just 1:49 left in the half.
But the Aggies responded with a five-play, 65-yard drive which ended with a 34-yard TD pass from White to Jayvonne Dillard with 42 seconds left in the half.
The Black Bears extended the lead to 37-16 when Peevy tossed a six-yard TD pass to Elijah Smalls with 7:36 remaining in the third period.
Peevy, who had completed only 50.9 percent of his passes and averaged just 103 passing yards per game through the Black Bears’ first four contests, completed his first 12 passes and finished with 20 completions in 27 attempts for 298 yards and two touchdowns.
He wasn’t intercepted in the game.
Peevy, a preseason All-CAA honorable mention after completing 66.6 percent of his passes for 201.8 yards per game a year ago, threw for 205 yards in the first half alone.
Peevy said he didn’t feel any differently than he did in his first four starts.
“This game is not easy. That’s why everybody doesn’t do it,” said Peevy. “It takes the same effort and the same attention to detail every single week.”
He said the offense had a good week of practice.
“We got everybody on the same page and we really executed well today. I’m really proud of our guys. They did a great job,” Peevy said.
He said he “really appreciated the team still believing in me” and said offensive coordinator Mikahael Waters had a great game plan.
He credited the offensive line for their pass protection, saying he was thankful for having the opportunity to throw the ball down the field and said his receivers did an excellent job making plays.
Baines finished with 98 rushing yards on 15 carries, Marshall had 44 on six and Laughlin netted 36 yards on nine carries. UMaine rushed for 180 yards and averaged 4.9 yards per carry.
Scott Woods had a game-high eight catches for 97 yards. Mo Irefin had five for 60 yards and Laughlin had three for 100 yards.
“It was good to come out with a win. I was really proud of the growth our guys have shown,” UMaine head coach Jordan Stevens said. “It wasn’t as pretty as we would have liked at the end but that comes with playing in this league. You have to be able to close out games and we found a way to do that.”
The Aggies, who have six injured quarterbacks, received an impressive performance from White, who completed 19 of 32 passes for 279 yards and two touchdowns.
Dillard had six catches for 70 yards and Graves was their leading rusher with 47 yards on 13 carries.
Linebacker Christian Thomas had a game-high 11 tackles for UMaine with linebacker Latrell Couchman and lineman Elias Sherman having seven each for UMaine.
End Tim Alderman and defensive back Aaron Harris had nine tackles each for the Aggies and safety Mittman had eight.
UMaine outgained its guests 478-348.
UMaine will travel to Bryant University in Rhode Island for a 2 p.m. game on Saturday while North Carolina A&T will take on William and Mary at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
