In order to keep their Football Championship Subdivision playoff hopes alive as well as their Coastal Athletic Association Championship aspirations, the University of Maine’s Black Bears had to beat a 2-7 Hampton University team on Saturday in Virginia.
They did.
Graduate student quarterback Carter Peevy threw four touchdown passes to four different receivers and the Black Bears posted a 35-7 victory for their sixth straight win.
UMaine is now 6-4 overall and 5-1 in the CAA while Hampton fell to 2-8 and 0-6.
Peevy, who has now thrown eight touchdown passes in his last three games, equalled his career-high at UMaine with his four TD passes. He threw four in a 38-26 win over Bryant last season.
UMaine took the lead for good in the first period when Peevy tossed a 21-yard TD pass to Ty’ee Stephens to cap a three-play, 32-yard drive following a 17-yard Hampton punt.
Later in the period, a 48-yard punt return by Scott Woods set UMaine up at the Hampton 13-yard line and Rashawn Marshall scored on the third play of the drive on a one-yard run.
Hampton cut the lead in half in the second period when Earl Woods III tossed a 12-yard TD pass to Jah’Kei Chavis.
But the Black Bears closed out the half with an important 14-play, 80-yard drive that resulted in a six-yard TD pass from Peevy to Marshall with 36 seconds remaining.
Peevy kept the drive alive with a run of 15 yards on third-and-16 and a three-yard run on the next play on fourth-and-one.
Peevy connected with Fryeburg’s Eli Mahan on a five-yard TD in the third period and on a 10-yarder to Woods in the fourth quarter.
Peevy completed 17 of 24 passes for 121 yards and the four touchdowns and he also ran the ball seven times for 45 yards. Marshall had 10 carries for 49 yards, Sincere Baines had 13 for 47 and Daniel Batch had seven for 45 yards. Mo Irefin’s four catches and 48 yards and Woods’ three for 22 led the UMaine receiving corps.
The UMaine defense had five sacks for the third straight game. Christian Thomas had eight tackles and Nicolas Kalume had five. Elias Sherman had two sacks.
Woods completed nine of 10 passes for 86 yards and Tae’Shaun Johnson had a game-high five catches for 58 yards. Chavis had three for 23 yards.
Donovan Shepard ran three times for 61 yards and Harold O’Neill III had a game-high 11 tackles. Korede Sogbeson had seven tackles.
UMaine is one of three teams with one conference loss and the Black Bears will take on the only unbeaten team when they host Rhode Island (6-0, 8-2) next Saturday at 1 p.m.
Hampton will entertain William and Mary next Saturday.
