ORONO, Maine — The University of New Hampshire showed why it it will going to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for the 13th consecutive year.
Despite losing starting quarterback Trevor Knight to a leg injury with five minutes left in the first quarter, backup senior quarterback Adam Riese engineered three second-half drives en route to a 24-21 Colonial Athletic Association victory at Morse Field.
Sophomore Morgan Ellman’s 21-yard field goal with eight seconds left capped a 12-play, 64-yard drive and decided it.
It was UNH’s seventh straight win over UMaine and ended the Black Bears’ playoff aspirations. The Wildcats (7-4, 6-2 CAA) retained the Brice-Cowell Musket awarded to the winner of the annual game and they will now host Patriot League champ Lehigh (9-2) on Saturday in the first round of the FCS playoffs.
UMaine finished up at 6-5, 5-3 in the CAA.
The Black Bears appeared to have all the momentum entering the second half.
Defensive end Dakota Tarbox and linebacker Taji Lowe stopped a Riese run on fourth down at the one-yard line with 14 seconds left in the first half to preserve a 14-7 lead. And UMaine was receiving the second half kickoff.
But the Wildcats took control of the game in the second half as they held UMaine to 20 rushing yards on 12 attempts after the Black Bears had run for 104 first-half yards. And senior quarterback Dan Collins completed just 6-of-17 passes for 105 yards although he was victimized by some drops.
Meanwhile, UNH senior running back Dalton Crossan churned out 102 second-half yards on 16 carries, including a 35-yard TD runs, to give him an impressive 163 yards on 25 carries for the afternoon and Riese completed 13-of-21 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown after going 7-for-16 for 96 yards in the first 30 minutes.
UNH outgained UMaine 230-123 in the second half and picked up 13 first downs to UMaine’s six.
“We didn’t play well enough. We didn’t play disciplined enough. (UNH) did and that’s why they won. They were better,” said UMaine first-year head coach Joe Harasymiak.
“We came out flat in the first half but tip your hat to Maine,” said Crossan. “In the second half, the offensive line blocked unbelievably, the receivers blocked unbelievably and everyone came out to play. It was a testament to the character of our team.
“I ran downhill and we completed more passes, so that opened up holes for me in the running game,” added Crossan, who broke several tackles on a 35-yard touchdown run that tied the game 14-14 in the third quarter.
Riese gave UNH its first lead of the game with a 10-yard TD pass to Neil O’Connor with 12:22 left in the fourth quarter.
The Black Bears responded with a five-play, 47-yard drive capped by a 29-yard pass from Dan Collins pass to Micah Wright at the corner flag on a 4th-and-10 play with 5:02 remaining.
“I knew Dan was going to throw it to me. I don’t know how I made the catch but I wanted to make it to tie the game,” said Wright, who snared it despite tight coverage from Isiah Perkins.
But Riese marched the Wildcats from the UNH 31 to the UMaine 5-yard line, with a 28-yard pass from Riese to a wide-open Kieran Presley jump-starting the drive by moving it to the UM-41.
“We completely blew a coverage,” said an irritated Harasymiak, who also felt his team “missed a lot of tackles” over the course of the game.
“We weren’t doing our jobs in the second half,” said UMaine senior defensive lineman Pat Ricard.
Riese completed three-of-four passes for 44 yards on the decisive drive and Crossan carried the ball six times for 21 yards.
“I just trusted the guys around me,” said Riese. “I got the ball into our playmakers’ hands and let them do their thing.”
The UMaine defense had spent too much time on the field in the second half because UMaine’s offense was efficiently shut down by the Wildcat defense, which controlled the line of scrimmage and limited UMaine’s offense to just 29 plays.
UNH ran 41 plays in the second half.
“They made some adjustments. They packed the box, played man-to-man and tempted us to throw the ball more, which we started doing,” said Collins. “They’d give us bad running looks when we had a run called. At the same time, you’ve got to be able to figure out who you’ve got to block and you’ve got to make plays.”
“We talk every week about stopping the run. We had to stop (Josh) Mack and the other backs. When you force them to throw, it gives your secondary a chance to make plays,” said UNH senior cornerback Casey DeAndrade.
Freshman Mack finished with 77 yards on 21 carries.
UMaine opened the scoring with a trick play when wide receiver Earnest Edwards tossed a 13-yard pass to an open Jared Osumah with 2:07 left in the first period.
UMaine then forced UNH to punt but Wildcats freshman safety and leading tackler Pop Lacey intercepted an ill-advised pass by Collins and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown.
UMaine answered midway through the second quarter when the alert Collins recognized he had a free play after UNH jumped offsides and threw a 45-yard TD pass to Wright.
Riese completed 20 of 37 passes for 218 yards, a touchdown and an interception and Jordan Powell (6 catches, 43 yards) was his top receiver. Crossan had four more for 14 yards.
DeAndrade, linebacker Jared Kuehl and safety Michael Balsamo had six tackles each to lead the defense.
Collins was 11-for-28 for 202 yards with two TDs and two interceptions. Wright had five catches, including two TD grabs, for 121 yards and Edwards had three for 44.
Linebacker Christophe Mulumba Tshimanga, one of nine seniors honored in pregame ceremonies, had a game-high 11 tackles with cornerback Najee Goode, linebacker Sterling Sheffield and safety DeAndre Scott making seven each.
“It was a great football game between two real good football teams who battled their tails off from start to finish,” said UNH coach Sean McDonnell.