At the Winkin Complex in Bangor on Saturday, the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth outlasted Husson University 21-14 in an NCAA Division III football season opener.
Husson took its first lead at 7-0 early in the second quarter when Tucker Buzzell returned a pass interception 70 yards for a touchdown, but UML drove 67 yards on the ensuing possession to tie the game at 7-7 on a 3-yard pass from Stephen Gacioch to Mike Vincent.
Backup quarterback Dante Aviles-Santos threw a 6-yard scoring pass to Diondre Ellis to give UMD its initial lead with 9:35 left in the third quarter, but Husson blocked the extra-point try to leave the Corsairs with a 13-7 advantage.
Husson regained the lead at 14:13 on Anthony Paradis’ PAT kick after a 10-yard TD pass from Nic Visser to Anthony Walker with 11:19 left in the game.
UMD’s game-winning score came on a 39-yard pass from Aviles-Santos to Antonio Brown with 1:48 remaining, then the Corsairs foiled a final Husson drive with a pass interception by Trell Best at the 3-yard line with 9 seconds left.
Visser completed 24 of 41 passes for 281 yards with one touchdown and one interception for Husson. Tyler Halls caught 6 passes for 87 yards and tight end Aidan Hogan had a career-high 8 catches for 67 yards.
Kaleb Caron led the Eagles with 10 tackles while David Redmond had eight tackles and Frank Curran had seven stops and two quarterback sacks.
Husson returns to action at 1 p.m. Saturday at Plymouth (New Hampshire) State University.