ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s Black Bears rallied from a three-point halftime deficit with a dominant second half performance en route to a 24-13 non-conference victory over Long Island University.
They secured the win Saturday in front of a Homecoming crowd of 8,588 at Morse Field in Alfond Stadium.
UMaine senior quarterback Derek Robertson threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Jamie Lamson to give UMaine a 14-10 lead with eight minutes left in the third quarter.
Then, after Michael Coney kicked a 40-yard field goal for LIU, Robertson tossed a 51-yard TD pass to Trevin Ewing on the opening play of the fourth quarter.
Cody Williams added a 30-yard field goal with 7:32 to go and Kahzir “Buggs” Brown all but salted away the win with an interception 1:09 later.
Coastal Athletic Association team UMaine improved to 2-5 overall while Northeast Conference team LIU fell to 1-5.
UMaine will travel to take on first-year CAA member Campbell University next Saturday at 4 p.m. while LIU will host Merrimack College at noon.
Robertson completed 20 of 32 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns. He has now thrown 10 TD passes in his last three games.
Graduate student wide receiver Joe Gillette had eight catches for 102 yards. Gillette, a transfer from Lafayette University, has caught eight passes in each of his last two games, good for 271 yards.
Montigo Moss and Lamson each caught three passes and had a TD reception.
Tavion Banks carried the ball 21 times for 73 yards to pace the UMaine ground game.
LIU redshirt freshman quarterback Ethan Greenwood completed 13 of 20 passes for 193 yards and one TD. He was also the Sharks’ leading rusher with 69 yards on 21 carries.
Davon Wells, Kyren Pettaway and Owen Glascoe had three catches each for LIU.
UMaine took the opening second-half kickoff and marched 85 yards on 14 plays with Robertson hooking up with Lamson on a quick slant to take a lead it would never relinquish.
Robertson was three-for-three on third down during that drive, completing 11 and 12-yard passes to Gillette to pick up first downs along with a 3-yarder to Lamson on third-and-two.
LIU responded with an eight-play, 48-yard drive resulting in Coney’s 40-yard field goal.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, facing a third-and-nine at its own 49, speedster Ewing was able to get behind his defender and Robertson floated a perfect pass to him, enabling him to take it in stride and scoot into the end zone.
“That’s a play we worked on all week in practice,” Robertson said. “It’s a credit to the offensive staff and [offensive coordinator Steve Cooper] seeing that on film. Trev ran a great route and made a great play. It was a big play in the game.”
After forcing a three-and-out by LIU, UMaine regained possession and used an 18-yard pass from Robertson to Gillette on a fourth-and-six to extend the drive and set up Williams’ 30-yard field goal.
The Black Bears turned in a forgettable first half performance and were fortunate to go into the locker room trailing by just three points.
LIU nearly doubled UMaine in total yards (265-135) and if it wasn’t for a fumble at the goal line and a blocked field goal at the end of the half, LIU would have taken a two-score lead into the intermission.
But UMaine’s defense held LIU to just 92 yards in the second half and the offense was able to produce 204 yards and 17 points.
“We settled down as a defense in the second half,” said junior cornerback Brown. “We went out there very locked in and when you get too locked in, you can mess up. So we had to dial it back, trust our technique, trust our coaching staff and go back to the fundamentals. We just reacted instead of thinking.”
Robertson said LIU gave the Black Bears some “different looks we weren’t really expecting” in the first half, but they came out in the second half and “played together as one team and the results showed.”
Fleet-footed Greenwood carried the ball 13 times for 92 yards for LIU in the first half but his eight second-half carries went for minus-23 yards.
LIU gained 140 yards on the ground on 21 carries compared with UMaine’s 34 yards on 13 carries over the first 30 minutes.
Tavion Banks rattled off a 22-yard run on UMaine’s first rushing play of the game and the Black Bears managed a paltry 12 yards on the other 12 carries in the half.
It took the Sharks just three plays to take a 7-0 lead.
Facing a third-and-six at their own 29-yard line, Greenwood found a wide open Michael Love over the middle and Love did the rest, weaving his way through the Black Bear secondary and sprinting down the sideline for a 71-yard TD.
The Sharks were on the verge of expanding the lead on its next series but LIU’s Chris Howell fumbled onto the end zone pylon on an 18-yard reception, which gave UMaine possession at the 20-yard line as a result of a touchback. Graduate student safety Damon Matthews forced the fumble.
“That was huge,” said UMaine head coach Jordan Stevens, whose team had two interceptions and forced that fumble onto the pylon. That is the sixth time in seven games UMaine has forced at least two turnovers.
“We’ve done well all year with taking advantage of turnovers and scoring. Our offense has done a great job with that. All of our takeaways today ended up being big plays that helped us in the outcome,” Stevens added.
UMaine capitalized, marching 80 yards on 14 plays with Robertson capping the drive with a 13-yard pass to Moss.
The Sharks responded by moving the ball 70 yards on seven plays.
But UMaine stopped the Sharks short on a third-and-three play so LIU settled for a 30-yard field goal from Coney.
The Black Bears strung together a 10-play drive that was extended by an LIU personal foul penalty but Williams missed a 32-yard field goal that would have tied it.
LIU marched down to field goal range at the end of the half but Matthews blocked Coney’s 34-yard field goal attempt.
Sophomore linebacker Tyshawn Stewart had eight tackles to pace the UMaine defense and junior safety Abdul Stewart and Matthews each had six tackles. Abdul Stewart also had an interception, as did Brown.
Freshman defensive back Kam Canterbury’s eight tackles and redshirt sophomore defensive end Eric O’Neill’s seven led LIU. O’Neill had a game-high three tackles for lost yards.