Minutemen fall to Spiders

UMass dominated from the outset

AMHERST - For three years, there had been no place like home for the University of Massachusetts football team. But yesterday, before a homecoming crowd of 15,953, including more than three dozen members of the 1998 national championship team, UMass couldn't click its heels together and find any more magic.

Beaten in all phases by Richmond, UMass wound up on the short end of a 30-15 score in a critical Colonial Athletic Association showdown. Thus ended a 16-game home winning streak.

More importantly, the loss dropped UMass to 4-3 and 2-2 in the CAA. Quite possibly, the Minutemen are now in a position where they must win their final five games to make the playoffs.

"Ultimately, we just didn't get enough done," said UMass coach Don Brown.

Richmond (5-3, 3-2) came into the game trying to rebound from a galling home loss to top-ranked James Madison, the Spiders having surrendered 15 points in the last 59 seconds, including a punt return for a touchdown with one second left to lose, 38-31.

"Last week we just felt that we didn't finish," said senior running back Josh Vaughan. "All week our motto was, 'Finish, finish, finish.' "

They won this one from start to finish, in large part because of Vaughan's career-best 156 yards on 21 carries, two of them for touchdowns.

The ninth-ranked Spiders, who had been No. 1 a month ago, also asserted themselves on defense, holding UMass to a season-low 236 yards. They shut down Tony Nelson, who came in as the CAA's top rusher (123.5 yards per game), holding him to 61 yards on 23 carries. They also made quarterback Liam Coen (18 of 30, 165 yards, 1 touchdown) pay the price time and time again. Coen was sacked twice, often forced to hurry throws off his back foot and absorb crushing contact when he stayed in the pocket.

Late in the third quarter, Coen crumpled to the FieldTurf after a big hit by Lawrence Sidbury Jr. He struggled off with an injury to his left (non-throwing) elbow and was replaced by Scott Woodward. Coen later returned briefly, but Brown said he would not know his senior leader's status until today.

Still, UMass was very much in the game, down, 16-12, until a Brett Arnold punt was blocked by Eric McBride with 23 seconds left in the third quarter, giving the Spiders possession at the UMass 13. Two plays later, Vaughan ran in for a 13-yard score.

"You can't have blocked punts," said Brown. "Blocked punts will kill you."

Richmond scored on its opening drive, a 23-yard field goal by Andrew Howard. Late in the quarter, the Spiders extended the lead to 9-0 on a 13-yard pass from Eric Ward to Joe Monteverde, though Howard missed the extra point (after connecting on the first 121 of his career).

UMass responded with the first of three field goals by Armando Cuko in the second quarter to close to 9-3.

The teams then traded touchdowns, Ward scoring from 2 yards to make it 16-3, and Coen hitting Victor Cruz from 22 yards to make it 16-9 at the half (a high snap foiled the PAT).

Cuko's career-long 44-yarder in the third quarter brought UMass to 16-12, but then the blocked punt created some separation that the Minutemen couldn't overcome.

After Vaughan's 13-yard TD, Cuko hit a 38-yarder early in the fourth to make it 23-15. He later missed a 43-yarder, and Richmond marched to the clinching score, a 5-yard run by Vaughan.