By Chris Estrada
It was a beating, a whipping, an opening of a can of you-know-what.
There are many ways to label Northeastern’s 49-14 loss to the Richmond Spiders Saturday at Parsons Field. But when you realize Richmond ran over the Huskies with 642 yards of total offense (443 of that on the ground) and how their defense simply would not let the NU offense get on track, the labels disappear and one thought remains.
It simply wasn’t the Huskies’ day. And days like Saturday come around now and then.
With senior running back Maurice Murray (22 carries, 83 yards) to his right and senior nose guard Corey Thomas to his left, both looking drained of energy after three hours of punishment in 90-plus degree heat, Husky head coach Rocky Hager summed it all up afterward.
“Rough day at the office,” he said with a sigh.
Indeed. Richmond tailback Joe Hightower led the Spiders’ onslaught with four touchdowns and 246 rushing yards on 19 carries. By the first half, he had rattled off three touchdowns and 181 yards on just nine rushes. Meanwhile, quarterback Eric Ward (11-for-16, 180 yards, 1 touchdown) kept the offense moving to allow both Hightower and backup Josh Vaughan (15 carries, 110 yards, 1 touchdown) to wreak havoc.
The game started fine for the Huskies as junior quarterback Anthony Orio fired a 32-yard strike to junior running back Alex Broomfield to begin the day’s opening drive. But three plays later, the Huskies were forced to punt as a pass play went incomplete on third-and-5. It went south quickly after that.
“When we failed to move the ball on that first possession after the long pass play, it was like Richmond became energized and we became somewhat distracted. I guess that could be the word,” Hager said.
After sophomore punter Ron Conway stuck the Spiders on their own 3-yard line to begin their drive, the visitors marched down the field with pass plays of 27, 30 and 28 yards from Ward knocking the Huskies back. Hightower capped it with a three-yard scamper to give UR a 7-0 lead, then extended it to 14-0 with a 90-yard rumble at the 1:00 mark in the first quarter.
UR jumped to a 21-0 advantage with 9:24 in the second quarter as Hightower busted through the Husky defense and raced 67 yards to his third score of the afternoon. This time, NU responded as the offense took advantage of senior Barry Jeanson’s kickoff return to their own 43 and went 57 yards in 10 plays.
Murray capped the drive with a two-yard touchdown run, making it 21-7, the best moment in his day of rough sledding against the Richmond defense. But just like that, the Spiders pushed the lead to 28-7 on the next drive as Ward rolled out to his right and found receiver Scot Riddell in the corner of the end zone with 1:09 left in the half.
The events took their course from there and Northeastern found itself with a variety of ailments to alleviate before Saturday’s game with the Southland Conference’s Northwestern State Demons (12:30 p.m., Parsons Field). But Hager made it known that even though this was an ugly affair, he is still proud of his players.
“It doesn’t matter what that score says or not,” he said. “We have kids that are good people. They work dang hard and because of that, we’ll come back to work and get things sorted out and straightened out. There will be success in front of us, because they are good people. And I’m reasonably certain that they know that I believe in them.”
