By Chris Estrada
It could be argued that with four wins in a row, and 20 in their last 23 meetings, the UMass Minutemen had Northeastern’s number for some time before Saturday’s game in Amherst.
UMass shot out to a 14-0 lead by the second quarter, forced five NU turnovers and held on for a 24-7 victory in front of 14,189 spectators at Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium.
The Huskies (1-6, 0-4 Colonial Athletic Association) played relatively solid on offense with 315 yards of total offense to the Minutemen’s 382. But with three turnovers in the first half, all of them inside the UMass 30 yard line, Northeastern couldn’t get the points to catch up with their opponent’s hot start.
“All those turnovers were on their side of the field,” said junior quarterback Anthony Orio (12-of-24, 162 yards), who came out of the game in the third quarter after suffering a calf bruise. “We were able to move the ball and we were making the move to score points. [The turnovers] were all close to the end zone, but we just made some big mistakes.”
Quarterback Liam Coen (13-for-17, 191 yards, 2 TD) engineered three touchdown drives in UMass’ first three possessions, but had to come out late in the first half after hurting his left knee. With the Minutemen (6-1, 4-0) entrusted to back up Scott Woodward for the second half, they played more conservatively and relied on their defense to keep NU at bay.
Two of those three possessions hit paydirt coming off Husky turnovers. After UMass took a 7-0 lead with 9:36 left in the first, the Huskies drove to the Minutemen 46. On first and 10 from there, Orio rushed to the 23, but lost the football after getting hit by defenders. UMass recovered and charged down the field again, taking a 14-0 lead on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Coen to receiver J.J. Moore with 2:02 left in the quarter.
The Huskies’ next possession ended in another fumble, as junior center Tyler Perkins, believing that Orio was under center, snapped the ball while the quarterback was in the shotgun formation. Recovering at its own 24, UMass drove to the Husky one and finished with a one-yard scoring run by tailback Matt Lawrence to make it 21-0.
Northeastern finally got on the board after that, starting from the 36 and breaking into the red zone with a 29-yard completion from Orio to junior receiver Chris Plum. Two plays later, Orio ran in from one yard out with 7:01 left in the half to cut the lead to 21-7 after the extra point.
UMass grabbed three more points on its next drive, with a 37-yard field goal from Chris Koepplin. NU got the ball back and notched four first downs on the final drive of the first half, including a fourth-and-one situation from the Minuteman 22. But the drive ended badly as Orio was intercepted in the end zone by redshirt junior Michael Meggett to bring on halftime.
After Orio left late in the third quarter, junior backup quarterback John Sperrazza took over and finished 6-for-13 with 50 yards and two turnovers – an interception and a fumble in the fourth quarter. Senior back Maurice Murray led the Husky ground game with 89 yards, while his counterpart in Lawrence paced UMass’ rushing group with 110 yards. Junior linebacker Craig Kenney led the NU defense with 12 tackles.
The Huskies now look forward to Homecoming at Parsons Field against Maine Saturday at 2 p.m. They’ll be looking to avenge a 30-3 loss to the Black Bears last year on the road. To Orio, the team’s mission is clear.
“We just have to finish drives, put some points on the board and eliminate all the mental errors that occurred [Saturday],” he said. “I think if we just go out and play football, we should be all right.”
