By Chris Estrada

Big plays have played a key role in the Huskies’ 2007 campaign. Unfortunately, those big plays have mostly come from their opponents.

Such was the case again on a cloudy, breezy Homecoming at Parsons Field Saturday. For the third time in four weeks, the Huskies (1-7, 0-5) were in striking distance, but couldn’t pull off a win at the finish.

After Northeastern took a 14-10 lead in the third quarter on the record-tying 36th touchdown of senior tailback Maurice Murray’s career, Maine used a stellar kickoff return by Lamar Whetstone to set up a 23-yard touchdown run by Jhamal Fluellen and take the lead for good, 17-14. The Black Bears (2-6, 1-4) would survive a fourth-quarter turnover and hang on for a 20-14 victory.

Saturday’s defeat extends NU’s losing streak to five games, and has darkened all happy talk about Murray’s assault on the school record book.

“This is our fifth loss in a row,” Murray said. “Every week, we’re talking about ‘records this, records that.’ But every week just hurts. Even though those records are broken, I just don’t feel it.”

Maine took the lead on a 31-yard field goal by Donnelly with 4:56 in the first, then jumped to a 10-0 edge as Farkes connected with receiver Landis Williams for a 36-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter.

Northeastern retaliated on the next possession with a 69-yard march that ended with junior quarterback Anthony Orio hitting wide open sophomore receiver Tony Lott for a 33-yard touchdown strike, cutting the deficit to 10-7 with 8:24 left in the first half.

Head coach Rocky Hager called Saturday’s game “one of the more disappointing afternoons we’ve had this season.”

“We felt good about how things were working for us at that point and then the kickoff return,” he said. “We just lost discipline in the [running] lanes, we got ourselves out of position and [Maine] did a decent job of blocking. The returner did a nice job of picking the crease and taking it up the field.”

The return landed the Black Bears at the Northeastern 29, and on third-and-four at the 23, Fluellen cut through the right side of the field and dodged a Husky tackler near the five to burst into the end zone with 2:32 left in the third quarter.

But Northeastern responded by causing a turnover on Maine’s next possession. On first-and-10 from the Husky 45, freshman linebacker David Akinniyi hit Black Bear quarterback Adam Farkes hard enough to put the ball on the field and allow sophomore nose guard Mike Lukenda to recover.

NU failed to use the momentum, going three-and-out on the ensuing drive. But the defense came through again and forced Maine to punt, on another three-and-out.

Taking the ball from their own 18, the Huskies faced third-and-13 from the 39 with less than than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. Orio took the snap and escaped a second sack in the drive by rolling out to his right, but his pass to junior tight end Brian Mandeville was picked off by Maine free safety Jonathan Calderon.

“Just trying to make a play,” Orio said. “Simple as that. Got to assume the defense is going to get around real quick.”

From there, Maine chewed up 5:47 on a 12-play drive that was capped by a 31 yard field goal by Bobby Donnelly. With 47 seconds and no timeouts left, the Huskies tried to answer, but defensive end Jovan Belcher sacked Orio on second down to cause third-and-19. NU then tried a last-gasp pass play with multiple receivers pitching the ball to each other, but the ball ended up going past Orio and Maine recovered with five seconds left.

Murray scored his seventh touchdown of the season and 36th of his career, tying him with Tim Gale for the school’s career rushing touchdown record Lott had 60 yards on four receptions overall.

On defense, senior linebacker Joe Mele chalked up 16 tackles, while freshman free safety Nate Thellen caused and recovered a fumble on Maine’s first drive of the game.

The Huskies travel to take the field against New Hampshire Saturday at noon for their third to last game of the season.