By Chris Estrada
Confidence breaker or major motivator?
It’ll be up to the Huskies to decide after an opportunity to upset No. 13 Massachusetts went unfulfilled Saturday at Parsons Field.
The football team played the Minutemen hard to the finish, but two fourth quarter turnovers allowed UMass to jump ahead and hold on to a 28-24 win. With the Homecoming game against No. 11 New Hampshire looming this Saturday, Northeastern will have to find a way to push this last game to the back of their minds.
“We felt like we did more things to allow them to get the victory than we did to help ourselves,” said head coach Rocky Hager. “We had two turnovers, we missed several other opportunities and you can’t do that against a championship-caliber team and expect to win.”
Senior tailback Alex Broomfield said playing a tough, physical opponent in UMass simply the team out as the game dragged on.
“[A close game] usually happens when you face a good team like UMass – it goes back and forth and you’re going to be in a fight,” said Broomfield, who racked up a career-high 169 yards on 27 carries in the loss. “The defense was on the field a lot [in the second half]. I’m sure a few of the guys got kind of tired out there.”
The Huskies took a 24-21 lead into the fourth and used a goal-line stand on fourth down to take over the ball on downs after sophomore linebacker David Akinniyi stopped UMass tailback Tony Nelson (37 carries, 175 yards) at the four.
But Northeastern was eventually forced to punt and with 8:49 left in the game, the Minutemen began a five-play, 48-yard drive that ended with a three-yard touchdown run from quarterback Liam Coen (20-of-30, 265 yards) to give them a 28-24 lead. NU’s next drive ended on its first play as senior receiver Rob Theoudele (3 catches, 89 yards) had a reception knocked loose and recovered by Massachusetts cornerback Corey Davis.
UMass drove down to the Husky five, but on first-and-goal, Northeastern junior linebacker Phil Higgins forced Nelson to fumble at the one, which senior cornerback Cord Parks recovered with 3:39 to go. A 31-yard run by Broomfield put the Huskies into UMass territory but the drive stalled, and on fourth-and-3 from the Minutemen 42, UMass free safety Jeromy Miles grabbed a fudged snap to finish off NU with 1:30 left.
“I hit the guy and made him fumble and I’m thinking we’re about to score and everything,” said Higgins, who notched 10 tackles in the game. “But sometimes, I guess it just doesn’t go our way.”
Hager said he felt that had the Huskies been able to get more defensive turnovers of their own the game might have went in their favor.
“Defensively, we thought we had a decent plan and they had a few more plays than us,” he said. “Those plays would be plays that we missed making plays on. Just off the top of my head, we had three different defensive backs that had no less than one opportunity to come away with an interception and we did not get that done.”
The loss also saw another injury to a key Northeastern player. Junior defensive end Jason Vega was knocked out of the game with a left elbow injury at 11:14 in the first quarter. X-rays found a fracture and Hager said Vega may be out of action for three weeks.
The injury occurred during the Minuteman opening drive, which ended with a one yard touchdown run from Nelson to tie the game at 7-7 after Broomfield ran in from 22 yards out in the game’s first drive for NU. The Huskies took a 14-7 lead in the second quarter as senior quarterback Anthony Orio (10-of-19, 179 yards) unleashed an 80-yard touchdown strike to Theoudele down the right sideline with 12:25 in the quarter.
After trading unsuccessful drives with the Huskies, UMass tied the game with a one-yard run from fullback Chris Zardas with 23 seconds to go in the half.
But thanks to a 27-yard kickoff return by junior corner back Rashad Jordan and a 26-yard pass from Orio to sophomore tight end Conor Gilmartin-Donohue, junior kicker Mat Johnson was able to boot a 37-yard field goal through the uprights with no time left for a 17-14 halftime lead.
The third quarter saw both teams open with touchdowns. UMass regained the lead after a 13-play, 66-yard drive ended with a two-yard touchdown carry from Zardas to make it 21-17. But NU answered with an 11-play, 80-yard venture that was capped with an eight-yard run into the end zone by Orio for a 24-21 Husky lead with 2:47 left in the quarter.
The Huskies face New Hampshire Saturday at Parsons Field at noon. It will be carried by Comcast SportsNet and 104.9 WRBB.
