By Conor Nevins
BROOKLINE — The Northeastern football team rebounded from a three-game losing streak Saturday with a 20-14 victory over Atlantic-10 conference foe Maine at Parsons Field.
The past three weeks for the team have seemed like a nightmare that they could not wake up from. Coming into Saturday’s Homecoming match-up against the Maine Black Bears, they found themselves in an unfamiliar position. Sitting atop the preseason national Division I-AA polls and among the favorites to win the national championship, they affirmed their prowess by rolling through their first four games of the year.
Then the struggles began. Coming off three consecutive losses for the first time since 2000, the Huskies were left out of last week’s national poll for the first in 21 weeks.
Adding to the misfortune is that last year’s Atlantic-10 Co-Champs, the Black Bears, who have beaten Northeastern in the previous three meetings, were in town looking to capitalize on the Huskies’ struggles.
With the win, though, the Huskies reasserted themselves as one of the top teams in the A-10 and more importantly, gave themselves a much-needed boost of confidence.
“This win gives us renewed life,” coach Don Brown said. “But the reality is that we have to continue to go out and prove it. We had three tough weeks on the road, but we didn’t give up on each other. It was a great, great win for us.”
Northeastern took it to Maine early. Playing inspired and with something to prove, the NU defense capitalized on a botched snap between Maine center Mike Leconte and quarterback Ron Whitcomb on just the third play of the game.
Junior linebacker Liam Ezekiel recovered the fumble and the NU offense immediately took over. Northeastern took the opening drive to Maine’s three-yard line, set up by a 32-yard reception by sophomore wide-out Cory Parks from junior quarterback Shawn Brady.
After three unsuccessful attempts by senior running back Tim Gale to pound it in for the touchdown, Brown opted not to send in kicker Miro Kesic, but instead to go for the score on fourth down. Another attempt by Gale came up empty, but the tone was set: Brown and the Huskies were looking to score, and score early.
In the previous three losses, NU failed to put points on the board first.
“We needed to make a statement offensively,” Brown said. “Obviously, on that play, we didn’t, but our defense took care of us on that issue.”
That offensive statement came for NU late in the first quarter. After back-to-back completions by Brady for gains of 27 and 34 yards, including a diving catch by Parks in the middle of the field, the Huskies found themselves in good scoring position with an ideal opportunity to strike first and go into the second quarter on top. After a run by Gale produced just one yard, Brady took the snap on second and nine, rolled out to his right and found Parks in the back of the end-zone, giving the Huskies their first points and a 7-0 lead.
The two defenses took the game over from there. Playing physical, hard-nosed defense, both sides held the offenses stagnant for much of the second quarter. Maine ended the drought when junior tight end Dante Fusco took a pass from Whitcomb untouched into the end zone for a 20-yard score. With the score tied at seven and the second half winding down, the Huskies looked to make one final offensive push to end the half.
Kick return specialist Quintin Mitchell gave them that push, taking the ensuing kickoff 70 yards to the Maine 20-yard line.
“I saw a cutback lane and just took it,” he said of the play. ” I had great blocking and tried to take advantage.”
Kesic capitalized on the good field position, knocking in a 20-yard field goal to give the Huskies a 10-7 lead going into the locker room.
The second half belonged to senior running back Tim Gale. A dominating run defense by the Black Bears, as well as a potent passing game by Brady and Parks, limited Gale’s offensive production to just 24 yards on 13 carries in the first half.
The second half saw NU go back to its bread and butter style of play: physical, hard-nosed football with an emphasis on running the football. Gale broke free on NU’s opening drive with a run of 26 yards, more than he amassed in the entire first half.
The opening drive came up empty, but the second drive of the third quarter saw the Huskies in a similar position as they one they ended the first with.
Once again Mitchell broke free on special teams, this time on punt return, sidestepping tacklers all the way to Maine’s 41-yard line for a 31-yard return.
Then Gale took over, not to be denied this time. After a 30-yard run was taken back by a holding penalty, a problem that has plagued NU all season, the Huskies went back to the air attack with Brady again hooking up with Parks with a 23-yard reception. Gale finished the drive with an 11-yard run to give the Huskies a 17-7 lead.
Maine junior tailback Marcus Williams took the lead from Gale as the Black Bears looked to their powerful running game to get them back into the game. Williams ran the ball five times on the drive, picking up 20 yards, including a 4-yard run into the end zone to bring the Black Bears back to within a field goal with 5:01 left in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter saw the domination of NU’s running game, especially by Gale, as well as the resurgence of their defense, which has struggled during the losing streak. Gale once again showed why he is one of the premier backs in the A-10 and the NU offense hopped on his back as he ran for 75 yards in the second half. A 46-yard field goal by Kesic with 8:10 left gave the Husky defense some breathing room as they looked to stifle the Maine offense and end the streak.
As it turned out, NU’s defense wouldn’t even need the extra three points. With 1:55 remaining, they had Maine pinned on their own 23-yard line. Excellent coverage in the secondary, as well as superb pressure on Whitcomb, forced the quarterback into throwing four incomplete passes, ending the game, as well as the disastrous three-week nightmare of the Northeastern football team.
Brown attributed the win to the performances of Gale and Mitchell, but expressed greater admiration for the way his defense performed.
“This is one of the best games we’ve played defensively since I’ve been here,” he said.
The defense was anchored by the impressive performance of Ezekiel, who paced the Huskies with 11 tackles, a sack, as well as the fumble recovery in the first quarter.
After three straight losses, the Huskies spent much of the past week not only preparing for the Black Bears, but also getting mentally focused and forgetting about the past losses.
“As a coach, you have to take a look in the mirror, and everyone else does too,” Brown said. “We needed to go back to being the team that was 21-5 [in the past three years], not the team that was 0-3.”
As Ezekiel put it, “Losing was not an option today. We had to get a victory.”
NU has this week off before traveling to Amherst for a showdown with no. 5 Massachusetts on Nov. 1.
After its first three-game losing streak since 2000, NU fought back to earn a tough 20-14 victory over 2002 Atlantic-10 Co-Champion Maine on Saturday at Parsons Field in Brookline. The game, which was the Huskies Homecoming matchup, drew over 6,000 in attendance.
