ORONO, Maine- Junior quarterback Chris Ferguson threw for over 400 yards and three touchdowns in the first half on Friday night to help lead the #7 Maine Black Bears to a convincing 42-14 season opening win over the Sacred Heart Pioneers in FCS non-conference play before 7,478 fans at Alfond Stadium.
Maine (1-0) would score early and often in the first ever meeting with Sacred Heart (0-1) out of the Northeast Conference. After SHU went three and out on the first possession of the game Buffalo transfer running back Emmanuel Reed picked up six yards on the Bears first play of the year, and then Old Town native Andre Miller caught a four yard pass for a first down. Earnest Edwards then caught one for 45 yards to the Pioneers 19 yard line, that would then culminate a few plays later with another Edwards reception of eight yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0. The Maine defense sent the Sacred Heart offensive unit back to the sideline again for another three and out, and then Ferguson found Jaquan Blair for 18 yards and then Devin Young for 42 yards to set up the next scoring play. Young made a great over the shoulder reception to set it up on the 42 yarder down to the SHU 20. Reed scored his first FCS touchdown with an eight yard scamper in which he was barely touched to make it 14-0 just seven minutes in. Later in the quarter another huge play by Ferguson this time to Blair had Maine marching once again. The 68 yard reception where Blair was caught at the last moment at the four yard line, led to a Joe Fitzpatrick four yard touchdown run to extend to a 21-0 lead. The visitors got on the board late in the first on a quarterback keeper of one yard by Logan Marchi to make it 21-7.
It took Maine just over four minutes on the ensuing drive to go 82 yards and build back their 21 point lead early in the second. The big play was a 24 yard reception by Devin Young. Young completed the drive with a 10 yard touchdown catch from Ferguson. Just about five minutes later the hosts took their biggest lead of the night. A 22 yard pass by Ferguson to Miller, a 31 yard toss to Edwards, and then a short one yard touchdown run by Reed his second of the night made it 35-7. Late in the quarter with just 34 seconds left the Bears made it six straight first half possessions with a touchdown when Blair snagged a 14 yard pass from Ferguson to make it 42-7 at the half. Maine outgained SHU 487-65 in total yardage in the first 30 minutes of play. It wasn’t all good news in the opening half of football for Maine, as cornerback Manny Patterson was banged up with a possible injury in the first quarter but came back and played parts of the third quarter. The biggest concern is top defensive player Deshawn Stevens who went down though with an apparent ankle injury in the second quarter and didn’t return and will be further evaulated. Stevens is a preseason All-CAA first team selection, as well as a preseason All-American candidate leading the Bears from his linebacker position with 120 tackles in 2018.
In the second half the action and scoring slowed considerably. Ferguson played the first two series of the third quarter as did most of the starters. Ferguson was relieved by true freshman quarterback Joe Fagnano. SHU would get the final score of the game when Eli Terry scored on a short run with just over seven minutes left in the game.
One of the newest additions to the Maine football team, Buffalo transfer running back Emmanuel Reed, goes in for a touchdown during his first game as a Black Bear Friday night. Photo by Anthony DelMonaco.
Ferguson finished the game 23-29 passing, a career high 423 yards, with three touchdowns in the win. Ferguson becomes the first quarterback at Maine to throw for 400 or more yards in a game since Marcus Wasilewski did so back in 2013 against Villanova (409). The Wasilewski effort was the entire game, while Ferguson threw for over 400 yards (404) in the first half Friday night. It was also the most yards thrown for in a game since Chris Triester had 468 yards against Rhode Island in 2009. The school record was set by Mickey Fein in 1997 against Connecticut (522 yards). Reed would lead the Bears rushing attack with 10 carries, 62 yards, and two touchdowns. Blair caught seven passes for 140 yards and a touchdown, while Young (4-140-1), Edwards (3-84-1), and Miller (5-53) also contributed to the big offensive night. The recieving yards by Blair and Young were also career bests. Maine had two receivers go over 100 yards in the same game for the first time since 2004 when Arel Gordon and Christian Periera did so against UNH. Jaron Grayer led the defense with seven tackles, while Joshua Huffman had six in his first game since 2017 (sat out 2018 due to academic issues). Marchi went 12-29 for 104 yards passing for the visiting Pioneers. Julius Chestnut had nine carries and 52 yards to lead the ground attack. Maine held Sacred Heart to a total of 103 rushing yards, a team that averaged 241 per game last season. Naseim Brantley had five receptions for 25 yards, while Chris Outterbridge had two for 33, and Jordan Meachum had a pair of catches for 30 yards to lead the receiving core. Rob O’Donnell led the SHU defense with eight tackles.
Sacred Heart head coach Mark Nofri said, “Obviously we didn’t play our best football first game of the year, playing the seventh ranked team in the country for FCS. We knew we had our hands full. They are a great football team, and they showed that here tonight. Obviously we gotta do some things better as a staff, as a program, and as a team. But after the first game, we gotta put it behind us and move onto the next one”. First year Maine head coach Nick Charlton commented after the game as well and said, “I was pleased overall with the first half. Thought there was some good execution, we moved the ball well, we scored alot of points. Defensively, thought there was one drive with a few penalties that hurt us, but overall thought we came out with a strong mentality and I was pleased about that. This point in the penalties (13-172 Friday night) it is something we harp on, and I still gotta keep harping on and making sure we take care of that. There is gonna be penalties over a course of a game, but it is the undisciplined ones that need to go away. Alot of that was in the second half with the 2s and 3s (stringers) as far as organization and execution, so we gotta clear some of those things up. But overall, we won our first game which was our goal and now we can enjoy this tonight and move on to next week starting tomorrow”. Maine has now won six straight home games (5-0 in 2018).
Maine now will hit the road for the big test of 2019 when they travel to Statesboro, Georgia to battle FBS opponent Georgia Southern next Saturday at 6 p.m. The Black Bears won on the road last season at a Football Bowl Subdivision team when they knocked off Western Kentucky 31-28. Next Saturdays contest can be seen on ESPN Plus.
Maine wide receiver Jaquan Blair tries to outrun a Sacred Heart defender on what turned out to be a 68 yard reception and was just short of a touchdown on Friday night at Alfond Stadium. The Black Bears won the game 42-14. Photo by Anthony DelMonaco
SHU (0-1) 7 0 0 7- 14
UME (1-0) 21 21 0 0- 42
Total yards- SHU 207 Maine 582
1st downs- SHU 12 Maine 22
3rd down conversions- SHU 6-16 (37%) Maine 4-10 (40%)
Time of possession- SHU 24:28 Maine 35:32
Penalties/Yards- SHU 6-32 Maine 13-172
