The University of Maine football team played a game on Saturday afternoon for the first time in 469 days. The spring opener though was all in favor of #25 Delaware. The Blue Hens returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and held the Black Bears to just 112 total yards on the day, en route to a 37-0 win at Delaware Stadium in Newark, Delaware.
Dejoun Lee started the spring season with a bang taking the Maine kickoff and going 87 yards for a score just 13 seconds into action. Later in the quarter, with Delaware driving deep in Black Bears territory Jordan Swann looked to change the momentum by intercepting Nolan Henderson at the five yard line. Maine though went three and out and punted it back to the hosts. Ryan Coe hit a 38 yard field goal early in the second that made it 10-0. Henderson would hit Gene Coleman for a 21 yard TD late in the half and the Blue Hens had a comfortable 17-0 halftime lead.
Delaware added on in the second half on two more field goals from Coe, and touchdown runs of 12 yards from Lee and a short one yarder for Henderson. The Maine offense could never get into any flow, finishing with just 51 yards rushing and 61 yards passing on the afternoon and never even entered the Blue Hens red zone in the contest. Joe Fagnano was 10-23 passing for 61 yards in the loss. Tavion Banks (5 rush, 19 yards) and Elijah Barnwell (9-18) were the two leading rushers. Andre Miller caught three passes for 32 yards. Adrian Otero had 11 total tackles, and DeShawn Stephens had 10 to lead the defense. Henderson went 16-24 for 146 yards, with one touchdown passing and one rushing, and one interception in the win for Delaware. Lee had 14 carries for 85 yards with one touchdown rushing and also one on the opening kickoff. Coleman finished with five catches for 48 yards and the one score. Liam Trainer and Johnny Buchanan both had five total tackles for the Blue Hens defense. Maine will have their home opener next Saturday at 12 p.m. against the University of Albany.
