Derek Robertson threw four touchdown passes and Freddie Brock rushed for 140 yards and a score Saturday afternoon, as the Maine Black Bears won their third straight game with a 45-24 victory over #24 Rhode Island in a CAA football contest played at Meade Stadium in Kingston, Rhode Island.
Maine took the opening kickoff and went 75 yards that was capped off by a direct snap to Zavier Scott who ran it in from one yard out. The lead was extended to 14-0 later in the first when Robertson hit Devin Young for a 31 yard touchdown. Young took a wide receiver screen and cut through the URI secondary on his way to the endzone. In the second Robertson found one of his favorite targets in Andre Miller for a 22 yard scoring play, and Cole Baker added a 24 yard field goal on the last play before the half as the Black Bears led 24-3 at the break.
Rhode Island (5-4, 3-3 CAA) showed some life to start the third quarter when Kasim Hill hit a streaking Paul Woods for a 68 yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. After Robertson threw just his second interception of the season 1:22 later, Hill found Jaylen Smith for a three yard TD to slice the margin to 24-17. Maine pushed it back to 14 late in the period when Robertson fired a 28 yard touchdown to Daniel Rymer. The Rams kept fighting back as Hill tossed his third TD of the day of five yards to Caleb Warren on a 4th and goal to get back within seven with still 14:18 left to play. The guests responded to that with a 70 yard drive taking seven minutes off the clock, culminating in a pass from Robertson to Shawn Bowman in the left flat. Bowman did the rest with the shoestring catch and taking it 13 yards to the endzone to make it 38-24. After a turnover on downs, Brock went around right end for an 18 yard score to put the game away and give Maine their 14th straight win over Rhode Island.
Robertson went 18-37 passing for 264 yards with the four touchdowns and one interception. Brock ran 24 times for the 140 yards and a touchdown, while Elijah Barnwell also added 16 rushes for 65 yards as Maine had 264 yards on the ground. Young had six catches for 90 yards and a touchdown, while Miller had 90 yards on four catches and one score. Ray Miller had 10 total tackles and 1.5 sacks on the day for the defense. Hill was 11-20 passing for 177 yards and three touchdowns in the loss for Rhode Island. The Rams were held to 73 yards on the ground. Woods had the most yards receiving with 102 yards on four catches and the one long TD. Warren had five catches for 51 yards and a score. Evan Stewart had eight tackles to anchor the defense. Maine with their third straight win improves to 4-4, 3-3 in the CAA and returns home to play Stony Brook next Saturday at 12 p.m. in the final regular season home game.
