Malik Grant rushed for a game winning touchdown early in the fourth quarter on Saturday afternoon, as #15 Rhode Island celebrated homecoming with a hard fought 24-14 victory over Maine in Coastal Athletic Association football action at Meade Stadium in Kingston, Rhode Island.
Maine, who was attempting to go to 3-0 versus CAA ranked opponents, including a 35-7 homecoming win over #5 Villanova last Saturday would strike first in this one. Late in the first quarter with 53 seconds left, Carter Peevy found tightend Cooper Heisey for a 6-yard touchdown to make it 7-0. A Peevy 44-yard pass to Molayo Irefin and an 11-yard scramble by the quarterback on 3rd and 10 were the key plays on the 90-yard drive. Rhode Island would bounce back to score the next two touchdowns to take a halftime lead, both by their all-purpose QB Devin Farrell. The first one was setup by the arm of Farrell as he found Marquis Buchanan for a 42-yard passing play, then was capped off by a 1-yard keeper by Farrell to tie it with 7:42 left in the second quarter. The Black Bears were backed up on their next possession, having to punt it back to the Rams from their own 12-yard line. With the wind being a factor, a 29-yard punt gave the hosts the ball at the Maine 41. URI on that opportunity would convert a fourth and short at their opponents 17-yard line on a 7-yard run by Grant, and two plays later Farrell took it himself for a 6-yard scoring run with 1:14 remaining to take 14-7 advantage to the halftime break.
Both teams played a pretty good defensive third quarter with no points being put on the board. Maine started the next scoring drive of the contest with 5:10 left in the period, that included a pair of third down conversions with the key play being a 4-yard pass from Peevy to Nick Laughlin on 3rd and 2 at the Rhode Island 8-yard line making it 1st and goal to go. On the first snap of the fourth, junior running back Brian Santana-Fis scored on a 4-yard run to tie it back up 14-14. It took the Rams just 2:31 to gain back the advantage for good that included a Farrell 46-yard strike to wide receiver Tommy Smith to the Black Bears 3. That culminated in the game winning 1-yard touchdown run by Grant in the wildcat formation, as he took the direct snap and cut from left to right and walked into the endzone. After Maine went three and out, URI added to the lead and ended the scoring on the afternoon on a career-high 35-yard field goal by Ty Groff with 6:04 remaining. Peevy and the offense couldn’t get anything going the rest of the way to try to cut into that deficit, as he was sacked six times on the day.
Peevy finished 29-39 passing with one touchdown in the Maine loss. Santana-Fis had the best rushing performance of any Black Bear this season as he ran 15 times for 89 yards and a score. He also added five receptions for 51 yards. Montigo Moss led the receiving core with nine catches for 80 yards, with his Dad and former NFL receiver Randy in attendance. Christian Thomas had six total tackles on defense, with three being of the solo variety and one pass breakup. Farrell passed for 202 yards (13 for 24) in the win for Rhode Island, also scoring twice on the ground. Grant ran 22 times for 87 yards with the game winning touchdown. Emmanuel Gomes had 10 tackles and seven solo for the Rams defense. Carson Primrose had two of the six sacks on Peevy, as URI improved to 7-1 and 4-0 in the Coastal Athletic Association. Maine drops to 4-4 and 2-3 in the CAA, and steps up to play FBS opponent Oklahoma (SEC) next Saturday at 2:30 in Norman.
Photo by Anthony DelMonaco- Maine junior running back Brian Santana-Fis during a 35-7 homecoming football win over #5 Villanova on Saturday, October 19 in Orono. Santana-Fis had a touchdown and the most rushing yards of any Black Bear RB this season in a 24-14 loss at #15 Rhode Island in Kingston on Saturday afternoon
