Rare joy in Amherst
Minutemen throttle FCS foe
AMHERST — If nothing else, yesterday’s final home game of 2016 allowed UMass to have some just plain fun that it’s rarely experienced during the FBS era.
Andrew Ford threw three first-half touchdown passes as the Minutemen went out to a 27-0 lead at the break, then ran for a fourth score as UMass put up its largest margin of victory since 2010, beating FCS opponent Wagner, 34-10, at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.
The Minutemen (2-7) stopped their five-game losing streak and also won a home finale for the first time since 2008.
“I thought our guys were focused. They were good all week, even Thursday with the snow,” said UMass coach Mark Whipple. “We did a good job in the first half and set the tone. The second half was a little disappointing, we’d like to get younger guys in there, but our guys haven’t been ahead 27-0. Hopefully that’ll happen again and we’ve got some experience there.”
Ford finished 25-of-39 passing for 355 yards. Adam Breneman (138 yards, two TDs) and Andy Isabella (123 yards, touchdown) each caught eight passes and topped the 100-yard receiving mark before the first half was finished.
Even so, the Minutemen’s second victory of the season didn’t come without substantial cost. Leading rusher Marquis Young went out in the first half with a left ankle injury. Sekai Lindsay (58 yards) and Bilal Ally (51) picked up the slack on the ground in Young’s absence.
UMass needed barely two minutes at the start to break on top, with a sixplay, 75-yard drive capped by Ford hitting Breneman on a post-corner route for 28 yards and the opening score. After an exchange of punts and a failed fourthdown conversion by Wagner, UMass took over at its own 16 and drove 84 yards, with the former Pennsylvania high school teammates, Ford and Breneman, hooking up again for a 6-yard TD pass with 47 seconds left in the first quarter.
Early in the second, Isabella sprinted behind three Wagner defenders to latch on to a 55-yard bomb from Ford on a third-and-10, boosting UMass into a three-touchdown lead.
Placekicking, a consistently sore spot for the Minutemen this season, improved dramatically for one afternoon. Logan Laurent knocked through field goals of 33 and 22 yards as UMass extended the lead to 27-0 by the half. Laurent’s second kick was set up by a highlight-reel play by Breneman, who made a one-handed grab between three Seahawk defenders for a 31-yard gain.
The uncommonly fast start may have had some in the crowd of 8,468 dreaming of a repeat of the teams’ only previous meeting, in 1931, when UMass rolled 770. First-half offense favored the Minutemen, 403-167.
Isaiah Rodgers came up with an interception of Wagner quarterback Alex Thomson on the first play of the third quarter, but UMass couldn’t do anything with the possession. The Seahawks failed on downs on their next series, giving UMass the ball at its own 36 and leading to a 64-yard drive, finished by Ford’s tuck and 16-yard scramble for a score with 8:49 left in the third.
“In the beginning of the game we were rolling out, and coach said there’s gonna be some times you might have to tuck it and run it,” said Ford. “They did a good job on that play of covering our guys. I was lucky to just get on the edge and get in.”
James Cooper finally got Wagner (4-4) on the board with a 27-yard field goal late in the third quarter. Later, at the end of a 16play, 93-yard drive that ate up almost nine minutes, Thomson (21-of-34, 295 yards) flipped a 2-yard TD pass to John Williams for the day’s final points.
“It’s a game we felt we should have won, and we did,” said Breneman. “Those kinds of games always scare you a little bit, how the team will respond. We were up 14-0 against Tulane and that got away from us, so we made sure when we had the lead that we kept pressing on. It’s good to finally put together those 60 minutes. We’ve had a few games that we should have won, so this one feels good.”