Homecoming was phenomenal. Unfortunately, as this is a football blog, I cannot go into too much detail about Friday Nights Hockey game. However, I cannot resist thanking Boston University defense man Eric Gryba who scored the final goal of the night, snapping a 2-2 tie. In spite of Gryba scoring the deciding goal in a 3-2 game, everyone else is giving UMass forward Will Ortiz credit. Some stupid rule about pucks you knock into your own net not counting for your stats. Don't worry Eric, I know you scored the game winning goal and I will do my best to make sure everyone else does.
The football game had a lot to live up to and it did not disappoint. The Wildcats scored real quick on a 50+ yard touchdown bomb to a WR Scott Sicko. Meanwhile, UMass scored on 2 of its last three possessions of the half to make the score 10-7. After Julian Tally caught a touchdown pass to take the lead, he had the most over the top celebration ever. He was mobbing his teammates jumping up and down and hooting and hollering and many of the UMass players joined him in this. You would have thought they had won the Super Bowl, if not accomplished much more with that catch.
If I were a UNH fan, I would have been quite upset by the whole display. Thankfully, I am not a UNH fan and I instead enjoyed it. I must admit I was surprised he wasn't flagged. But as I always say, the ref knows better than I do when to flag people. He's the professional, I'm just a nobody in the stands. If he said Talley wasn't celebrating excessively, who am I to question him?
Reading the game notes, it turns out it was Talley's first TD reception. After he calmed down, Havens went over to shake his hand, and Talley wouldn't shake it. Instead, he grabbed Havens and lifted him up 3 feet in the air.
The teams went in the half with the good guys leading 10-7. This is my first year as a season ticket holder, and I do love my seats. However, sometimes my section is quiet. If the defense needs help on third down and wants crowd noise, they're getting it from me and maybe two other people. Then the UMass Minuteman Marching Band comes out and everyone goes nuts. It's confusing. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the band. But the defense needs noise. The band doesn't. The 20 people who showed up from UNH were making more noise of UMass 3rd downs than the 13,000+ UMass fans were on UNH third downs. My friend and I decided to come up with a game plan to change this.
A man a few rows above me said he recognized us from the hockey game the night before. Once the band left the field, we used the rest of half time to practice a time tested chant at the University of Massachusetts. The man and his two sons would point at us and yell "U!" as loud as they could. My friend and I would point back at them and yell "MASS!" as loud as we could and the process repeats. We continued these shenanigans at the start of the third quarter and also would scream like there was no tomorrow when the Minutemen were on defense, especially on third down. Slowly but surely, people started joining in with us. Instead of 3 people, we had 5, then 10, then 20 people screaming. Other sections were doing similar things.
The University of New Hamsphire tied the game up in the third quarter in spite of all our noise. Then Havens threw interceptions on back to back series and that Sicko guy caught another TD to take the lead in the fourth quarter to make the score 17-10 bad guys. UMass answered with a field goal to cut the lead to 4.
At some point in time, the UMass team realized the crowd needed some encouragement. Senior Safety Jeremy Miles was injured in the first half of the game. I think he had a concussion judging by the fact that when he got up and tried to walk off the field, he looked like he was drunk. You could tell he had no clue what was going on or where he even was and trainers had to guide him off the field. From how long he was on the trainers table, I can only imagine he had no idea for quite a while. Around this time, Miles came over to the crowd and started waving a towel and moving his hands in the air encouraging everyone to make noise. Everyone started screaming. Up until that point, it was the loudest I've heard the place this year. Last year's Delaware game might have been a tad louder. I don't know. The defense forced UNH to punt.
UMass got the ball back and Jon Hernandez, once again playing for an injured Tony Nelson, broke a 42 yard run for a touchdown. I swear I called it. You can ask my friend Rob. I knew he was due. Game 1, no long TD. Game 2 58 yard TD against Albany. Game 3 no long TD. Game 4 36 yard TD against Stony Brook. Game 5 no long TD. It doesn't take a Master of Mathematics to realize pretty much all even games, he has a long TD run. Odd ones, not so much. But who cares? This was an even numbered game, and Hernandez made it 20-17 UMass.
When the defense took the field everyone on the UMass bench was over at the crowd screaming at us to scream at them. Havens looked like a mad man jumping up and down. I usually sit to not block the people's view behind me, but when your starting quarterback does that you have to out jump and out shout him. It's a rule. I can't take the credit for standing either. The father who I was doing the "U" "MASS" thing with started yelling at me to stand, and I admit he was right. Most of the section joined us. McGuirk has metal benches, so people were not only screaming but also pounding on the benches. It was the new loudest I've heard the stadium this year. UMass got the ball back again and drove down the field and added on a field goal to make it 23-17 with under 2 minutes left. Good things happen when you make noise on defense.
Of course, as the number 4 team in the nation, New Hampshire just wouldn't die quietly. They drove down the field, helped a lot by UMass penalties, and got inside the UMass 10 yard line with three seconds left. The UNH QB dropped back to pass, was met by a UMass defender in the backfield and threw the ball to the end zone in desperation. It was picked off by CB Kumar Davis who sealed the deal.
UMass is currently tied for first in the CAA North with UNH at 2-1 in conference play. Overall, they're 1.5 behind Richmond who is 4-0 in the conference and 0.5 behind Villanova who is 3-1 in CAA play.
Next week they're on the road against the Spiders. If UMass wins this game, they have the inside track at winning the conference. Everyone in the CAA would have at least 1 conference loss, and UMass would have beaten Richmond and UNH head to head. I feel like I say this every week about the Minutemen, but next week is the biggest game of the season. Stinks that it's on the road. But it's awesome that after last week's beating I'm downing more of the UMass Kool-aide!
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