Homecoming bittersweet, URI football loses to Richmond 31-6

10/17/06 -Once again the University of Rhode Island football team's offense couldn't get it done.The Rams managed 125 passing yards and a season low 123 yards rushing as the Richmond Spiders trounced Rhode Island 31-6 in the annual homecoming game.

Freshman quarterback John Butler, replacing injured starter Derek Cassidy, completed four of 10 passes for 64 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the loss.

"This was a difficult homecoming loss and we were beat by a better football team," head coach Tim Stowers said. "This is a team that beat [Duke University] earlier in the year and that's saying something. They were just better."

Sophomore running back Joe Casey rushed for 65 yards and caught a pass for 14 yards in the game.

"We faced teams just as difficult as [Richmond] before and I just need to work on making play," Casey said. "The offensive line did the best they could but you could tell they were well coached."

Also playing in the game was true freshman D.J. Stefkovich, who entered the game in the fourth quarter after Butler left with an apparent shoulder injury, was four-for-eight passing for 61 yards.

"D.J. wasn't expecting to play today and I thought he responded well," Stowers said. "For a true freshman he showed a lot of presence out there."

After moving the ball past the 50-yard line, the Spiders opening drive was stopped at the Ram 25-yard line on an interception by senior Raquan Pride.

After the interception, Butler completed a pass to Jimmy Hughes for a 19-yard gain, setting up a 36-yard pass to freshman Marcel Roberson. The Rams came out with a 6-0 lead after senior Colin Gallagher's extra point attempt failed.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Spiders responded with a 23-yard pass from quarterback Eric Ward to Matt Hale, which was set up by a key fourth and 5 conversion. Richmond took the lead 7-6 and added a 25-yard field goal with 52 seconds left to add to their lead, as the Rams were unable to get any offense going.

On their first possession of the third quarter, Ward completed a pass to Arman Shields from 20-yards out to increase the Spider lead to 11. Less than a minute later, David Horton returned a Butler interception 20 yards for a touchdown to give Richmond a 24-6 lead. Richmond added another touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter when Ward took the ball into the endzone himself.

Stefkovich came in with 14 minutes left in the game and threw a 38-yard completion to Nick Del Grosso to put the Rams on the Richmond 20 with just 10 minutes left. A fake field goal play put the Rams on the eight, and an offside penalty put the ball on the four. With four attempts to get into the endzone the Rams rushing attack was stuffed on three straight plays and Stefkovich's pass on fourth down was broken up on the goal line. Richmond would eventually ran out the clock to end the game.

The Rams have now lost two straight, falling to 2-4 on the season and 0-3 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Rhode Island's Homecoming record fell to 37-42-1.

The Rams schedule does not get any easier. Next week Rhode Island will travel to eighth ranked Massachusetts next Saturday. Cassidy's status for next week is still day-to-day, and Stowers will know more after Monday's practice. But for now, it's back to basics for the team.

"We have to get back to work on our fundamentals," Stowers said. "UMass may be better than what we just saw. I mean, people can call this IAA if they want to but this is still Division I football, and this schedule we're playing right now isn't for the faint of heart."

Next Saturday's game begins at 1 p.m.