DURHAM, N.H. – New Hampshire’s Stephan Lewis has a history of beating on the Massachusetts football team. Heading into Saturday’s contest with the Minutemen, the senior tailback had earned a pair of Bill Knight Trophies, given to the most valuable player in the UMass-UNH contest.
Now Lewis will have to clear some more mantle space, as he added Knight Trophy number three this weekend for his dominating performance in the Wildcats’ (3-6, 2-5 Atlantic 10) 31-14 win over the Minutemen (7-3, 5-2 A-10).
Lewis ran 47 times for 186 yards and two touchdowns and caught five passes for 50 yards and one touchdown in the victory.
“I said earlier in the week that if he got it 40 times, we were going to be in trouble and that’s basically what happened,” UMass Head Coach Mark Whipple said after the game.
“He’s a great player,” Whipple added. “I think anybody in the country probably could have had three touchdowns against us today…we didn’t make him work for it. That’s probably what’s most disappointing.”
In his final three games against the Maroon and White, Lewis has carried the ball 107 times for 701 yards.
“He’s had a great career and certainly UMass has had a lot to do with his career,” Whipple said of Lewis, who has gained more than 20 percent of his career rushing yards (703) in his four career games – 10 percent of his career games played – against UMass. Lewis has rushed for 3487 yards in 40 games in his college history.
“[In playing UMass there] is nothing special [that changes the way I play],” Lewis said. “But a lot of the guys joked with me earlier and said that they wished we could play UMass every week if I was going to come out and play like this.”
The Wildcats jumped out to a 7-0 lead after UMass freshman quarterback Tim Day fumbled a snap on his own three-yard line and UNH recovered.
“That gave [New Hampshire] the momentum,” Whipple said of his team’s first of five turnovers.
Day was starting in place of junior Jeff Krohn, who was sidelined after suffering his second concussion in three weeks against Delaware last week.
Four plays after the fumble, Lewis pounded the ball in for the game’s first points.
After a UMass three-and-out, the Wildcats drove down the field to the Maroon and White eight-yard line, but quarterback Mike Granieri’s pass attempt to Lewis was picked off by Anton McKenzie and taken 96 yards for a touchdown and a tie game.
UNH answered right back with a long, 12-play, 65-yard drive that took up 4:13 and ended with Lewis running up the middle for his second score.
The Wildcats then picked off Day when receiver Joe Bruce tipped a pass up in the air and linebacker E.J. DeWitt hauled it in. Granieri hit tight end Carl Betz three plays later to put his team up for good.
Day was intercepted three more times in his first collegiate start. But No. 16 refused to make that an excuse for his play.
“I have to take some responsibility after that,” Day said. “I can’t sit here and say that [I struggled] because it’s my first start.”
With a 31-7 lead at halftime, the Wildcats played very conservatively in the second half. Granieri attempted just nine passes after the break – mostly on third downs, while Lewis ran the ball 23 times for 99 yards.
UMass cut the lead to 31-14 on a seven-yard touchdown pass to freshman running back R.J. Cobbs, but couldn’t get any closer as the Wildcats were able to run out the clock and cause the Minuteman offense to make mistakes.
Cobbs was one of the few bright spots of the game for the Maroon and White, as his 16-carry, 78-yard performance gave him 791 on the season, a new record for freshmen rushing yardage in a season.
Whipple said that he’s just going to try to move right past Saturday’s ugliness.
“I just count this as an off week,” the Brown alum said. “Nobody got hurt and we didn’t hit anybody.”
The Minuteman offense certainly seemed to have the week off, as the team’s time of possession reached just 18:58 to UNH’s 41:02.
“We did a very good job of handling the football for the amount of snaps we had,” Wildcat Head Coach Sean McDonnell said after his team ran off 92 offensive plays.
