ORONO — University of Maine kicker Brian Harvey knows he doesn’t get many third chances in football. He got one Saturday night that may give his team a second chance at its season.

Harvey’s 37-yard field goal in overtime lifted Maine to a dramatic 16-13 victory over rival UNH before a delighted crowd of 6,531 at Alfond Stadium.

Harvey, who had missed a field goal and had an extra point blocked earlier in the game, gave Maine its first win over its rival since 2002.

“After what had happened earlier in the game… I was just very excited to have my teammates to get me into a position for a third chance, because that’s probably the only third chance I’ll ever get in my life,” Harvey said.

It was Maine’s first Colonial Athletic Conference win and first home win of the season. The Black Bears (2-3, 1-1 in CAA) picked up the Brice-Cowell musket, symbolizing their first victory over UNH in eight years.

In a series that has regularly seen thrilling finishes in recent years, this one offered up a wild final three minutes.

UNH (2-3, 0-2) held a 13-6 lead after Mike MacArthur’s 47-yard field goal with 2:47 remaining hit the cross bar and bounced through.

Facing a 4th-and-5 at UNH’s 16, junior tight end Derek Buttles tied the game for Maine with 1:12 left by leaping to catch a Warren Smith pass between two defenders in the back right corner of the end zone. Harvey drilled the extra point.

The Wildcats then drove 50 yards in 1:04 to set up MacArthur’s 33-yard field goal attempt to win it with 2.3 seconds left, but Brent Rice blocked it to force overtime.

“The whole defense got together and (said), ‘We’ve all got to go all-out. There’s no option not to block this,'” said Rice, who added that he had gotten a hand on MacArthur’s 47-yarder earlier. “The two that we had a chance to block before, we let one get away.”

“A lot of ebbs-and-flows in this one, up-and-down things,” UNH coach Sean McDonnell. “It’s just amazing the way both teams kept battling back and staying in the game.”

UNH took the ball first in overtime, in which each team gets a possession starting at the opposition’s 25. On second down, Jerron McMillian picked off an R.J. Toman pass at the 6.

“I would say that was the biggest play of the game,” Maine coach Jack Cosgrove said, “simply because,  I didn’t think we’d shut them out. The last thing I thought would happen would be looking at a goose egg after the first overtime.”

On its first three plays of OT, Maine handed the ball to Lewiston’s Jared Turcotte, who was back after missing last week’s crushing loss to William & Mary to be present for the birth of his daughter.

Turcotte (21 carries, 71 yards) recovered his own fumble on second down, then carried to the right hash mark at the 20-yard line on his third to set up Harvey, although that wasn’t what Cosgrove had in mind.

“We’re trying to center the ball up and we end up on the right hash,” Cosgrove said. “It’s called the ‘Harvey Hash’ because he has a hard time off of that hash.”

“We hung in there. I don’t think there was anything artistic about this at all,” Cosgrove said.

Maine won despite a season-high 13 penalties for 120 yards and three turnovers, but the Bears also forced four turnovers and came up big on special teams.

Eight penalties and two turnovers plagued the Bears with missed opportunities in the first half. The “Black Hole” defense kept the mistakes from being too costly.

Maine’s special teams came through early after the defense forced UNH to punt on the game’s opening possession. Jeremy Kelley blocked it, giving the Black Bears the ball at the Wildcats’38 for their first series. But they failed to capitalize. On 4th-and-1, Lance Mailloux dropped Turcotte for a one yard loss.

Harvey’s 37-yard field goal attempt on Maine’s next drive fell short.

The Wildcats drove into Maine territory on the ensuing drive, but Vinson Givens intercepted Toman’s pass in the red zone and returned it to Maine’s 25.

Smith (19-for-28, 253 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT) got Maine on the board first when he pump faked, then threw 11 yards into the end zone to a leaping Jeff Falvey for the game’s first score early in the second quarter.

Harvey’s extra point attempt was low and blocked, keeping the score 6-0.

Kyle Flemings picked off a Smith pass intended for Desmond Randall in the end zone to thwart Maine’s next scoring threat, Another interception, this time by John Greer, gave the Wildcats their best starting field position, Maine’s 40. That set up a 32-yard field goal by MacArthur to cut the Black Bears’ lead in half with 3:10 left in the first half.

UNH took the lead on its first drive of the second half when Toman connected with Terrance Fox in the end zone on a five-yard pass to make it 10-6 with 10:54 left in the third quarter.

Maine drew five flags within the first five minutes of the third quarter to pass last week’s previous season-high of 11 penalties.

The Black Bears got their first first down of the second half on a fake punt on 4th-and-3 from their own 25 early in the fourth quarter. Up-man Conor Keating took a direct snap, fumbled as he ran forward and recovered just beyond the marker.

The Black Bears continued to the Wildcat 4. On 2nd-and-goal, a Maine lineman inadvertently tripped Smith as he took the snap from under center and his attempted hand-off to Turcotte was kicked through the back of the end zone for a touchback.

“We showed a lot of character coming back and overcoming that,” Smith said. “We could have packed it in and said, ‘Not our day.'”

Copy the Story Link