By Andrew Stefanilo
The University of Maine Black Bears take to the road this weekend when they play the Villanova University Wildcats in a conference battle Saturday afternoon.
The Black Bears are coming off of a 34-20 victory against William and Mary University that pushed UMaine’s record to 6-1 on the year. The Black Bears are in sole possession of first place in the Colonial Athletic Association with a perfect 3-0 mark against conference foes.
“Our preparation and habits when getting ready each week has been very, very good,” head coach Jack Cosgrove said. “We’ve been very consistent in practice and I’m pleased with our resiliency in games where we’ve had to respond to some things that may not have gone our way. Our reaction to that is, ‘we can overcome this.’”
Senior quarterback Marcus Wasilewski led UMaine with 192 yards in the air and two scores to go along with 71 rushing yards. Wasilewski earned CAA Co-Player of the Week and also went over the 4,000 passing yard mark for his career. He needs 392 yards to move into seventh place in Black Bear history.
UMaine got off to a quick start against the Tribe on their homecoming game, jumping out to 24-0 lead before giving up a touchdown at the end of the first half.
“We had a great start to the game,” Cosgrove said. “It’s something that we talked about a number of times because of the length of time we had off with the bye week to prepare.”
The win was the first time UMaine beat William and Mary at home since 2002.
“We were very sharp. I’d say even sharper than the Delaware game because we didn’t get the turnovers and easy scores but we drove down the field and played very good defense, it was good to see,” Cosgrove said.
UMaine travels to a Villanova school with a lot of history and tradition. The two teams are 8-8 in the all-time series, with the Black Bears taking six out of the last 10 matchups.
Villanova won last year’s game in Orono 35-14 while the Black Bears won at Villanova in 2011 41-25. The 2013 version should be another high-profile game.
“This is a great opportunity for us and our program because Villanova is one of the consistent, top-rated teams in our league,” Cosgrove said. “They’ve won a national championship, they’re a very reputable university with great tradition, history and a great coaching staff.”
The Wildcats are coming off a 29-28 loss to the University of New Hampshire. Villanova had won four in a row prior to the loss, outscoring opponents by a 135-63 margin in those four games.
“For us, we’re going to have to prepare as well or better than we ever have,” Cosgrove said. “We’re going to have to really play a better 60 minutes than we have all season.”
Being just over the halfway point in the season, the Black Bears have done a number of things well this year that’s helped them achieve their 6-1 record.
“The relationships I see in the hallways between our players and coaches; you have to have a relationship that is built out of respect and trust and I think our players and coaches are working on those things in a positive way and that speaks to the mental and physical performance we’ve seen on Saturday,” Cosgrove said.
Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. Oct. 26.