UMASS Game Notes and Quotes

10/27/07 6:14PM

Williamsburg - The following notes and quotes were taken from the Tribe's 48-34 loss to fourth-ranked UMass on Saturday:

POST GAME NOTES

• UMass won its third consecutive game in the series with Saturday’s 48-34 win over the Tribe. UMass has now won three straight at Zable Stadium as well and five of the last six meetings overall.

• UMass won its 13th consecutive conference game.

• The College fell on Homecoming afternoon for the second-straight season. W&M is now 46-33 all-time in Homecoming games.

• With an announced crowd of 10,178, W&M hosted a crowd of 10,000 or more for the eighth time in the last 10 home games.

• W&M lost for the first time this season (3-1) after leading at the half.

• Sophomore place kicker Brian Pate nailed a career-long 45-yard field goal on his first attempt, but then missed his next four (45, 48, 38, 42) before finishing with a 20-yarder that tied the score, 34-34. It was a season-high six attempts for Pate.

• Junior linebacker Mike Pigram’s 42-yard fumble return for a touchdown was the Tribe’s second defensive score of the season. The first being true freshman Terrell Well’s fumble return for TD vs. Delaware in season opener.

• Pigram also had an interception and finished with a game-high 14 total tackles.

• The Tribe forced a season-high four turnovers, including two interceptions and two fumble recoveries. It was also a season-high for turnovers committed for UMass.

• Sophomore defensive end Adrian Tracy contributed his first career interception near the end of the first half. His pick was the second by a Tribe defensive lineman this season (Sean Lissemore had first vs. Towson).

• Senior tight end Drew Atchison was the team’s leading receiver, with six catches for 65 yards and a score.The effort was the fourth time Atchison has had five, or more, catches in a game on the season.

• The two team’s combined for a remarkable 38 fourth-quarter points (28 for UMass). That was only the Tribe’s second-highest combined scoring quarter of the season (42 in first quarter vs. Villanova).

• Sophomore receiver RJ Archer caught three passes for 24 yards, marking the 15th-straight game he has caught at least two-passes.

• Junior quarterback Jake Phillips accumulated 244 all-purpose yards, including 170 passing, 49 rushing and one reception for 25 yards. He accounted for a pair of scores, one pass and one rush. The reception was the first of his career.

• Phillips has now accounted for at least two touchdowns in seven of the eight games this season. The only game he didn’t was when Tribe was held to just three points at Va. Tech.

• Phillips actually gained a season-best 72 rushing yards, but finished with 49 due to losses on a pair of sacks.

• The Tribe had four possessions in the third quarter and held the ball for a remarkable 11:14. But, only one of those four possessions resulted in a score (1-yard run by Phillips. W&M missed a pair of field goals and fumbled on the other two possessions.


POST GAME QUOTES

UMass Coach Don Brown

“I thought William & Mary played as well as they could play today. Jake Phillips is an excellent quarterback who had an outstanding game.”

“We had some miscues in the first half. I don’t want to make excuses, but our long-snapper [Cesar Rosario] has a broken finger. We put our back up [Bob McLaughlin] in and he had two miscues. In the second half we put Rosario back in and I thought he did a good job of sucking it up and playing through the pain.”

“We came out in the second half and Phillips puts William & Mary up 10. A few possessions later, I thought we were getting our stride back then we gave up two fumbles. The first fumble [Mike Pigram] just picked up and ran back for a 42-yard touchdown. After the second fumble, though, I thought that was our best defensive stand of the year. To have the ball on the 2-yard line and hold them to a field goal was huge. Mentally it kept us in it, we didn’t give up the lead.”

“It was a big win over a very solid William & Mary team.”

“Our group can shake off adversity. We play for 60 minutes, even when we get down we still play and try and find a way to win. And if you don’t do that in a league like the CAA, you’re not going to win games.”

W&M Head Coach Jimmye Laycock

“I was very pleased with our effort out there today. I thought we played a good game against a really good team, we played hard.”

“Jake played really well today. He was making good decisions. He was under a lot of pressure all day today, and he handled it extremely well.”

“We moved our protections around, Jake was aware of his surroundings, and he got the ball out when he needed to, and he pulled it down when he needed to.”

“For our defense, we just tried to simplify our [game plan]. The main goal was to get to the ball. We looked fresh early, coming out of the off week But, down the stretch, we couldn’t stop the run.”

In regards Courtland Marriner:

“He looked good today. This past week he’s been practicing with less [padding] on his hand, and today he got to play with less [padding] and he made better cuts and was exploding through the holes.”

“It felt good watching us play today against one of the top teams in the nation. We seemed to be a much-improved team, even from two weeks ago against Maine. We played very well, but UMass is one of the top teams in the nation.”