The Rhode Island Rams hosted the New Hampshire Wildcats for senior day at Meade Stadium. The Rams defeated the Wildcats by a score of 28-3. UNH came into this game with a record of 3-6 with URI having a record of 6-3. The Rams continued the winning ways after the program’s second-ever win over an FBS school last week against UMass.
Jaylen Smith was the Rams top performer today both in the air and on the ground. The freshman running back scored two passing touchdowns and 88 yards including a 81-yard touchdown just 53 seconds into the game which gave URI an early 6-0 lead. He also had 18 carries for 117 yards rushing the football.
C.J. Carrick’s PAT after the first touchdown was successful making him the all-time leading scorer in URI football history with 257 points. The senior kicker ended the game with 260 points on his resume.
Kasim Hill had a good day as he threw for 221 yards and 4 touchdowns completing 12-23 of his passes. Hill was shaken up with 10:34 to go in the second quarter after taking a hard sack from Bryce Shaw. Brandon “Pop” Robinson replaced him at QB. Hill returned to the game on the following drive. Hill had an 18-yard rush on 3rd down later in the second quarter to move the chains.
Bret Edwards was injured after a big hit from Dylan Brown in the third quarter. Tommy Herion took over as the Wildcats quarterback and remained in the game until the end.
Penalties were a huge factor early in the second-half as UNH kept getting flagged. There were two false starts on the opening drive on offense. A roughing the passer and pass interference call on the Wildcat defense helped Rhode Island find the end zone.
The fourth quarter was filled with the only turnovers of the game. Both teams suffered strip-sacks on back-to-back drives early in the fourth quarter. Hill lost the ball via a strip-sack on the following drive again. When UNH took back over backup QB Tommy Herion threw an interception to Coby Tippett, who returned the pass 45 yards.
New Hampshire scored their first and only points of the game with a field goal at the 4:52 mark of the first quarter making the score 7-3 URI.
Joey Kenny caught a pass for 23-yards in the first quarter and hurdled the defender in the process. Matt Pires had a solid game with 2 catches for 43 yards with a tremendous touchdown grab in the corner of the end zone and a leaping catch of 37 yards, both coming in the second quarter. The touchdown was of 6-yards and it put the Rams up 14-3. Ivory Frimpong added a 20-yard touchdown with 5:41 to go in the fourth quarter.
The win for Rhode Island moves them to 7-3 on the season as they prepare to close out their season at Elon University next Saturday 11/20. UNH is now 3-7 and they will finish their disappointing campaign against Maine on Saturday as well.
