KINGSTON, R.I. - For the second week in a row, the football team found itself down 21-0 early in the first half Saturday. Also for the second week in a row, Brown came back and made a game of it, but ultimately fell short. The Bears lost to the University of Rhode Island 28-21, dropping their record to 1-2 (0-1 Ivy League).
"We cannot go out there and sputter on offense and not make the stops we need to on defense," said Head Coach Phil Estes. "You can't go out there and wait for things to happen, and we have to start making things happen."
Saturday's contest was the third straight game in which the defense allowed a touchdown on the opposition's opening drive. Behind the running of quarterback Derek Cassidy and running back Joe Casey and a big 24-yard reception from Marcel Roberson, the Rams steadily moved the ball downfield. Casey finished off the 12-play, 80-yard drive with a touchdown plunge from 1 yard out to make it 7-0.
The Bears' offense responded with a solid opening drive of its own, which was all the more impressive considering that primary tailbacks tri-captain Brandon Markey '07 and Akin Oyalowo '07 were stuck on the sidelines with shoulder and heel injuries, respectively.
Tri-captain and quarterback Joe DiGiacomo '07 completed four passes to three different receivers on the first drive and moved Bruno to URI's 18-yard line. The drive, however, stalled there, and the Bears came away with nothing after a 35-yard field goal attempt by Steve Morgan '08 hooked wide left.
The Bears struggled to regain the momentum of their first drive the remainder of the half. Meanwhile, the Rams showed off a new passing element to their offense while chewing up the Meade Stadium grass with their triple option attack. On URI's second touchdown drive, Cassidy caught Bruno looking for the run and burned the secondary for a 37-yard touchdown pass to Shawn Leonard.
It would be the first of three consecutive possessions on which URI would hit pay dirt. Following a DiGiacomo interception that set the Rams up at Brown's 40 yard-line, Casey ran into the end zone untouched from 34 yards out to make it 21-0.
"I can't tell you what happened in the first half, we just came out flat again," said linebacker and tri-captain Zak DeOssie '07. "We weren't feeding off each other."
After the Rams' third touchdown, Estes turned to Matt Nuzzo '09 in an effort to reverse the fortunes of the offense.
"I felt like we needed a spark," Estes said. "I thought Joe was playing a little tentative, and Matt gave us that spark we were looking for."
Giving the Bears' offense another running option to go along with Dereck Knight '08, Nuzzo made Estes' decision pay off. Knight found ample running room for the first time all afternoon, and Nuzzo put Brown on the board with a quarterback sneak from 1 yard out to make it 21-7 with 2:44 left in the half.
"He's going to get better as he passes the ball more," Estes said of Nuzzo. "He's not the best drop-back guy yet."
Nuzzo's touchdown might have changed the momentum had Brown been able to take a 14-point deficit into the break. Unfortunately, the Bears could not keep URI off the board again before halftime. The Rams ran 12 plays and moved 76 yards in only two minutes to extend their lead to 28-7.
The key play in the drive came with Rhode Island stalled at the Brown 37 yard-line. Faced with a fourth-and-13 situation, the Rams came up with the big play Bruno was missing in the half. Leonard made a diving catch for 17 yards to move the chains and Cassidy did the rest from there, covering the final 21 yards on two quarterback keepers and scoring with 35 seconds left in the half.
"There are a lot of different plays where we have to keep them converting," Estes said. "We had them, but (we didn't stop them, and) that's football."
The Bears did an admirable job of coming out of the locker room after intermission and putting their miserable first half behind them. The defense held Rhody's offense in check for the first time all day, forcing two three-and-outs to start the third quarter.
Meanwhile, with DiGiacomo back at the helm, the passing attack hit its stride. On the offense's third drive of the half, DiGiacomo found Lonnie Hill '07 along the sideline with a 45-yard pass to the Rams' 11. Two plays later, DiGiacomo took a flea-flicker from Knight and found Paul Raymond '08 uncovered in the end zone to make it 28-14.
"The second half, I was proud of them. There was some fight still there," Estes said. "They went out, we hit them on defense and we did a great job of moving the ball on offense."
The Rams threatened to take the momentum right back when they drove to the Brown 33 on their ensuing offensive series. On a key fourth-and-inches play, DeOssie timed the snap count perfectly and disrupted Cassidy's handoff to Casey. The fullback failed to get back to the line of scrimmage, giving Brown the football back.
"We just came out and we made a few stops to gain momentum," DeOssie said of the second half. "We settled down at halftime and started running around and feeding off each other."
Two possessions later, Raymond burned URI's secondary for a second time. With Brown set up at its own 39, DiGiacomo lobbed a perfect ball to Raymond over the wide receiver's right shoulder. Raymond then sprinted by his man for a 61-yard score that cut the Bears' deficit to seven with 10 minutes remaining.
"On the touchdown, the corner was biting on the comeback," Raymond said. "I figured I could beat him with a good move. He bit, and Joe made a good throw."
Bruno was in great shape to tie the game after Jon May '09 partially blocked a punt and the Bears took over at the Rams' 37-yard line, but the offense could not capitalize. Hill and tight end Colin Cloherty '09 had potential touchdown catches slip through their fingers on consecutive plays, and DiGiacomo threw a backbreaking interception shortly thereafter.
Raymond had a chance to make another big reception deep in URI territory on the Bears' next possession, but Rams defensive back Raji El-Amin came back for the ball and broke up the pass. Following three more incompletions, Brown's fate was sealed.
After two straight defeats, Estes said he knows that work needs to be done to shore up both sides of the ball. With next Saturday's game at the College of the Holy Cross the last stepping stone before resuming Ivy League play, Estes implored his team to become more reactive.
"We have a lot of young players in certain positions that really need to just go out there, play the game more physically and take the mental parts out of it," he said. "We're doing a lot of thinking out there."
