Sept. 8, 2007

Box Score | Notes

HAMILTON, N.Y. - Playing just 45 minutes from where they both began their college careers at Syracuse, sophomore Jeremy Horne and graduate student Breyone Evans scored UMass' first two touchdowns as the No. 2 Minutemen defeated Colgate, 35-17 at Andy Kerr Stadium on Saturday. UMass moves to 2-0 overall, winning at Colgate for the first time in history after four losses. The Raiders fell to 1-1.

For the second week in a row, UMass had a special teams touchdown as J.J. Moore had a 58-yard punt return for a score midway through the third quarter. It was UMass' first punt return for a TD since 1996. Last week, Courtney Robinson had a 100-yard kickoff return for a TD against Holy Cross. That was the first kick return for a score since 1982.

Senior tailback Matt Lawrence gained more than 100 yards for the second week in a row with 122. Junior quarterback Liam Coen threw for 204 yards on 17-of-26 and three touchdowns. Moore also had 4 catches for 40 yards to move to sixth in career receiving yards at UMass with 1523. Rasheed Rancher had 4 catches for 65 yards.

In his first start at quarterback, Colgate's Alex Relph threw for 218 yards on 17-of-31 and two touchdowns. Tailback Jordan Scott went over the 100-yard mark for the 15th time in his career with 103. Senior receiver Erik Burke had nine catches for 142 yards, his first career 100-yard game.

UMass buckled down on defense in the second half. They held Colgate to seven points and limited them to 82, yards after giving up 230 in the first 30 minutes.

Tony Nelson's late runs sealed the game as he set up Moore's second score of the day on an 11-yard reception from Coen.

Colgate cut the UMass lead to 28-17 as Relph tossed a 3-yard pass into the far left corner of the end zone to Burke, his second score of the day, with 8:24 left in the fourth.

UMass had thwarted a Colgate drive late in the third quarter as senior linebacker Charles Walker forced and recovered a fumble by Jordan Scott on UMass' 2-yard line. Scott had just gone over the 100-yard mark on the previous carry.

Moore's dashed down the right sideline for his 58-yard punt return for a touchdown making it 28-10 in favor of the Minutemen.

Ian Jorgensen hauled in a 15-yard touchdown with 8:39 left in the third quarter to give UMass a 21-10 lead.

Colgate's Mike Buck kicked a career-long 47-yard field goal as time expired in the first half, making it 14-10 UMass at halftime.

The Minutemen took advantage of Courtney Robinson's interception late in the first half as they went ahead 14-7 on the ensuing drive. Evans snagged a 4-yard pass from Liam Coen to give UMass the lead with 1:21 left in the first half. It was his first touchdown at UMass and first in college since a pair at Syracuse in 2004.

UMass struggled in the first quarter but managed to end the period tied at 7-7. Colgate outgained the Minutemen 131-22 in the first 15 minutes.

Colgate tied the game at 7-7 on Alex Relph's first career touchdown pass, a 30-yard strike to Erik Burke with 29 seconds left in the first quarter.

After being in negative yardage the entire first quarter, UMass finally broke into positive yards on the game's first score, a 25-yard pass to Horne with 1:41 left in the first. It was Horne's first career touchdown.

UMass returns home to host Towson, for the first time in history, next Saturday, Sept. 15 at McGuirk Alumni Stadium. The game will be televised live on CN8 with kickoff at 12 noon.