UMass holds its own, falls to Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WWLP) - After taking a 17-7 first half lead, UMass saw Michigan score 28 unanswered
points before the Minutemen scored three fourth quarter touchdowns, but
Michigan was able to escape with a 42-37 victory on Saturday afternoon. The
Minutemen ranked 16th in FCS Football suffered their first loss of the
season and stand at 2-1. Michigan, 20th in the AP FBS Poll stays unbeaten at 3-0.

UMass made a valiant effort to make a fourth quarter comeback. Kyle Havens scored a rushing touchdown with 13:47 left, and after a Michigan score, Havens threw touchdown passes to Julian Talley and Andrew Krevis, the latter coming with 2:05 left, pulling UMass within five, 42-37.

UMass attempted an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff, but the kick went out
of bounds, allowing Michigan to run out the clock. 

In front of 110,187 fans, a record to ever see a UMass sporting event, the
Minutemen led, 17-7, with just over a minute left in the first half, but the
Wolverines scored twice in the final 1:01 to take a 21-17 halftime lead and
scored on the opening possession of the second half and again in the third
quarter to take a 35-17 lead with 3:37 left in the third.

Junior tailback Jonathan Hernandez scored on touchdown runs of 10 and 9
yards to give the Minutemen a 10-point bulge with 1:17 left in the first
half Hernandez had a monster day with 114 rushing yards, his fourth-career
100-yard game.

Quarterback Kyle Havens was nearly perfect in the first half completing nine
of his first 10 passes for 104 yards. He finished 22-of-29 for 222 yards and
two scores. He also rushed for his first touchdown with the Minutemen on a
7-yard roll-out to cut the Michigan lead to 35-24 in the fourth quarter.

Michigan¹s Heisman Trophy Candidate Denard Robinson gained 345 yards of total offense with 241 passing yards (10-14 and two touchdowns) and 104 on the ground including a touchdown.

He hooked up with Darryl Stonum for the two late first-half touchdowns from
66 and 9 yards to give the Wolverines the lead they would never relinquish.

The Wolverines added two more touchdowns in the third quarter on a pair of
rushing TDs from Michael Shaw (34 yards) and Robinson (8 yards). Shaw also ran in from four yards out with 11:57 left in the fourth for a 42-24 lead.

The Minutemen took a 3-0 lead as Caleb Violette booted home a 29-yard field goal, five minutes into the game.

UMass is now 8-22 against FBS opponents since the division was formed in
1978. UMass has not beaten an FBS team since topping Ball State in 1984,
26-10. UMass is also now 0-5 against ranked FBS teams.

The Minutemen return to action next Saturday at Stony Brook, playing the
Seawolves at 6 p.m. Listen to the game on the UMass Sports Network.