Rapid Recap: No. 17 Richmond falls to New Hampshire, 29-26

The no. 17 University of Richmond Spiders watched a late lead and a shot at an upset slip away against no. 7 University of New Hampshire when the Wildcats scored a last-minute touchdown to beat Richmond 29-26. The Spiders had a total of 469 yards of offense, but wasted some scoring opportunities before watching senior quarterback Andy Vailas come in for the injured Sean Goldrich and lead New Hampshire to its comeback victory.

Positives:

That 469 yards of offense is another impressive figure for the Richmond scoring unit, and the Spiders’ receiving core continues to step up in the absence of star redshirt-senior Stephen Barnette. Today it was Brian Brown who filled the big shoes setting career highs in both catches (12) and yardage (139). Rashad Ponder had impressive numbers as well (109 yards on seven catches), which got overshadowed by a costly fumble on the Wildcats' 1-yard line. On the ground, the yardage totals weren’t quite as impressive as they were in the Hampton game last week, but Seth Fisher returned to the field with some solid power running to get into the end zone twice.

Negatives:

Two major negatives stick out from the Spiders' play today. The first was the defense being shredded by the quarterbacks on the ground. New Hampshire starter Sean Goldrich rushed 12 times for 87 yards and three touchdowns, outperforming any of the Richmond run games individual stats. Goldrich was injured late in the game, and replacement Andy Vailas came in and continued to find holes in the defense to rush through, picking up an additional 28 yards. Any quarterback in the conference, with any kind of speed, is circling the matchup with the Spiders on the calendar after today’s performance of slowing down the run from the quarterback position. The other negative is one that’s been a little bit of a reoccurrence as the Spiders once again lost the turnover battle. Not only did Ponder cough up the ball one yard away from scoring, but the defense once again finished the day without forcing a turnover. For a defense that led the country in turnovers two seasons ago, and ranked rather high last season as well, this is very troubling.

Up Next:

The Spiders will get a much-needed week off before heading on the road for back-to-back games. The first is against Liberty University Oct. 4, and then Richmond will head north to take on a currently undefeated University of Albany Oct. 11.