The hype created of family weekend and the Richmond football home-opener proved to be overwhelming for Howard on Saturday, as the Spiders ran over the Bison.
The game was over long before the final whistle. By the end of the first half, the Spiders were already leading 48-7.
Kyle Lauletta had the most productive game by a quarterback in Spider history. He finished the day with a school-record six touchdowns while completing 89 percent of his passes.
Richmond’s 68 points marked another record, as it was the most points scored by the Spiders in the modern-era. The last time Richmond put up a similar number was in 1943, when the Spiders beat Norfolk State 74-7.
Russ Huesman, Richmond's head coach, struggled to find any negative takeaways from the game. When asked what he thought of Lauletta’s performance he jokingly said, “I’m disappointed in three incompletions, that’s not good, he can’t throw three incompletions in a game.”
Richmond’s defense was just as dominant as the offense. It held Bison quarterback Caylin Newton, the younger brother of former NFL MVP Cam Newton, to just five completions. Howard finished with just 288 yards of total offense with two turnovers.
Junior linebacker Dale Matthews had his first and second career interception, and was pressuring the Howard offense all game.
“It gives energy to each side of the ball when the other one is playing hard,” said Matthews.
Newton couldn’t find the rhythm that helped him engineer the biggest upset in college football history when he rushed for almost 200 yards to lead the Bison to a win over UNLV as 45-point underdogs in the first game of the season.
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On Saturday, Newton threw multiple interceptions, missed receivers and threw wildly inaccurate passes.
It was also a reunion for Howard head coach Mike London and Huesman. London was the head coach of the 2008 NCAA National Championship winning Spiders while Huesman was architect of that team's top-ranked defense.
Richmond is home again next week against Elon, the first in-conference game of the season.
Contact sports editor Mike Cronin @michael.cronin1@richmond.edu
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