Howard's field goal gives Richmond win against William & Mary, CAA title

For the second year in a row, the University of Richmond football team beat the College of William & Mary by three points thanks to a walk-off field goal.

Richmond senior place kicker Andrew Howard drilled a 48-yard field goal as time expired to give the Spiders a 13-10 win against the College of William & Mary in front of 17,527 fans during the final regular-season game at UR Stadium. The Spiders secured their second Colonial Athletic Association title during the last three seasons with the win.

William & Mary had the ball on the Richmond 39-yard line with less than 20 seconds to go when Tribe senior quarterback R.J. Archer threw an interception to Richmond junior cornerback Justin Rogers with 14 seconds left. Richmond quarterback Eric Ward completed two passes on the next two plays to sophomore wide receiver Tre Gray and junior wide receiver Kevin Grayson to get the Spiders to the William & Mary 31-yard line with 2 seconds left during the game.

"I knew we had time to run about two plays, maybe get a timeout and give the kid a shot," Ward said. "That's all I tried to do, just take what they gave us."

After a Richmond timeout, Howard lined up for the kick from the left hash mark. Though he had missed field goals from 28 and 40 yards earlier during the game, this kick went right through the center of the uprights with plenty of distance.

"I was surprised Coach London put me in," Howard said. "It meant a lot to me that Coach put me in that situation, that he had enough faith in me to put me in. ... I had been ready all half. This is what I started kicking for, for this situation."

London said he had considered using freshman kicker Wil Kamin instead of Howard for the final try, but that he decided to stick with the more experienced kicker.

"Conventional wisdom was probably to take Andrew out," London said, "but something just felt to me, you know, that you just gotta stick with the veteran."

Even though London had faith in Howard, he still couldn't stand to watch the potential game-winning kick.

"I was down on the grass," London said. "I didn't see what happened. It was one of those things where if I heard the yelling behind me, I knew we made it."

Only minutes before Howard's kick, it appeared that the Tribe would be the ones with a chance to win it on a last-second field goal, but Archer's interception opened the door for the Spiders.

The pick happened after confusion between Archer and William & Mary wide receiver Cam Dohse. Dohse thought Archer would run the ball, so he turned his back just as Archer released the ball, and Rogers was in the right place to pick it off.

"It looked like Archer was going to run," Rogers said. "He gave me a little pump fake and I guess he thought I was going to bite, but I was more concerned with the wide receiver in front of me. I ended up catching the ball and it was a great play for us."

The Spiders had taken their first lead of the game 10-3 early during the fourth quarter, when they took advantage of good field position to stage a 30-yard touchdown drive. Senior running back Justin Forte rushed in from 4 yards out for the first touchdown of the game to end the drive.

But, on William & Mary's ensuing possession, the Tribe converted on a third-and-10 from their own 30-yard line and then Archer threw a 60-yard touchdown to Dohse to even the score only two minutes after Richmond had gone ahead.

"I just can't say enough about the character of our defense," Richmond senior cornerback Seth Williams said. "You're going to make some big plays, and if you mess up, it's a big play [for the opponent]. You've just got to have a short memory out there. We never got down on each other, we just picked each other up and got ready to fight another down."

Defense dominated for most of the game and forced a total of 15 punts. William & Mary defenders sacked Ward five times and held the Spiders to only 18 net rushing yards, but the Richmond defense held strong. The Spiders limited the Tribe to only 65 yards on the ground and forced two turnovers.

Ward finished 24-of-36 passing for 221 yards and one interception. Gray made seven catches for 95 yards while Forte managed 32 yards rushing on 15 carries.

For the Tribe, Archer completed 17 of 36 passes for 209 yards and a touchdown and two interceptions. Sophomore running back Jonathan Grimes rushed for 41 yards on 13 carries and wide receiver Cameron Dohse caught five passes for 130 yards.

The game was the 119th between the Spiders and the Tribe and was deemed the battle for the Capital Cup this season. Richmond took home the Cup and Ward was named the game's MVP.

The Spiders finished the regular season 10-1 and 7-1 in the CAA and will share the CAA title with Villanova University. William & Mary finished the season 9-2 and 6-2 in the CAA.

Both teams are headed to the NCAA playoffs, and with the win, Richmond has positioned itself for a possible top-four seed, which would guarantee the Spiders home field for at least the first two rounds. The NCAA Division I Football Selection Show is at 3 p.m. tomorrow on ESPNews. There will be a viewing party for the selection show in Jepson Hall Room 118.

The first round of the playoffs will be played next Saturday and Richmond will host its first game at UR Stadium. The location and time will be determined after the selection show on Sunday afternoon.

Contact staff writer Reilly Moore at reilly.moore@richmond.edu