The University of Richmond football team washed away any hopes of victory that long-standing rival Virginia Military Institute had with a 38-14 landslide win on Saturday, Sept. 20.
This win marks the first home game of the season for Richmond, and comes after a devastating loss to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last week.
The team returned from the road with a 1-2 record to face long-standing rivals the Keydets. Richmond’s win brings the rivals’s all-time record to 47-40, Richmond leading.
Richmond's most recent matchup occurred in 2015 where the Spiders won another landslide victory with a score of 42-10.
The first quarter started off with a bang as both teams scored touchdowns in the first five minutes, with VMI scoring its first at kickoff with a 75-yard run. However, the Spiders were quick to respond as sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Dawson scored another touchdown with a 67-yard run.
However, the game came to an abrupt stop when rain and thunder forced the stadium to be cleared out and delayed the game for 3 hours. The teams returned to the field near the end of the first quarter with neither making much progress.
The Keydets attempted to come back in the second quarter scoring another touchdown in the first two minutes, tying the game. After a lengthy back-and-forth, the Spiders were, however, able to rebound scoring a touchdown, interception and field goal.
Despite this rebound, the Spiders’s performance was far from perfect, with the team losing out on two touchdown passes due to penalties. Nonetheless, the first half ended with the Spiders leading with a score of 24-14.
These mistakes continued into the third quarter as senior quarterback Kyle Wickersham fumbled the ball in the first two minutes. After somewhat of a stalemate, sophomore running back Andrew King was able to revitalize the Spiders by scoring a touchdown with an 83-yard run.
Wickersham made up for his mistake, scoring Richmond’s final touchdown in the first minutes of the fourth quarter. The game remained stagnant for the remainder of the quarter except for senior linebacker Carter Glassmyer who scored a sack.
The Spiders ended the game with a score of 38-14 and 541 yards of offense, over 350 more than the Keydets. These yard gains were led mainly by running back King and junior running back Jamaal Brown who combined ran 253 yards.
“It was a good win, offensively, I thought we did a great job offensively, we generated big plays,” Head Coach Russ Huesman said in a postgame press conference. “I think our running backs were incredible today, broke a lot of tackles, got a lot of yards after contact, that was huge.”
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Richmond looks to improve its record and will remain at Robins Stadium next week where it will take on Howard University Sept. 27 at 2 p.m.
Contact sports writer Liam Gunawardena at liam.gunawardena@richmond.edu
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