Box Score RICHMOND, Va. - The eighth-ranked Richmond Spiders defeated VMI, 58-7, Saturday afternoon in college football action before 10,560 spectators at UR Stadium.
Richmond raised its record to 2-0 while VMI fell to 1-2.
The Spiders rolled up 560 yards total offense and were led by the tailback tandem of freshman Justin Forte who rushed for a game high 144 yards on 24 carries and a touchdown, and senior Tim Hightower who scored three touchdowns including 106 yards rushing.
VMI's lone score came on a Jonathan Wilson one-yard run with :24 left in the third quarter.
Keydet head coach Jim Reid, returning to UR for the first time after serving as head coach of the Spiders from 1995 to 2003, saw his team start the day in promising fashion when the Keydets forced a fumble on Richmond's first play from scrimmage. The Spiders were also forced to punt on their second possession of the game.
But the VMI offense was unable to generate consistency in the first quarter and the Spiders started a string of points late in the first quarter when a 33-yard punt return by Ryan Mace to the VMI 21 set up a one-yard run by tailback Josh Vaughn at the 6:39 mark. The touchdown was the first of seven straight scoring possessions by the Spiders, who led 44-0 at the break.
VMI's scoring possession was a 14-play, 72-yard drive that was keyed by freshman running back
Tim Maypray's four rushed for 31 yards and sophomore slotback Joey Robinson's two rushed for 20 yards. The 14 plays of the drive were all on the ground.
Richmond starting quarterback Eric Ward completed eight of nine passes for 130 yards and two scores before giving way to reserve QB Levi brown who was 5 for 5 for 63 yards and a touchdown.
The Keydets were led in rushing by Maypray with 42 yards in seven carries. Senior back Sean Mizzer rushed 12 times for 34 yards.
Freshman linebacker Mike Hutchings co-led VMI in tackles with 10 along with sophomore linebacker Terrel Allen.
The Keydets face William & Mary in Williamsburg next Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.
HEAD COACH JIM REID- "We ran into what I honestly believe is, or at least what I hope is, the best football team we'll face all year. We have William & Mary, James Madison, West Point and then the Big South, so I probably shouldn't say this, but we faced the best team that we've run into so far this year today.
About coming back to play his former team:
"At 5:55, when the game was over, as I said all week, was when I felt relieved. I held it together pretty good until Sherman Logan came over, and then I lost it."
On his team's performance:
"I'm not sure that we did much of anything well today. We just couldn't get on track from the very beginning of the game. And again offensively, we had penalties early that hurt us and stopped the flow of the game. And then we just got swallowed up by that offensive line. We tried everything, and we just got swallowed up. They're a big group that can move their feet. They have a talented quarterback and a very good set of wide receivers, led by Arman Shields, and a couple of great tailbacks."
On the defense's tackling:
"Before I say that we had poor tackling, against Davidson, we tackled really, really well; and against Norfolk State we tackled fairly well. Then today, our tackling wasn't that good. So I think what you need to say is that our guys were out there, doing the best they could, and they were tackling the fastest players that they've seen so far. It's not easy to tackle real fast players. It reminded me a little bit of 1997, when we played these guys and it was 56-3. We just couldn't seem to get anything going, and then Richmond put their twos in, and at least we moved the ball a little bit."
"It is what it is. We've got a lot of work to do. I think we've said that from day one. I don't think that our players quit, we played hard. It's just that it was hard, against a really good team."
