Football continues historic season with playoff win over CCSU

Photo courtesy of Connor Caldon -- URI Athletics

For the first time in nearly four decades, the University of Rhode Island has won a playoff football game. 

A cagey, back-and-forth battle ended in a URI win on Saturday as the Rams took to Meade Stadium looking to keep a historic 2024 season alive, defeating Central Connecticut State University 21-17. 

“I thought that was one of our ugliest wins, but still representative of what kind of team this is in terms of staying in it, just finding a way to get it done,” URI Head Coach Jim Flemming said postgame. “There was a lot of things we need to fix, but we'll take it.”

URI’s offense was led by graduate running back Malik Grant, who became the first player in program history to put up back-to-back 200-yard rushing games when he nearly matched CCSU’s team total of 271 yards of offense with 223 of his own.

Grant broke the single-season rushing record with 1,390 total yards, snapping a mark that had stood since 2001. Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore wideout Marquis Buchanan caught five passes for 24 yards, breaking the 1,000-yard season mark and marking the first time in program history the Rams have had a 1,000-yard rusher and 1,000-yard receiver in the same season.

In a much different fashion than the last win at home vs. Albany – and most of the season, for that matter – Rhode Island struck first on Saturday, putting up a pair of early touchdowns in the space of two snaps to quickly go up 14-0.

After both offenses sputtered out in the opening drives of the game, the Rams opened the scoring with 2:31 left in the first quarter when senior quarterback Hunter Helms found redshirt-senior wide receiver Tommy Smith with a 38-yard touchdown pass. 

Smith led the way for the URI offense with both of their offensive scores, the second of which broke a 14-14 deadlock and ultimately sealed the win for Rhode Island late in the fourth quarter.

URI’s defense, which was dominant throughout the afternoon with three forced interceptions, doubled the URI lead just 14 seconds after Smith’s first score when redshirt-senior defensive back Emmanuel Gomes picked off junior quarterback Brady Olson for a 42-yard pick-six return before the Blue Devils could move the ball out of their own half.

“Going up 14-0, I just knew we had to stay level-headed,” Gomes said. “Everybody was cheering, congratulating me, but my mindset is just next play, next play. It's football, anything can happen, but I'm just trying to stay level-headed.”

The visitors didn’t let the early scoring blitz phase them, rallying back to knot the game at 14 when Olson found graduate wide receiver Isaac Boston for a pair of touchdown receptions in the second and third quarters. 

After Smith’s second touchdown of the day – a six-yard rush that secured a 21-14 lead with less than five minutes to go – it was up to the URI defense to see out the game. After forcing CCSU to settle for a 32-yard field goal, the Rams bled nearly four minutes off the clock with a pair of first downs before giving the Blue Devils one last chance with less than a minute to play. 

In a last-ditch attempt by Olson to get the ball down the field, graduate defensive lineman Carson Primrose got a hand in the way of his pass, setting up a game-sealing interception by senior defensive lineman Westley Neal Jr. – the first of his career – to send the Rams to Mercer with an FCS quarterfinal berth on the line.

“He's Superman,” Fleming said. “No kidding. [If] you look at it, [there’s] two games, appropriately, that [Neal] has single-handedly ended.”

Neal also secured the game-winning field goal block in the Rams’ regular season finale vs. Albany, completing a 17-point second-half comeback that saw URI stay undefeated at home for the first time since 1985.

Fresh off the heels of their first-ever CAA title, a program-record 11th win on the season will see Jim Fleming and company hit the road to take on Mercer in the second round of the NCAA FCS Playoffs on Saturday.

The second-round matchup is set to kick off at 2 p.m. on ESPN+, as the Rams look to stretch a record-breaking season at least another week.