Spiders oust Tribe to claim Capital Cup, share of CAA title

Senior Kicker Andrew Howard booted a 48-yard field goal with :02 seconds remaining to lift Richmond to a thrilling 13-10 victory over William & Mary in the last ever U of R football game at 81-year old University of Richmond stadium. With the win the Spiders claimed not only the Capital Cup, the new name given to this rivalry in the 119th meeting between these two teams, but more importantly a share of the CAA title.

November 21, 2009; 10:19 PM • by Chris Farmer

The heroic kick from Howard offered redemption. He missed what would have been the game winning kick two weeks ago in a 21-20 loss to Villanova. Then, earlier in this contest he missed on two opportunities to break a 3-3 tie, one from 28 yards out and one from 40. The misses were particularly painful because they came at the end of two nine-play Spider drives that ate up about five minutes of the clock apiece. Undaunted, Howard kept his composure and knocked down the one that counted most, sending the home crowd into a celebratory frenzy.

The game played out as it had appeared on paper before the initial whistle—two hard-nosed defenses going to war. William & Mary’s defense, ranked No.1 against the run, held Richmond’s running backs to 36 yards rushing and sacked Eric Ward five times. Richmond’s No.3 rush defense held the league’s leading rusher Jonathan Grimes to 41 yards rushing and intercepted R.J. Archer twice, the second of which set up the Spiders’ game clinching drive.

Both teams now await the announcement of their matchups in the upcoming FCS playoffs. The pairings will be unveiled at 3:00pm Sunday by ESPNews.

Chris Farmer writes about the NFL and Fantasy Football on his blog Undrafteds and Bleacher Report. He is also the Arizona Cardinals writer for NFLTouchdown.com and a blogging intern at FantasyFootball.com.