To commemorate the 10th anniversary of UMass' Division I-AA
Championship in 1998, I'm rerunning the game story from each game from
that season in its corresponding week this year. I'll add some
commentary on the old articles in in italics.

This game featured two future NFL running backs in Marcel Shipp and Brian Westbrook. It also marked the debut of new kicker Jason Cherry.It was only the seventh game of the season, but Todd Bankhead set the UMass single-season TD pass mark with 20.

Headline: UMASS HITS WILDCATS EARLY, OFTEN

AMHERST _ The No. 19 University of Massachusetts football team never gave No. 22 Villanova a chance Saturday, as the Minutemen took a 20-0 lead in the first quarter and rolled to a 36-26 win in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated. The game was played in front of a late-arriving homecoming crowd of 12,135 at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

"This was a great great win for us," Whipple said. "I'm so proud of the way our kids came back after a tough loss (last week against Connecticut)."

The win over the defending Atlantic 10 champs allowed the Minutemen (5-2, 3-1 A-10) to keep pace with Connecticut (6-1, 3-1) in the A-10's New England division. The Huskies beat Rhode Island, 31-17, Saturday.

Prior to Saturday, Villanova had owned the first 15 minutes of games this season, outscoring opponents 45-13 in the opening quarter over its first six games. The Minuteman game plan was to come out strong early and turn the tables.

"I thought the first quarter would be very important because Villanova had played so well all year in the first quarter," said UMass coach Mark Whipple.

The Wildcats helped the UMass cause right away, when quarterback Chris Boden fumbled the snap on the Wildcats' third play from scrimmage. Matt Dawson recovered to give the Minutemen the ball on Villanova's 36-yard-line.

Six plays later Todd Bankhead hit Marcel Shipp in the flat and the running back ran 10 yards into the endzone to put UMass ahead 7-0, just 3:35 into the game.

The TD pass was Bankhead's 20th of the season, tying the UMass single season mark.

Shipp found the endzone again less than eight minutes later, this time on the ground, running 3 yards through the line. Freshman Jason Cherry, who was making his first start as the UMass placekicker, missed the extra-point wide left, leaving UMass ahead 13-0.
After Villanova failed to move the ball, Connor Kinsella's punt pinned UMass on its own 1-yard line.
Runs of 7 and 8 yards by Shipp gave UMass some breathing room. At first-and-10 from his own 16, Bankhead launched the ball deep to a wide-open Sean Higgins, who was finally brought down at the Nova 20.
The 64-yard bomb, which was UMass' longest pass of the season, set up its most impressive play of 1998. On third-and-9 from the 19, Bankhead fired to Jimmy Moore in the endzone.
The pass was high, and the single coverage on Moore was tight. Fighting off the defender with one arm, Moore leaped, shot his right arm straight up and hauled the pass in one-handed for the touchdown. That put UMass ahead 20-0.
"The touchdown catch that he made is as good as you're ever going to see anywhere," Whipple said. "That alone lifted up the team and lifted the crowd to say this UMass team is for real, when you go up and make a play like that for a touchdown on a third-down play. He's been solid for us all year. He's been a great player for us."
"I threw a bad ball and he went up and got it," said Bankhead, who took sole possession of the single season TD record on the play. "That boosted the whole team."
Cherry's first career field goal from 28 yards put UMass ahead 23-0 midway through the second quarter before Casey Hannon nailed a 35-yarder for the Wildcats to make the score 23-3 at halftime.
Shipp, who ran for 175 yards on 41 carries, got 39 of those on a long touchdown run on UMass' first drive after intermission. Cherry missed the PAT again, and UMass led 29-3.
Villanova caught its first break of the game on its next possession. After seeing no open receivers down field, Boden took off up the middle, but fumbled the ball as he fought through a pile of tacklers. The Minutemen recovered, but the officials ruled Boden was already down.
Whipple, who already was a bit hot under the collar from an earlier play, gave the officials an earful.
Four plays later Boden hit Brian Westbrook for a 37-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 29-10.
While not as highlight film-worthy as his senior teammate's earlier touchdown, freshman Adrian Zullo's diving catch in the endzone on a 16-yard throw by Bankhead was enough to draw cheers from the crowd and put the home team ahead 36-10.
Feeding off the offense's energy the UMass defense produced a three-and-out. Minuteman returner Kevin Quinlan opted not to field Kinsella's punt, but the referee ruled that the ball nicked off Quinlan. Ademole Turner recovered to give the Wildcats a first-and-goal.
Whipple stormed out to the middle of the field to argue the call, which earned him an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty.
"I've never gotten a 15-yarder in my coaching career. I wanted to show our kids that we're behind them 100 percent," a cooler-headed Whipple said after the game. "I thought the officials were wearing Villanova a little bit and I just wanted to make a statement a little bit that we were going to play our tails off and that we were in this together.
"It was a sign," Whipple continued. "Not to show up anybody, but that we're for the kids. The kids were playing too hard to let anything go away and I wasn't going to let that happen."
Westbrook scored on a 4-yard run and the Wildcats added another TD late, but interceptions by Dawson and Brian Smith made the offense's early work hold up.
"We just rode it out at the end, Whipple said. "We've played in three what I consider big games. At Delaware, and last week at UConn we just didn't find a way to win. Today we found a way to win. They're the defending champions and they weren't going to die easy. To win by 10 points, we're ecstatic."
After the game, Nova coach Andy Talley praised the Minuteman offense.
"UMass executed their offense very well. They did a good job of finding open receivers," he said. "They hit the tight end a lot. Shipp is a really good running back."
Bankhead finished with 283 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. After the game he shrugged off the significance of his addition to the record books.
"The only record I care about is that we're 5-2," Bankhead said. "I felt pretty good about everything, but I didn't play as well as I should have in the second half and we need to finish people off."
The Minutemen return to the road Saturday, when they travel to New Hampshire for a 12:30 game with the Wildcats.

...10 years since that game...