PROVO – BYU’s offense stalled in a 16-10 loss against UMass on Saturday afternoon in the last home game of the year at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
“Congratulations to UMass for making enough plays to win the game,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said. “This season has obviously been disappointing, but we have to find a way to work through it, and springboard next season with a win next week.”
Junior running back Squally Canada had 11 carries for 55 yards. Sophomore Micah Simon led BYU receivers with 66 receiving yards on two catches. In his second career start, freshman quarterback Joe Critchlow completed 21 of 45 passes for 257 yards and one touchdown. But he also threw four interceptions.
Junior defensive end Sione Takitaki had two tackles for loss, including a sack. Senior linebacker Fred Warner had five tackles with two pass break-ups.
On special teams, junior defensive back Micah Shelton returned six punts for 86 yards, including a 39-yarder.
The game’s first quarter ended with neither team getting on the scoreboard.
UMass kicker Logan Laurent made a 34-yard field goal to put the Minutemen up 3-0 with five minutes left in the first half. They held that lead going into the half.
Two minutes into the second half, UMass quarterback Andrew Ford connected with Andy Isabella for a 40-yard touchdown pass. The Minutemen led 10-0.
Laurent hit a 28-yard field goal halfway through the third quarter to extend the UMass lead to 13-0. He made it 16-0 on a 35-yard field goal two minutes later.
BYU got on the board with a Rhett Almond 40-yard field goal with 1:35 left in the third quarter. The Cougars trailed 16-3.
With just under a minute to play, Critchlow threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Matt Bushman to cut BYU’s deficit to 16-10.
But UMass recovered an onside kick by BYU and was able to run out the clock from there.
The Cougars play on the road next week against Hawaii at 4 p.m. HST in the final game of the season. It will be televised on the CBS Sports Network with radio broadcasts on BYU Radio (Sirius XM 143) and KSL (102.7 FM and 1160 AM).
Game book: UMass-BYU-statistics
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