By Patrick McHugh, News Staff

Losing 15 of the previous 16 football contests can get tiresome. Head football coach Rocky Hager had a word for it after his team’s most recent loss.
‘Frustrating day,’ Hager said. ‘Best way to describe it.’
The University of Massachusetts-Amherst frustrated the Huskies in a 37-7 victory Saturday in front of 6,725 at Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium. UMass improved to 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Northeastern drops to 1-8 overall, 1-5 in the CAA. NU has not won a game in Amherst since 1958, a 15-game streak.
The Minutemen picked up three points on a field goal from senior kicker Armando Cuko with 6:31 to go in the first quarter, then caught the visitors off-guard to open things up. Facing a 4th-and-3 from its own 36-yard line on its next possession, UMass used a fake punt that allowed senior defensive back Jeromy Miles to pick up 32 yards and a first down. Six plays later senior tailback Tony Nelson plunged into the end zone from a yard out to make it 10-0 UMass 40 seconds into the second quarter.
Hager said his team was not surprised by the fake punt, but simply did not execute.
‘UMass has run that play from a variety of alignments since Jesus was in sandals,’ Hager said. ‘I mean, it’s been here forever. We just flat old did not fit up.’
A 30-yard pass from junior quarterback Kyle Havens to senior wide receiver Victor Cruz set up the next UMass score. A play later, Nelson’s second one-yard touchdown run with 10:10 to go in the quarter made the score 17-0 UMass.
The Minutemen travelled 88 yards on their next scoring drive, capped by an 11-yard toss from Havens to Cruz to make the score 24-0 with 2:57 before halftime. Cuko added a field goal with four seconds to go in the second quarter to send both teams to the break with UMass ahead 27-0.
The Huskies struggled on offense during the first half, accumulating just 55 yards, 52 of which came from the rushing contributions of junior running back John Griffin.
Hager said his team was in the proper positions to make plays, but could not carry out all assisgnments.
‘It’s a frustrating thing when you have things called that ought to be able to fit together, and we just didn’t execute,’ Hager said.
Nelson scored his third touchdown of the day with 8:27 to go in the third quarter on a nine-yard run, making it 34-0. Nelson finished with 116 yards rushing on the day.
Northeastern caught a break and scored to open the fourth quarter. NU freshman linebacker Chad Hunte intercepted a pass from UMass backup senior quarterback Scott Woodward, then returned it 51 yards into the end zone to give the Huskies their only score of the game 14 seconds into the final quarter.
Hunte said he was excited to make a play to help his team, but said the final result was the only one that mattered.
‘It was a great feeling making an interception return, but at the end, like coach said, it was still frustrating to end with a loss,’ Hunte said.
Cuko tacked on one more field goal with 8:34 to go to make the score 37-7. Northeastern had a chance to add a late touchdown, but sophomore running back Tony Torres fumbled at the UMass goalline with 2:20 to go to prevent the visitors from reaching double-digits.
Northeastern faces Hofstra Saturday for a 1 p.m. match-up. It will be the last home game of the season as the team will honor its 27 seniors with a pregame ceremony. The game is also part of Homecoming Weekend, which runs through Sunday.
Hager alluded to the injured players on his team and the need to prepare backups to play.
‘There’s an awful lot of good football players that watched the game in sweatsuits,’ Hager said. ‘We have got to make it happen with the ones that are on the field.’