Colorado Buffaloes vs UMass Minutemen Match Player Stats On Sep 06, 2014

SportsDirect Inc. staff
Sep 6, 2014

Colorado 41, Massachusetts 38: Nelson Spruce recorded career highs with 10 catches, 145 yards and two touchdowns - including a 70-yard go-ahead score - to lead the visiting Buffaloes to a comeback victory over the upset-minded Minutemen at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.

Sefo Liufau was 26-of-42 for 318 yards and three touchdowns as Colorado (1-1) snapped an eight-game road losing streak. Freshman Shay Fields caught his first career TD pass while Christian Powell and Tony Jones added rushing scores for the Buffaloes, who erased a 31-20 deficit in the third quarter.

Blake Frohnapfel threw three touchdown passes - two to tight end Jean Sifrin in the first half - for Massachusetts (0-2), a 17-point underdog which lost its eighth straight game. Jamal Wilson and Marken Michel added rushing scores as the Minutemen recorded their highest-scoring output since joining the FBS in 2012.

Colorado began its comeback when Powell burst through the defense for a 14-yard touchdown run and took a 34-31 lead with 4:24 left in the third as Liufau - while rolling to his right - hit Spruce in stride at the Massachusetts 30, and the junior took it the rest of the way to make it 41-31. The Buffaloes put it away as Liufau's 3-yard TD pass to a wide-open Spruce capped a nine-play 81-yard drive with 11:16 left before Michel's 6-yard TD run with 2:55 remaining finished the scoring.

The Minutemen enjoyed their first lead in four games 7-3 on Frohnapfel's perfectly thrown 14-yard pass into the back corner of the end zone to Rodney Mills. Massachusetts led 31-20 on Wilson's 2-yard touchdown run, which came on the next play after Randall Jette intercepted Liufau and returned it 29 yards.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Colorado, which last won on the road 35-34 over Washington State on Sept. 22, 2012, is 3-31 away from home since 2008. ... Massachusetts, which posted back-to-back 1-11 seasons in 2012 and 2013, has scored more than seven points in only 14 of its 26 FBS games. ... Colorado K Will Oliver was 5-for-5 on extra points and has made 66 straight, tying the school record set by Ken Culbertson in 1988-89.