For about 15 minutes, it appeared Saturday’s game against Miami (Ohio) would be a different story for the UMass football team.

After three games against MAC opponents where they were outscored 56-14 in the final 20 minutes, the Minutemen were the team in command in the fourth quarter, tying the game at 17 with a touchdown midway through the period and then taking the lead on a chip shot field goal with just 40 seconds left.

But the same old problems came back to haunt the Minutemen. Miami methodically marched down the field on a seven-play, 47-yard drive to tie the game on a 47-yard field goal as time expired in regulation. In overtime, back-to-back penalties erased a potential UMass touchdown and pushed a field goal attempt back, one that struggling kicker Jacob Lurie missed from 46 yards.

Miami didn’t gain any yards on its overtime possession, but Dom Dzioban banged a 43-yarder through the uprights to give the sputtering MAC champions a 23-20 sudden death win — their first of the year — and send UMass home at 1-4 in what was by far its best chance for its first FBS win of the season.

“What you’re trying to do is you’re trying to defend the field but not let them throw the ball over your head,” head coach Don Brown said after the game. “And obviously, there were a couple of scenarios where we’re counting on guys to be fillers if the quarterback scrambles and we were late getting to the party.”

Penalties have been holding UMass back for Brown’s entire tenure with the Minutemen, but after the very first snap of the fourth quarter, UMass played a penalty-free period to tie the game and take the lead. Taisun Phommachanh and CJ Hester proved to be a formidable duo on the ground, combining for 60 rushing yards on the game-tying touchdown drive and another 35 on the go-ahead field goal drive.

When the Minutemen got the ball to start overtime, they again leaned on the ground game, and after two carries by Hester, they faced a 3rd and 1 at the Miami 16. An illegal formation penalty pushed them to 3rd and 6, but Jakobie Keeney-James made a nice play to adjust on a catch near the sideline and score the go-ahead touchdown.

But instead of Keeney-James’ second touchdown of the day, the play was whistled back for an ineligible man downfield call on fifth-year senior center Josh Atwood. 

“No question, we made some big plays there,” Brown said. “But I was a little disappointed that we had that penalty kind of erase it late in the game.”

After an incompletion, Lurie’s kick went wide right. The grad-transfer did set a new season-long with a 45-yarder in the first half, but he’s now just 6-for-12 on the season, with at least one miss in four of UMass’ five games and multiple misses in three.

Despite the loss, there were several bright spots for the Minutemen, though both offenses spent much of the contest battling for field position in the rain. Miami’s offense came into Saturday averaging an FBS-low 8.3 points per game and mostly struggled to move the ball aside from two big runs up the middle from Keyon Mozee — a 27-yard touchdown in the first quarter and a 66-yarder that set Miami up inside the UMass 10 in the third quarter.

With Brandon Campbell out due to an upper body injury and Jalen John struggling again to separate himself as the lead back in the committee, Hester provided a much-needed burst in the fourth quarter and put up 14 carries for 63 yards and a touchdown. In the fourth quarter, John didn’t receive a carry, while Hester racked up eight for 49 yards and a score.

Taisun Phommachanh rushed for a season-high 80 yards, including a pair of huge conversions on 3rd and 4 and 3rd and 7 on UMass’ go-ahead drive. His 18 carries, which included eight in the fourth quarter, marked a new career-high.

His new favorite target Jakobie Keeney-James had another breakout game, catching four passes for 150 yards and a touchdown, the best performance by a UMass receiver since Andy Isabella’s 303 yards against Georgia in 2018. Keeney-James accounted for almost 90% of Phommachanh’s 173 passing yards in the first game since the official announcement that former No. 1 receiver Anthony Simpson is no longer with the program.

Facing a 3rd and 13 towards the end of the first quarter, Phommachanh found Keeney-James streaking down the sideline, and the FCS Eastern Washington transfer gathered the pass after a bobble and scored from 64 yards out to mark UMass’ longest play of the season.

In the third quarter, with Phommachanh standing at his own goal line following a well-placed punt from the Redhawks, Keeney-James made another explosive play, catching a 51-yarder down the middle of the field. He also grabbed a 28-yarder on the first play of UMass’ field goal drive in the final minutes. This was his third time in four games clearing 90 yards receiving.

“Jakobie, he’s been a guy I can count on since he first got in here,” Phommachanh said Monday. “We first hit it off back in the springtime, January, and we’ve just been building our connection and growing our connection each day.”

UMass was tantalizingly close to its biggest win of the season, but even as it appeared the Minutemen could knock off the defending conference champions, familiar demons haunted them.

Penalties didn’t just erase a UMass touchdown in overtime, they also springboarded Miami’s first touchdown of the day. Jerrod Cameron was called for pass interference on a third and long, turning a presumptive Miami punt into a Miami touchdown just two plays later.

It was the fourth time this season, and third in two weeks, that a UMass pass interference penalty led to an opponent touchdown later in the drive.

And though UMass’ defense held Miami for most of the game, the Redhawks’ game-tying field goal as time expired in regulation marked the seventh time this season UMass has allowed an opponent to score in less than a minute.

Though they didn’t allow the big play on that last drive, Redhawks sixth-year quarterback Brett Gabbert threw six passes between four and 13 yards and scrambled once for five yards to move Miami to the edge of field goal range with four seconds left.

“I feel like we’re making significant progress as you can see,” Brown said. “But the same thing is, you’ve got to get over the hump and that’s what we’re shooting for.”

Notes: Dominick Mazotti returned to the lineup and posted one catch for seven yards after exiting the Toledo game in the first quarter and missing the Buffalo and CCSU games due to a lower body injury … UMass continued to struggle in kick coverage and would have allowed a punt return touchdown in the third quarter if not for a holding call away from the play. The Minutemen allowed a kick return touchdown against Toledo in week two … Jalen Harrell grabbed his first career interception in the final seconds of the second quarter at the goal line to deny a Miami field goal attempt.