By MATT SWISS
GoRhody.com Senior Staff Writer
During the postgame press conference following Rhody's 38-34 victory over No. 13 Delaware this past Saturday, head coach Joe Trainer acknowledged the irony behind this past weekend's game being touted as Rhode Island's inaugural White Out game.
"Going into this week, we said we were going to make it a five-game season," Trainer said. "Appropriately enough, we're calling this game the White Out and we're just going to erase what happened the first six weeks of the year."
Leading up to the Rams' game against the Blue Hens on Oct. 22, fans were encouraged to purchase the official White Out t-shirt, with all the proceeds benefiting the South County Habitat for Humanity Organization. For Trainer, however, the term white out meant a lot more than just seeing a sea of white shirts fill the Meade Stadium crowd during Homecoming Weekend.
While it was Homecoming Weekend around the Kingston campus, on the field, it was a hometown product that helped key the Rhody victory. As sophomore quarterback Bob Bentsen - a Warwick, R.I. native - led the team out of the tunnel pre-game, he carried the symbolic team sledgehammer at the front of the pack. Two plays into the game, the second year signal caller dropped the hammer on a 73-yard touchdown strike to Anthony Baskerville and provided the previously 1-5 Rams with a much-needed spark.
"That one helped," Bentsen said. "Obviously everybody saw in the beginning of the game there were some pregame jitters and throwing those little screen passes out there obviously weren't really working out for me, so getting that deep ball really helped my confidence."
Bentsen completed 18 of his 33 pass attempts for 278 yards. He also ran for an additional 33 yards - including a two-point conversion in the first quarter. He also made reservations for six in the end zone three times, finding Baskerville early on and Brandon Johnson-Farrell twice for touchdown scores. The Warwick Vets grad has now thrown five touchdowns in just six quarters of action.
Despite the success early on, Bentsen has remained humble and assures that his numbers are merely a product of the hard work put in by the guys around him, both on the offensive line and on the perimeter as well.
"You've got what we call the five-strong up front and obviously the perimeter players are great players. That's what makes it happen," Bentsen said. "I could throw it for five yards and this guy next to me [Johnson-Farrell] could turn it into 90 and that just pumps my stats up. He did all the work. All I did was put the ball in his hands."
Trainer agreed, saying: "You love to see a kid who's making his first start get some confidence early. Obviously it was big for Bob getting that big play down the field and getting off to a great start."
For the Rams on White Out Day, there was no better start to clean the slate.
Matt Swiss is a senior journalism major at the University of Rhode Island. Follow him on Twitter at @mswissbeats.
