THE No-12 ranked University of New Hampshire football team notched another Rock-Tober win on Saturday at Maine, 28-21, and looks to close out a perfect month with a game at Rhode Island on Saturday.

The Wildcats have coined this month Rock-Tober for its road-heavy schedule and a poster on the door of the football office and posters in the locker room chronicle the challenges.

“I love it,” said senior offensive lineman and captain Chris Zarkoskie. “I took a picture of it with my phone. It’s Rock-Tober and the road through Rock-Tober leads back to the Granite State and two games in the Dungeon, which is always exciting.”

UNH pulled down its second road win of the month in Orono and has the one date left at URI.

The Wildcats then close out the regular season with home games against William & Mary on Nov. 3 and Towson on Nov. 17.

Sean McDonnell’s team has won four straight games and the Wildcats improved to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association with the win over Maine.

“It’s always good when you get a win up there,” McDonnell said Sunday night. “It was a hard-fought game and both teams did some good things on both sides of the ball. We just made a couple more defensive plays when we needed them, an interception, a couple of batted balls.”

Senior defensive tackle Jared Smith had nine tackles and three pass deflections.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Sean Goldrich was back as the starter with Andy Vailas, a sophomore out of Bedford and Bishop Guertin of Nashua, a little banged up.

Goldrich completed 18 of his 39 passes for 283 and four touchdowns. He had one pass intercepted.

“He did fine and they weren’t great conditions,” McDonnell said. “On a couple of drives, he made some real good throws. He was a little rusty, though.”

Goldrich was hurt early in the second game against Minnesota and had seen limited action in the last two games.

Goldrich and Vailas will be back at it to prepare for Rhode Island.

“We’ll go through practice again this week and whoever is healthiest and better in practice will start,” McDonnell said.

McDonnell also said that junior free safety Chris Beranger, who has missed the last four games with concussion symptoms, is likely done for the season. Beranger started the first four games and was hurt against Old Dominion.

He started every game last season and was second on the team with 142 tackles, the fourth-best total in school history.

Sophomore tight end Harold Spears had two of the touchdown catches, one covering 79 yards and the other 6. Junior Chris Setian ran 17 times for 76 yards and caught three passes for 21 yards and a score and sophomore R.J. Harris had seven catches for 88 yards and a touchdown.

UNH is one of four teams atop the CAA standings and each has one league loss. Villanova is also at 4-1 and James Madison and Old Dominion are at 3-1. ODU, which is leaving the league after this season and moving up a level up to the Football Bowl Subdivision, is not eligible to win the CAA championship.

Rhode Island lost at Delaware, 47-24, on Saturday to fall to 0-7 overall and 0-4 in the CAA.

The Wildcats have won seven of their last eight games against Rhode Island, but dropped a 28-25 decision when last they played in Kingston in 2010.

UNH led 25-21 when the Rams returned a fumble 39 yards for the winning score with just over two minutes remaining.

URI officials had announced that the school was leaving the CAA for the Northeast Conference, but announced just before this season started that the Rams were instead staying put..

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DICK UMILE’S hockey team got some payback with a 4-1 win over Boston University on Saturday night.

The Terriers played a role in getting UNH’s 2011-12 season off to a rough start and then finished off the Wildcats by knocking them out of the Hockey East quarterfinals.

Last year, UNH lost its season opener, 5-0 at BU.

The Wildcats, ranked No. 15 last week, will try to further erase memories of last year’s start on Friday night when they play Northeastern at the Whittemore Center at 7:30. After the opening loss to BU last season, UNH went to Northeastern and lost, 4-0.

Northeastern beat Merrimack, 4-2, and Boston College, 3-1, in its first two games this season, then lost at BC, 3-0, on Saturday night.

Senior Chris Rawlings has a .935 save percentage and 2.00 goals-against average for the Huskies.

Casey DeSmith, UNH’s sophomore goalie from Rochester, also has a 2.00 GAA to go with his .920 save percentage. DeSmith had 24 saves on Saturday night.

Senior forward John Henrion, junior forward Nick Sorkin, junior defenseman Eric Knodel and senior forward Scott Pavelski had the UNH goals against BU.

Henrion is one of five Wildcats — Sorkin, Trevor van Riemsdyk, junior Dalton Speelman and senior Austin Block are the others — with a pair of goals so far. Henrion had five goals in 34 games last season.

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THE cross country teams look to make a run for an America East title when they host the league championship meet on Saturday.

Coach Jim Boulanger expects the men’s race to be wide open among seven teams, including the Wildcats.

The women’s team is shooting for a top three spot and wants to challenge Stony Brook and Vermont for first.

“It’s the same as the men,” Boulanger said. “We all have a little bit of a feel we can win it, particularly at home. We’ll be comfortable on our home course.”

Cory Sinotte, a senior and former standout at Manchester Central, is having his best season and leads the men. Sam Gagnon, a sophomore and also out of Central, has had bronchitis and will not race.

Senior Keely Maguire, junior Elise Beattie and freshman Laura Rose Donegan are among the women’s leaders and are joined by senior Darcy James and junior Anne Twombly of Exeter and senior Erin Phillips of Belmont.

The men’s race, over an 8-kilometer course, begins at 10 a.m. The 5K women’s race starts at 11 a.m.

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THE men’s soccer team is at 5-6-4 overall and 1-2-1 in America East after Saturday’s 0-0 tie at Vermont.

UNH plays at Stony Brook on Wednesday night and faces Boston University at home on Saturday at 7 p.m.

alessels@unionleader.com