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COLORADO 41, UMASS 38

UMass can’t hang on, falls to Colorado

Three-TD burst downs Minutemen

UMass quarterback Blake Frohnapfel looks downfield during the second quarter on Saturday. Michael Dwyer/AP
Colorado41
UMass38

FOXBOROUGH — Mark Whipple accepts that his players will goof up.

What the two-time UMass coach cannot accept, however, is when his boys don’t recover from their errors.

“There’s going to be some mishaps,” Whipple said after UMass’s 41-38 loss to Colorado on Saturday at Gillette Stadium. “It’s how you handle it.”

The Minutemen handled it well in the first half. On second and goal from the Colorado 10, Blake Frohnapfel was studying the Colorado defense when Matt Sparks snapped the ball into his quarterback’s face. Frohnapfel, who wasn’t expecting the snap, jumped on the ball and recovered it on Colorado’s 14-yard line.

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One play later, Frohnapfel corrected his center’s mistake by connecting with Jean Sifrin on a 14-yard touchdown. Blake Lucas added the point after to give the Minutemen a 21-20 lead with 18 seconds remaining in the half.

UMass was in an even better position early in the third quarter. Randall Jette intercepted a Sefo Liufau pass and returned the ball 29 yards, just 2 shy of the end zone. On the next snap, Jamal Wilson ran the ball into the end zone. The Minutemen led the Buffaloes, 31-20.

But Colorado roared back to score three consecutive touchdowns. Good teams don’t give up 21 straight points.

“We really can’t accept any moral victories — Pac-12 team, whatever it is,” said Frohnapfel (20 for 38, 267 yards, three touchdowns, one interception). “That’s a game we should have won if we make a couple plays here or there. It’s something that kind of got away from us there. We have to learn how to win a little bit.”

The second-half mistakes snowballed. The Minutemen could have kept their boots on the Buffaloes’ necks after grabbing an 11-point lead.

Instead, Colorado punched right back with a 10-play, 77-yard scoring drive that included three third-down conversions.

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On the final one, Christian Powell ran in a 14-yard touchdown to halt UMass’s momentum.

Whipple opted for an aggressive response. The UMass coach went on it on fourth and 2 on the Colorado 30. The Buffaloes held J.T. Blyden to a 1-yard catch to reclaim possession.

On the next drive, Colorado struck big.

UMass was in good shape. The Buffaloes faced a third and 9 on their 30. The Minutemen applied pressure on Liufau, forcing the quarterback to scramble to his right. But Liufau made a big-time play by springing Nelson Spruce for a 70-yard touchdown reception at 4:24 of the third quarter.

In just eight minutes, Colorado had flipped a 31-20 deficit into a 34-31 lead.

The Buffaloes weren’t finished.

The Minutemen believed they had stopped Colorado on the opening drive of the fourth quarter. On third and 4 from the Colorado 36, Liufau missed on a pass to Spruce. But UMass gave Colorado a first down because Kassan Messiah was offside.

Another third-down play went sour later in the drive. Because of heat applied by Da’Sean Downey, Liufau threw an incomplete pass to Shay Fields. But Jesse Monteiro was nabbed for pass interference, giving Colorado a first down on the UMass 40.

Four plays later, Spruce caught a 3-yard pass and scored the game-winning touchdown.

“Those don’t happen in practice,” Whipple said of the game-breaking mistakes. “That’s just a mentality. Not that the guys aren’t tough-minded. But they’ve got to learn to overcome that.

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“We got a break before the half where Matt Sparks snapped it on the wrong count. We were lucky to get the ball back, and Jean makes a big play. They’ve got to learn to play the next play and not worry about it until we get on the bus.”

The second-half fade wiped out a starry UMass debut for Sifrin. The tight end is a transfer from El Camino Junior College in California. The NCAA only cleared Sifrin for play last week. The junior was not eligible for the season-opening 30-7 loss to Boston College.

Sifrin has not gotten deep into the playbook. But the 6-foot-7-inch, 250-pound Sifrin is, by his quarterback’s description, a freak athlete.

Sifrin, who made a 12-yard touchdown catch at 6:07 of the second quarter, flashed his athleticism on his second TD reception. On third and goal from the Colorado 14, Sifrin streaked into the end zone, turned, and waited.

In such situations, Frohnapfel knows that Sifrin can go up and come down with a lot of balls. But maybe not the ones that scrape the sky.

“I didn’t think it was going be that high,” Sifrin said of Frohnapfel’s pass.

No problem. Sifrin jumped, batted the ball with his right hand, and pulled it into his stomach.

“He was pretty well covered,” Frohnapfel said. “But a guy like him, 6-7 and that wingspan, that’s just him making a great play. He’s an elite athlete.”

Sifrin submitted a highlight play. The Minutemen could have used a few more.

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Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com.


Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto.