Hoosiers Roll, But Lose Roberson

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Indiana already has won more games than it did all last season. Now it must try to keep winning without its top quarterback.

Tre Roberson scored on runs of 50 and 39 yards before suffering a season-ending broken left leg in a 45-6 win that spoiled Massachusetts’ first home game as a Football Bowl Subdivision member on Saturday.

Roberson’s injury spoiled the Hoosiers’ mood after a near-record offensive performance.

‘‘It kind of puts a damper on it a little bit,’’ said Cameron Coffman, who replaced Roberson, ‘‘but, at the same time, we’re happy to get the win and we’re going to continue to move on and we expect to keep winning even though Tre’s out.’’

Roberson, a sophomore, will be redshirted and isn’t expected back until camp next spring, coach Kevin Wilson said.

‘‘There was a little bit of a lull,’’ when Roberson was loaded into an ambulance in the end zone and driven off the field, Wilson said. ‘‘You've got to press on, move forward, and the neat thing (was) when he was pulling off in the ambulance, he asked the guys, ‘Did he get the first down?’ ‘‘

He didn’t after being tackled at the 2-yard line, and Mitch Ewald kicked a 19-yard field goal to make it 24-6 just over two minutes into the second quarter.

Wilson, 1-11 in his first season as coach last year, said Roberson was hurt when a player fell on the back of his legs.

‘‘He’s got good speed, and that’s the one thing we’re really going to miss,’’ Wilson said.

Playing at the stadium of the three-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, the Minutemen (0-2) were no match for one of the Big Ten’s weaker teams. The Hoosiers (2-0) led 21-6 midway through the first quarter and already had totaled 223 yards.

At least the Minutemen did better than in their opener, a 37-0 loss at Connecticut, when they gained 59 yards with just three first downs. This time they gained 264 yards with 14 first downs.

Massachusetts moved to the Mid-American Conference after posting a 5-6 record last year, its fifth in the Colonial Athletic Association.

‘‘There’s not going to be many games where the talent level is going to be even on that field,’’ Massachusetts coach Charley Molnar said. ‘‘So, for us to win the game, for us to stay in the game, we've got to bring our ‘A’ game. And if we brought our ‘A’ game, it quickly dissolved into a ‘B’ game or less for some guys.’’

In the first meeting ever between the teams, both used a no-huddle offense throughout the game, with only about 25 percent of the 68,756 seats occupied in Gillette Stadium. The announced attendance was 16,304.

Indiana, which had broken a nine-game losing streak with a 24-17 win over Indiana State a week earlier, finished with 606 yards. The school record of 650 yards was set at Kentucky on Sept. 17, 1994.

After each team punted on its first series, Roberson started Indiana’s next possession with a 50-yard burst up the middle for a touchdown on which he cut to the left at the 15-yard line to evade the final defender.

Massachusetts scored on its second series on a 16-yard run by Mike Wegzyn, two plays after his 56-yard completion to Marken Michel.

Indiana needed just four plays on its next possession to score as Roberson ran untouched — up the middle again — for a 39-yard touchdown.

‘‘The lanes or the holes were so big that maybe even a less skilled or a less gifted runner at the quarterback position would have had some chunks of yardage,’’ Molnar said.

Roberson then threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Shane Wynn as the Hoosiers opened their 21-6 lead.

They kept rolling in the second quarter, scoring on their first three series on the 19-yard field goal by Ewald, a 2-yard run by Stephen Houston and a 2-yard run by Isaiah Roundtree.

Coffman completed a 31-yard pass to Houston before the running back scored four plays later. Then Roundtree rushed four times for 23 yards on the drive ending with his touchdown as the Hoosiers took a 38-6 lead with 2:15 left in the half.

After a scoreless third quarter, Indiana increased its lead with 13:09 left in the game when Coffman connected with Charles Love III for a 12-yard touchdown.

‘‘The coaches have really been stressing that I've got to be ready at any point, and I've been putting just as much pressure on myself during the week as if I were a starter,’’ Coffman said.

Wegzyn, a redshirt freshman, completed 18 of 26 passes for 151 yards after a weak opening performance in which he went 9-of-22 for 56 yards.

‘‘We really found our (offensive) identity this week,’’ he said. ‘‘It showed a little bit in spurts during the game, but we have things to polish up.’’