AMHERST, Mass. - Andrew Ford threw three touchdown passes and Massachusetts held on beat Florida International 21-13 on Saturday night.
Massachusetts (1-2) led 14-3 at the half when Ford completed second quarter touchdown passes of 26 yards to Jalen Williams and 31 yards to Andy Isabella.
FIU (0-3) closed to 14-10 on Alex Gardner's 2-yard score, and Austin Taylor made a 35-yard field goal to reduce the deficit to one.
UMass then put together a 12-play, 66-yard scoring drive that ended when Ford threw a 1-yard score to Adam Breneman before the end of the third.
Late in the game, UMass put together an 11-play, 64-yard drive that ended when Mike Caggiano missed a 31-yard field goal with 3:20 remaining.
Florida International drove past midfield, but on fourth-and-one, the Panthers' drive ended when quarterback Alex McGough ran left for four yards but fumbled the ball and UMass recovered.
Gardner had 23 carries for 130 yards.