Even when leading 31-7 at the half, Scarsden Billings had no illusions of an easy victory, and made sure to impart that to the team during the break.

It didn’t help.

Maine allowed two fumble-sixes in the second half, fumbled again to set up the winning field goal, and gave up a 101-yard kick return as #6 Campbell stormed back to hand the Black Bears a brutal 41-38 loss.

“It was all execution, not attitude,” Billings said in a postgame press conference. “We all knew the game was far from over and weren’t coasting on a perceived victory. but Campbell made adjustments.”

The Black Bears had taken advantage of two Campbell fumbles and a Phelps Aggin punt return touchdown to snag a 24-0 lead late in the second. Thanks to strong field position on the return of a squib kick, the Fightin’ Camels got on the board with 48 seconds left in the half. But Vic Carter returned the ensuing kickoff to the 40, Wallis Wallace (17 carries, 89 yards, TD, receiving TD) ran for 35 yards on the first play from scrimmage, and Van Ockaril caught a 23-yard pass from Andy Horn (15-21, 226 yards, 3 TDs) with five seconds before the whistle.

“If either Carter’s return or Wallace’s run doesn’t happen, we take a knee there,” Billings said.

But the Maine run game, which was potent for the first six quarters of the second, couldn’t muster any spark in the second half. Following a fourth-down stop, the Black Bears’ first offensive play of the second half was a handoff to Wallace, who had the ball stripped and returned 45 yards.

Maine regrouped and drove down the field, reaching the Campbell red zone, but on second and six at the 10, a defender knocked the ball loose from fullback Howard McTavish, and again the Fightin’ Camels took it all the way into the end zone.

“At that point, a comeback was a clearer possibility,” Billings said.

After Campbell capped the third quarter with a field goal, Maine’s offense finally came to life, using up nearly half the fourth quarter in a pass-heavy drive that ended with Ockaril’s second touchdown catch of the day, this one from 33 yards.

But Campbell promptly returned Cramer Draybek’s kickoff across the goal line, cutting the lead back to seven and planting a spike in the claim of momentum.

While Maine recovered the following onside kick, they went three-and-out.

“Our passing game was working in the second half. The run game wasn’t, and I kept trying to force the run,” Billings said. “I had to call a game with what was working and didn’t.”

Though Ghoma Iderrin pinned Campbell on their 8 with 1:45 to go, the Fightin’ Camels drove all 92 yards, converting two fourth downs along the way, including a 35-yard gain on fourth and 10. With 19 seconds to go, Campbell punched the ball in from two yards out to tie the game.

But even overtime would elude the visitors.

Carter fumbled the kickoff, Campbell recovered at the 20, and after one scrimmage play kicked the field goal to provide their only necessary lead.

The home squad recovered a last-second onside kick to complete the Camelback.

“Such games happen,” Ockaril, who led the team with 99 receiving yards, said after the game. “Like last year against Montana State – we’ve got to do a better job. It’s as simple as that. But now this game goes behind us.”

The Black Bears will open conference play next week in their first home game of the season, facing another top-10 opponent in current #10 Stony Brook.