Tag: Austin McCrum

Trudging On: Week 7 Power Rankings

(1) 1. Middlebury

While Middlebury did not handle Bowdoin last Saturday as well as a lot of other teams have, they had a strong offensive effort and they remain the league’s only undefeated team. That is sufficient to keep them atop our rankings. The score may make the game seem closer than it was, but the Panthers were ahead 41-7 until Bowdoin put up 22 points in the fourth quarter. This may have been the fault of Middlebury’s backups, but either way the defense cannot be giving up 22 point quarters if Midd wants to go undefeated. The Panthers got it done on the ground again with 95 yards and 2 scores from RB Alex Maldjian ’23, and 53 yards with 2 more scores for QB Will Jernigan ’21. Jernigan now has seven rushing touchdowns to go along with 14 more in the air and deserves a lot of the credit for Middlebury’s success this year. Middlebury has had a few close calls, but their offense has played well enough lately to give their defense some room for error. While the title is theirs to lose, Middlebury still has to do their job and they will have their hands full this week against a Hamilton team that is having its best season in a long time. 

(2) 2. Williams 

The Ephs picked up a huge win in Hartford last weekend, handing Trinity their first home loss in 20 games. There are individual players to recognize for the team’s strong performance, but this was mainly a masterful coaching performance by Mark Raymond. He knew Frank Stola ’21 was going to get smothered and he did, which opened the door for Dan Vaughn ’22 to rush for 123 yards against the league’s top run defense, and for two other receivers to combine for three TD receptions. Not many teams win when their QB completes only 6 of 20 passes, but Williams has such a dominant run attack and defense that they were able to make up for this. Don’t forget that this is a team that went 0-8 in 2016-17. Defensively, Raymond again did his homework, as they attacked a reeling offensive line and sacked QB Seamus Lambert ’22 six times while holding the Bantams to a criminally low 42 rushing yards. I debated putting Williams at 1 because I think they have played better than Middlebury lately, but they still have an uphill battle for the championship. Raymond will need to win the chess match again this week as Williams pays Wesleyan a visit in a matchup of 6-1 teams. 

(5) 3. Wesleyan 

The Cardinals bounced back from getting smoked by Middlebury and won a double-OT battle with Amherst. Amherst won this Little Three battle last year, so it was a huge win for the Cardinals. This team should be in championship contention for the next few years because their sophomores have already given them lots of production. Ashton Scott ‘22 had one of his best games yet, tossing for 282 yards and 3 scores. Classmates Matthew Simco ’22 and Danny Banks ’22 were OPOTW and DPOTW. The Cardinals have erased many of the doubts we had about them after they breezed through the soft part of their schedule earlier in the season, but unfortunately they’ll still need Middlebury to lose to have any shot at the title. The Cardinals will have two dogfights in their next two games with Williams and Trinity, but they have proven that they can win close games. In addition, their sophomores are looking like the core of the team, which will bode very well for the coming years.

(4) 4. Amherst 

Like Trinity, Amherst is a team with perennial success and high expectations that has seen this season spiral out of hand. As Cam outlined in this week’s stock report, Amherst has had their season marred by their inability to close out tight games. They have lost three games by three points, and two have gone to double overtime. Whether it be due to blown leads or turnovers, Amherst just has not been able to perform in the clutch and both their offensive and defensive units have regressed back to the middle of the pack after being extremely solid the last few seasons. They’ll need QB Ollie Eberth ’20 to be better than his 3 interceptions last week, and they’ll also need a running game to emerge quickly- Eberth cannot be the leading rusher every week. It’s clear that the loss of some of their studs from last year (Jack Hickey, Andrew Yamin) is still being felt. While it’s great to see more parity and competitiveness across the league this season, some teams have to pay the price for that, and this year those teams appear to be perennial bullies Amherst and Trinity. They host Trinity this week in what is effectively a 4th place game, and while the Bantams were not impressive last week either, it’s hard to feel good right now about the Mammoths’ chances in a tight game. 

(3) 5. Trinity 

Trinity continued its humbling season with its first home loss in 20 tries against Williams. Offensive line and special teams play were areas of concern, but the main issue was the coaches’ inability to adjust to what Williams was giving them. Tijani Harris ’22 is a talented back and has had a strong season, but running him off tackle out of the shotgun over and over again right into the teeth of Williams’ linebackers is not going to fool anyone. Trinity has to learn to adjust to what other teams give them and not just keep hammering the same few plays that have won them games in past seasons. Their inability to protect Seamus Lambert ’22 hurt their talented receivers’ ability to make plays. Defensively, Trinity was successful in shutting down Frank Stola ’21, but Williams was able to adjust and ride their run game to victory while taking shots downfield at the right times. Losing seasons are just not something that happens in Hartford, and that should be motivation enough for Trinity to grind out a win in one of its next two games. However, they have two tough opponents in Amherst and Wesleyan. The Bantams have the right guys on both sides of the ball to win these games, but they need to give Lambert more time to find his receivers and show a little bit more creativity in their play calling if they want to bounce back. 

(7) 6. Hamilton 

Just a few weeks ago, Hamilton was 2-3 and seemed destined for the 7 spot in the standings that they have gotten pretty used to with in recent years. Since then, the Continentals have taken down Amherst and Tufts and with Bates and Middlebury left on the schedule, there’s a strong chance that they’ll end up with their first winning season since 1996. This is a testament to coach David Murray. No matter the score or situation, his guys always play hard and their efforts are finally starting to pay off. If Middlebury coach Bob Ritter does not win Coach of the Year, Murray has to be the next guy in the conversation. We are finally seeing Kenny Gray ‘20 perform to his ability; last week at Tufts he completed 21 passes for 236 yards and 3 TDs. Hamilton also has two proven runners in Joe Park ’22 and David Kagan ’20. Middlebury’s defense has not been stellar lately, so the way Hamilton’s offense is playing should absolutely be a cause for concern. Given that Middlebury barely squeaked by Colby and allowed Bowdoin to go off in the fourth quarter last week, I think their game against Hamilton this week should be a tight one. 

(6) 7. Tufts 

It may surprise you to hear that Tufts currently leads the league in passing yards per game, thanks in large part to QB Jacob Carroll ’20. Unfortunately, their run game has not been able to match this production, which is a big reason why Tufts really has not had any impressive wins since Week 1 against Trinity. The defense shows up when it wants to- they only allowed 8 points to Trinity and shut out Bowdoin, but gave up 36 to Hamilton last week and 33 to Bates earlier this month. With talented guys on the unit like LB Greg Holt ’20 (74 total tackles this season to lead the league) and Jovan Nenadovic ’22, there’s no excuse for this type of inconsistency. At this point, I would contend that Tufts has the lowest ceiling of any non-CBB team, and I feel more confident in Hamilton’s chances when it comes to taking down Middlebury in the next two weeks. 

(8) 8. Colby 

Don’t let the Mules get hot! It took seven weeks, but we finally saw a Maine team break through into the win column last week as Colby got an edge in the CBB race with a thrilling win over Bates. The hosts raced out to an early 23-0 lead at halftime and appeared to have the game in command before Bates stormed back and scored a 2 point conversion to make it 23-20 early in the fourth. Colby showed a balanced offense with QB Matt Hersch ’22 completing 15 passes for 206 yards and no picks, as well as RB Devin Marrocco ’22 accounting for three scores. Defensively, Colby bent but didn’t break in the second half. LB Marcus Bullard ’21 has been a standout and is second in the league at 10.4 tackles per game. While many expected Colby to take a step forward in the win column this season, they have hung with good teams (Amherst, Middlebury) and Coach Cosgrove has not had his own recruiting classes on the field yet. Cosgrove is one of the best coaches you’ll find in the state of Maine and has proven himself at the D1 level. Combine this with a good young quarterback and the new athletic facility being built next year, and Colby should be in good shape to make progress in the next few seasons. This week, they host a disappointing Tufts team and have a good chance to set themselves up for a three-game winning streak to end the season. 

(9) 9. Bates 

The Bobcats came close to snapping a fat 17 game losing streak at Colby last weekend, but unfortunately their second half rally ran out of steam. The Cats have at least gotten some production from QB Brendan Costa ’21 lately; he threw for 268 yards and two TDs last weekend. It seems that Bates is trying to run an offense that does not suit their strengths, which has hindered their ability to win games…although it’s hard to tell what these strengths actually are. The Bobcats converted more than half of their first downs and won time of possession, but had their efforts marred by 10 penalties. These guys deserve a lot of credit for not giving up in unfortunate circumstances, but they’re running out of chances to prove they can compete. Like Coach Cosgrove, Bates coach Malik Hall has not had his own recruiting classes completely on the field yet so maybe it’s too early to fully evaluate him. At the same time, though, people in Lewiston can’t be happy with the lack of progress made on his watch. His seat continues to get hotter, so we’ll see if Bates can manage to dodge another winless season with a win against Bowdoin or Hamilton in their final two. 

(10) 10. Bowdoin

At first glance, it looks like Bowdoin actually put up a decent fight in their game against Middlebury last weekend (47-29). However, the fact remains that they were down 41-7 at the end of the third quarter and likely had their way with Middlebury’s bench players. Sorry Bowdoin fans, but NBN is committed to unbiased reporting and we did not want to suggest that Midd’s performance was any less dominant than it was. That being said, Bowdoin’s offense was better in that fourth quarter than it was in several of their games this season. RB Nate Richam ’20 continued his strong case for All-NESCAC with 105 yards and another TD. QB Austin McCrum ’21, who has bore the brunt of our criticism for the better part of this season, actually had a solid game- 146 yards and two TDs with no picks. McCrum is a D1 transfer and has another year of eligibility, so hopefully he can turn it around next season and have more of these strong games. Luckily for Bowdoin and first-year coach BJ Hammer, they know they can compete in their next two CBB games, and despite their winless record they will have a chance to earn bragging rights within the vast state of Maine. 

All Eyes on the Championship Game?: Weekend Preview 10/19

We’ve officially surpassed the halfway point in the 2019 season, and yet unfortunately the league championship might come down to Middlebury and Wesleyan on Saturday. A Middlebury win will all but seal the deal in their quest to become NESCAC Champions, while Wesleyan still doesn’t believe it is getting the recognition it deserves for being the only other undefeated team in the conference. The rest of the slate features traditional powers facing inferior opponents, but taking those matchups for granted might eliminate some of the one-loss contenders who are praying for the Cardinals to upset the Panthers.

Bates (0-5) @ Williams (4-1), 1pm, Williamstown, MA

Fellow NbN writer Haven Cutko ripped apart the Bobcats in this week’s Power Rankings, and while you hate to hear your school being repeatedly badgered for its underwhelming performances on the gridiron, I absolutely agreed with him. It’s one thing to play competitive games and lose, but Bates was annihilated 51-0 by a Trinity team that by all accounts has been a massive disappointment this season. Without a doubt, Trinity could have scored 60+ given that they were already ahead 51-0 at the end of the fourth quarter. The offense is completely stagnant with no identity whatsoever; the ‘Cats are dead last in total offense (225 ypg) and feature a passing “attack” that is limited to quick slants and bubble screens. The running game hasn’t been terrible, but against the Bantams, the Bobcats had 26 rushing attempts for…28 yards. All this adds up to an offense that is averaging a touch over 10 ppg, and desperately needs someone to step up. The defense (allowing close to 35 ppg) is feast or famine; it either forces a turnover (5th in the ‘CAC with 8 combined turnovers) or gives up a touchdown. What’s worse is that the defensive line is last in sack production, which correlates to Bates having (by far) the worst pass defense because opposing quarterbacks have all day to throw. 

Bobby Maimaron ‘21 may not be the most prolific passer, but boy does he only need one man to throw to: Frank Stola ‘21. I mentioned a few weeks ago that Stola could very well break multiple single-season records with his performances to date, but the junior has a legitimate case to go down as the greatest wide receiver the league has ever witnessed. With four games remaining this season, Stola is 437 yards away from breaking the record of most receiving yards in a single season, and three touchdowns away from tying the single-season record. Given that he’s averaging 147 ypg and three touchdowns/game, the only thing that will stop Stola and company from wreaking havoc on the Bobcats’ poor secondary is when Coach Raymond pulls his starters midway through the third period with the game so out of hand. I really want to believe in Brendan Costa’s elusiveness and his ability to create something out of nothing, but he just doesn’t have the arm strength for the vertical passing game that I’m sure Coach Hall would love to have. Chalk up another 100+ yard performance for Stola with a couple of touchdowns as the Ephs come out firing from the get-go and cruise to an easy win. 

SS: Williams 42, Bates 7
HC: Williams 34, Bates 6
MK: Williams 35, Bates 0
CC: Williams 41, Bates 13
RM: Williams 42, Bates 7

Writers’ Pick: Williams 

Bowdoin (0-5) @ Tufts (2-3), 1pm, Medford, MA

The Polar Bears may be winless in large part to their atrocious defensive unit (other than their eye-opening performance against Wesleyan) but they’ve shown improvements in their running game. Specifically, Nate Richam-Odoi ‘20 registered his third consecutive 100-yard performance this past Saturday against Amherst; the senior is averaging 5.75 yards per carry over his past three contests, which is good news considering Bowdoin will need their star running back to perform exceptionally against Tufts if they want to spring the upset. The problem with this is that along with the defense, the quarterback position is an absolute mess in Brunswick. After a brutal 2018 season in which he threw just eight touchdowns and 17 interceptions, Austin McCrum ‘21 has shown very little (if any) signs of improvement. He’s only registered two passing touchdowns through their first four games, and after failing to generate any points in the opening quarter against Amherst, McCrum was benched in lue of fellow junior Matthew Marcantano ‘21. Marcantano was not afraid to air it out, but he was careless with the football (two INT’s) and completed just 11 of his 27 passing attempts. 

Whoever Coach Hammer rolls out to start on Saturday will face a Tufts team that is coming off an emotional loss against Wesleyan. Behind a fired-up defense that continuously frustrated Ashton Scott ‘22 and the Cardinals’ offense, the Jumbos took a 10-7 into the fourth quarter. The Cardinals simply had more left in the tank, scoring on three of their four possessions and capped off by a six yard touchdown with six seconds left on the game clock. As valiant of a performance the Jumbos displayed this past Saturday, this is a prime letdown spot for about as inconsistent of a team as there is in the NESCAC this season. They’ve yet to have a game in which both the offense and defense play a complete 60 minutes; against the likes of Trinity and Wesleyan, the Jumbos defense swarmed all over the field, and yet the offense was stuck in the mud. Against Bates, the offense roared out to a sizeable lead, but the defense almost allowed Bates to come from behind and steal a win. Luckily for Tufts, they won’t need a complete performance to beat Bowdoin, but don’t be surprised if this game is closer than the experts think. 

SS: Tufts 28, Bowdoin 13
HC: Tufts 24, Bowdoin 14
MK: Tufts 30, Bowdoin 14
CC: Tufts 34, Bowdoin 14
RM: Tufts 34, Bowdoin 21

Writers’ Pick: Tufts

Colby (0-5) @ Trinity (3-2), 1pm, Hartford, CT

There’s no way to sugarcoat it; Colby should have absolutely beaten Middlebury. It was by far the worst performance the Panthers exhibited all season and it was almost as if they were basically handing the Mules the game, except the Mainers didn’t want it. I’m sure kicker Moises Celaya ‘22 was up all night thinking about how two missed extra points and a missed 32 yard field goal with 22 seconds left cost the Mules their upset bid. Nonetheless, Colby showed improvements on both sides of the ball; signal caller Matt Hersch ‘22 did not have the greatest completion percentage, but he was able to toss a season-high three touchdowns with no interceptions against a very strong secondary. The defense, while allowing Will Jernigan ‘21 to run for 153 yards and three scores of his own, made life miserable in the passing department. Jernigan was held to just 12 completions on 30 attempts, good for a paltry 40%. 

The Bantams marched into Lewiston and put an absolutely whooping on the Bobcats. Seamus Lambert ‘22 tossed for four scores to add to his league-leading 13 touchdown passes, and emerging running back Tijani Harris ‘22 ran for 139 yards and a score of his own. Despite playing in only two games, Harris has surpassed the century mark in both contests and must be viewed as a legitimate weapon on this team. The defense pitched a shutout, although I am more inclined to think that the final score says more about the lack of Bates offense rather than the dominance of the Trinity defense. They did force two turnovers, which was as many as the unit had in their previous four games combined; however, they failed to generate any pressure on the Bates quarterbacks, totaling zero sacks. Given that Trinity has defeated Bates and Bowdoin by a combined score of 112-7, I don’t think the Mules will fair much better come Saturday. I think Trinity keeps the train rolling en route to their third consecutive win, while the Mules continue to lament on what could have been if they had taken down the Panthers last weekend. 

SS: Trinity 38, Colby 14
HC: Trinity 45, Colby 14
MK: Trinity 56, Colby 10
CC: Trinity 42, Colby 7
RM: Trinity 48, Colby 10

Writers’ Pick: Trinity

Amherst (4-1) @ Hamilton (2-3), 1pm, Hamilton, NY

Despite being out-snapped 75-55 by the Polar Bears, the Mammoths glided to a comfortable 36-14 win that saw their defense keep the opposition off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter. Manni Malone ‘22 was impossible to defend, totaling four quarterback hits and a strip sack that resulted in his first touchdown on the season. All in all, Amherst had nine quarterback hits, and the relentless pressure that the front seven brings will force quarterbacks to become jittery in the pocket and lead to errant throws. Ollie Eberth ‘20 had a great performance, completing 71% of his passes for 261 yards and two touchdowns. Not to get lost in the shuffle of great wide receivers, James O’Regan ‘20 is quietly sitting second in the league in receiving yards and touchdowns. He’ll be ready to torch a secondary that just last week allowed Frank Stola to abuse them all afternoon. 

For the Continentals, their success is predicated on their offensive production. In their two wins against Colby and Bowdoin, Hamilton combined for 82 points; even in their loss to Trinity, they scored a respectable 24 points and gave their defense a chance to win. In their two losses, however, Kenny Gray ‘20 and the rest of the unit failed to eclipse 10 points, and the aforementioned quarterback had four combined interceptions. What’s more is that Amherst has the third-best run defense in the ‘CAC, which means tough sledding out there for David Kagan ‘20. If the Continentals wish to defeat the Mammoths, their defense will have to make this a grind and keep them out of the end zone. I actually think this one will be close, as Amherst doesn’t boast a prolific offense nor is it explosive. In the end, however, Amherst’s season is essentially over with a loss, and they still have hope that Wesleyan can usurp Middlebury and make the title race a bit more wide open. The Mammoths sneak out a win, and although both offenses will struggle early, O’Regan will prove to be the difference maker. 

SS: Amherst 28, Hamilton 17
HC: Amherst 31, Hamilton 17
MK: Amherst 28, Hamilton 10
CC: Amherst 31, Hamilton 20
RM: Amherst 27, Hamilton 21

Writers’ Pick: Amherst

Wesleyan @ Middlebury, 1pm, Middlebury, VT

This is our game of the week so I’ll keep it short. Everyone knows that if Middlebury beats Wesleyan on Saturday, the Championship is basically theirs. With remaining games against Bowdoin, Hamilton and Tufts, Middlebury would have to lose two of those three in order to fall out of the top spot. Wesleyan knows that the road ahead is extremely tough even if they end up beating Midd, but a win would shake up the entire conference, something that all of us (including me) wants to see. I really want to take the Cardinals, but after struggling with Jumbos I just don’t think they have the talent to compete for 60 minutes with the upper echelon NESCAC schools. Combined with the wake up call the Panthers received in their scare against Colby, I feel like it’s more likely the home team makes a statement Saturday afternoon. If the Cardinals do pull off the shocker, however, it will be because their defense stymies the Panthers’ ground game and forces Jernigan to throw the ball way more than he would like to. 

SS: Middlebury 28, Wesleyan 21
HC: Middlebury 21, Wesleyan 17
MK: Middlebury 24, Wesleyan 17
CC: Middlebury 27, Wesleyan 24
RM: Middlebury 27, Wesleyan 13

Writers’ Pick: Middlebury

Only Two at the Top: Week 5 Power Rankings

(1) 1. Middlebury (5-0)

The Panthers were one missed kick away from being on the wrong end of an Earth-shattering upset at home against Colby last weekend. Midd fans can’t feel good about how close that game was, but the bottom line is that they’ve still beaten our third, fourth, and fifth ranked teams and currently hold the best chances at a NESCAC title- so they remain at the top of our rankings. Will Jernigan ’21 served as a better running back than quarterback this weekend, accounting for 153 yards and three touchdowns on the ground only. On the other hand, he threw an interception and lost two fumbles. Middlebury was very lucky to beat Colby with all those miscues, and they know they cannot put out a similar performance and expect to beat Wesleyan this weekend. Jernigan and other offensive weapons will have to be better on Saturday or Middlebury may find themselves leapfrogged by Wesleyan come this time next week. 

(4) 2. Wesleyan (5-0)

Ashton Scott ’22 and company got their first taste of a real NESCAC opponent this weekend when Tufts came to town for the night game. The Cardinals needed every bit of 60 minutes to survive, as they got a last second touchdown catch by Matthew Simco ’22 to break a 13-13 tie. The game may have been close because Wesleyan had not seen that level of competition, or because they are evenly matched with Tufts- we will find out more on that front this weekend. Scott looked solid again going 19-33 with 2 touchdowns, but the real hero of the day was freshman kicker and Special Teams POTW Mason Von Jess ’23. Von Jess came up huge and did not miss either of his two field goals or extra points, tallying 8 points in a game Wesleyan won by 7. I hope he got the game ball afterwards, because Wesleyan should be thankful for him given that kicking miscues were certainly on the forefront in the NESCAC that day. We will salute Mason as the Cardinals live to see another day, but they still have to finish with Middlebury, Amherst, Williams, and Trinity. Those are the teams that will show you what your squad is really made of, so we’ll see how many wins Wesleyan can manage in that gauntlet. 

(3) 3. Williams (4-1)

Is there a team playing better football right now than the Ephs? WR Frank Stola ’21 continued to make a mockery of his competition to the tune of 4 receiving touchdowns in a 35-10 romp over Hamilton. It will be interesting to see what defenses will throw at him the rest of the season, because not one team has been able to keep him out of the endzone. Stola’s excellence has made QB Bobby Maimaron’s stat lines look unreal as well. 11 for 19 with five touchdown passes. Part of why Williams is so tough to contain is their ability to run the ball as well. Teams have to prepare for Stola, but also for the league’s top rushing offense. On top of Maimaron’s dual-threat abilities, Joel Nicholas ’23 and Dan Vaughn ’22 are solid backs for a unit that put up 400 rushing yards just a few weeks ago. The defense has been just as stellar; they’re still allowing the fewest points in the league at only 9 per game. We all wish the Ephs played Middlebury at the end of the season instead of week one, but this team is playing well enough to handle their tough games in the last few weeks of the season and possibly shake up the championship picture. 

(2) 4. Amherst (4-1)

This is another team that wishes they could have their Middlebury game back, because they have played consistent non-flashy but winning football in all their other games this season. They beat Bowdoin easily enough to avoid a heart attack like Colby gave Middlebury, continuing to win the games they should win. Ollie Eberth ’20 had possibly the best day of any NESCAC QB last weekend. He went 15-21 for 261 yards and two TDs with no picks, again hooking up with his boy James O’Regan ’20 for a score. There is a lot of QB talent in the league this year so Eberth may not get the hype he deserves, but he is right up there with the other guys and is a proven winner. Amherst’s defense has always been a solid unit and this year they have had multiple guys stepping up to fill the void left by Andrew Yamin. DB Ricky Goodson ’21 was all over the field last weekend with four tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, an interception, and a blocked kick. A lot of guys are happy to get one of those achievements once in a season, but this man got all of them in one game- rightfully earning him DPOW honors. The Mammoths make the trek out to Clinton, NY this week before their Little Three games sandwiched around an always-exciting matchup with Trinity. 

(5) 5. Trinity (3-2)

The three-time defending champs had a fun trip to Maine last weekend. If Bates had any momentum from playing Tufts tight the week before, it was quickly put to rest as Trinity easily took a 30-0 lead into halftime and cruised to a 51-0 beatdown. Don’t let Trinity’s two losses distract you from the fact that regardless of the opponent, they are capable on any given Saturday of making you wish you never set foot on a football field with them.Too many Bantams to name were making plays on Saturday, but WR Koby Schofer ’20 deserves recognition for breaking the school record for receiving TDs with 21 (and four more games to play). He has been a top tier WR for the better part of his college career and is just one of many scoring threats on that offense. Trinity has accumulated the most yards of offense and allowed the fewest, so if they can minimize their turnovers and penalties they are still more capable of running the table. While they certainly will not be overlooking Colby this week, Trinity has a great opportunity in the Coop to get more momentum going as they head into their tough Little Three games at the back end of their schedule.

(6) 6. Tufts (2-3)

It was a brutal loss on Saturday for the Jumbos, who hung right with undefeated Wesleyan on Saturday until giving up a touchdown in the final few seconds. I’m still not sure what to think of these guys, because they can look like two completely different teams from one week to the next. One thing they will need to improve immediately is their league-worst run game. You know you’re struggling in a statistic when you’re worse than all 3 CBB teams. This weakness was especially apparent Saturday night. In what was a pretty mediocre offensive effort by both teams, Tufts only accounted for 54 rushing yards and really could have used a good bruising tailback to tire out the Cardinals defense and keep Ashton Scott on the bench. The good news is that they’re still second in passing yards without a big name veteran QB like Eberth or Maimaron. The other good news is that Tufts has played the hard part of their schedule and have Bowdoin, Hamilton and Colby in their next three games. If Coach Civetti can dig up that defense that only allowed Trinity eight points in week 1, the Jumbos will be in good shape to salvage a winning record and give Middlebury all they can handle in the season finale. 

(7) 7. Hamilton (2-3)

After turning some heads with strong performances earlier in the season, Hamilton looks like they’re starting to settle back into their ever-so comfortable 7 ranking. I personally was out of line in ranking Hamilton fifth a few weeks back, because they have shown time and time again that they’re in their own little New York tier above the Maine teams and below everyone else. You have to wonder what Coach Murray tells his guys at the beginning of the season, because in recent history it seems like they’re almost predestined for that 7 slot. Nonetheless, they still have a lot of football left to be played and all of their remaining games are winnable. Hamilton will need RB David Kagan ’20 to revert to his early season form, as his yardage has dipped and he has not found the endzone since September. They also need better performances from a defense that has not allowed fewer than 24 points in a game this season. They’ll be facing a well oiled machine in Amherst this weekend, but the offense has enough talent to keep the Continentals in the game if they play well. 

(8) 8. Colby (0-5)

It’s never easy losing a game on a missed last second field goal, but it hits even harder when you’re a winless team that squandered a prime opportunity to take down the undefeated top dogs. Colby played the best game of their season, but unfortunately that excellence did not extend to special teams. The Mules left five points on the board in missed kicks and wasted a terrific performance by QB Matt Hersch ‘22.  He outplayed Will Jernigan and kept Colby in the game on a day where he was not getting any help from the run game (49 net yards rushing). Hersch, Trinity’s Seamus Lambert ’22 and Wesleyan’s Ashton Scott ’22 are all talented and will be fun to watch for the next two years as the NESCAC’s next batch of stud quarterbacks. LB Marcus Bullard ’21 continued his outstanding season with an absurd 15 tackles, a sack, and an interception. He deserves to be in the DPOY conversation, so hopefully Colby’s record will not prevent him from that. The Mules have a tough task this weekend as they visit a Trinity team that has beat the other CBB schools by 54 and 51 points, but last weekend was a reminder that Coach Cosgrove’s team can compete with anyone. 

(10) 9. Bowdoin (0-5)

It’s honestly usually a toss-up between Bowdoin and Bates for these last two spots until they play each other, but Bowdoin’s winning the battle this week. Yes, they lost 36-14, but that’s a lot better than the 51-0 shellacking Bates took. Bowdoin has also at least been able to establish a consistent offensive threat in RB Nate Richam ’20. Against Amherst, he had his third straight week with both 100+ yards and a touchdown. I have the utmost respect for this guy- he has been a great player on a horrible team for four years now but refused to quit or transfer as many would. Defensive standouts Franny Rose ’21 and Joe Gowetski ’20 also deserve press as they have proven to be solid players in unfortunate circumstances. Bowdoin switched quarterbacks before halftime and gave Matthew Marcantano ’21 some looks, which I cannot disagree with at all because Austin McCrum ’21 has been brutal all year. In appropriate Polar Bear fashion, Marcantano came in and went 11-27 with two picks. Didn’t miss a beat! Jokes aside, the backups should have been given some more chances in blowout games earlier this season. The offense was not exactly humming with McCrum in, and maybe Marcantano would have played better against Amherst if he had more game experience leading up to this point. Either way, let’s hope new coach BJ Hammer brings in some better offensive talent in his next recruiting class, or it’ll be more of the same in Brunswick for the next few years. Who wouldn’t want to play for a guy named BJ Hammer?

(9) 10. Bates (0-5)

It’s one thing to lose games because the other team is just more talented, but we saw some coaching moves out of Bates’ Malik Hall on Saturday that were just straight up questionable. Brendan Costa ’21 is clearly their best quarterback, but for some reason we did not see him until late in the second quarter. Messing around with your lineups and trying new things is all fun and games until you do it against Trinity and find yourself down 30 at halftime. Bates was obviously no powerhouse before Hall took over for Mark Harriman right before last season, but his seat has to be getting warm due to the lack of progress Bates has made during his tenure. I’m not going to sugarcoat it- your team putting up 105 yards of offense and only 28 on the ground is a fireable offense. That being said, Bates has been competitive in a few games this year and still has both CBB teams and Hamilton in their last three games so a win or two is not out of the question. 

It’s Only Getting Better: Weekend Preview 10/12

Before we get down to it I just wanted to update everyone on the current standings for our writers picking the winners of every game. We’ve been fairly successful, although we still haven’t quite reached the exciting part of the year. Ryan is still the only one to have correctly predicted the final score of any game, as he picked Amherst 27-13 over Bates in Week 1. There’s still a lot of football left to play so we’ve got plenty more to come, but this is where we’re at as of now:

Matt Karpowicz: 16-4
Haven Cutko: 16-4
Ryan Moralejo: 16-4
Cameron Carlson: 15-5
Spencer Smead: 14-6

Colby @ Middlebury, 1pm, Middlebury, VT

This weekend’s slate of games does not offer a ton of intrigue, and it doesn’t help that it includes this matchup of the hottest team in the league playing probably the coldest. Colby was the one CBB team to not finish within a touchdown of their opponent last week in a shutout loss against Williams. Colby’s defense, led by LB Marcus Bullard ’21 who is second in the league in tackles, actually held up pretty well. Only Middlebury has held the Ephs offense to fewer points this season and they forced Maimaron and company to go 2 of 9 on third down. Unfortunately, the offense could not reward their defense’s commendable play and failed to cash in on an advantage in time of possession. The Mules did not turn the ball over, but punted five times and missed two field goals. That’s just extremely uninspiring football. They will need to do better than 237 yards of total offense and especially focus on converting third downs if they expect to have a chance against a strong Middlebury defense. 

The strange thing about Midd’s wild win over Amherst last week was that both teams had clear opportunities deep in enemy territory to just kick a field goal and win, but neither of them could do it. Middlebury is obviously happy being undefeated no matter how they get there, but they have to be thankful that a traditionally-executing Amherst team decided to outdo Midd’s late game miscues with one of their own and help hand the Panthers the win. Middlebury has gotten by this year with strong all-around play more than big names, but RB Alex Maldijan ’23 deserves recognition for coming in as a freshman and putting up 125 yards and 2 TDs in the biggest game of his college career. He currently leads the NESCAC in rushing and will be a big part of Midd’s success for the next few years. Expect him to continue his success against a run defense that allowed 227 yards on the ground last weekend. QB Will Jernigan ’21 has also enjoyed a nice season so far; he made up for a big interception in the first overtime last week by leading the game winning TD drive in the second. Unless the Colby offense wakes up in Vermont on Saturday, don’t expect a close one.

SS: Middlebury 31, Colby 6 
HC: Middlebury 28, Colby 10 
MK: Middlebury 28, Colby 14
CC: Middlebury 35, Colby 10
RM: Middlebury 33, Colby 10

Writers’ Pick: Middlebury

Trinity @ Bates, 1pm, Lewiston, ME

Expect Bates to come out fired up for this one. They’re in the dirty Lew coming off their best offensive performance of the season in a close loss to Tufts, who allowed 20 fewer points to Trinity in week one than they did to the Bobcats. We finally got to see what QB Brendan Costa ’21 can do, as he completed 19 of 28 passes with a touchdown and also ran for 62 yards on the ground. RB Christian Sanfilippo ’21 made the most of his carries, getting 6 for 11 yards…with three touchdowns. Props to Christian, because you’d be hard pressed to find a league where the guy second in rushing touchdowns is 36th in yards. Fullback numbers at their finest! We will see if Bates’ performance is a fluke when they meet a Bantam defense allowing the fewest yards per game in the league. Trinity is also the only team to allow fewer than 100 yards per game on the ground, led by their strong linebacker unit of Sean Smerczynski ‘20, Brian Casagrande ‘22, and Daniel Negron ‘20. Look for guys like DE Jimmy Christiano ‘21 and S Matt McCarthy ‘21 to be making plays on Saturday as they have all season. 

It doesn’t make a lot of sense that Trinity is only 2-2 given that they have dominated in many of the game’s biggest statistics as always. QB Seamus Lambert ‘22 leads the league in passing yards and is tied for the lead in touchdowns, showing that this offense is still as potent as any. On top of that, the Bantams still top the NESCAC in points and yards per game. Bates is also last in pass defense, and that doesn’t bode well coming into a matchup with the best receiving corps in the league. So while Bates may feel like they have a better chance than usual to beat Trinity for the first time since 1975, these cats need to understand that Trinity has been a few turnovers and penalties away from leading the pack as they almost always do. In addition, it’s looking like Trinity’s sophomores are forming the core of the team. Lambert, Casagrande, Devante Reid ’22, and others have a lot of football ahead of them, so don’t expect the Bantams to fall off very far from their usual dominance. Bates has reason to be feeling good about this weekend, but they just haven’t been consistent enough for this to be the year they snap the streak.

SS: Trinity 28, Bates 13
HC: Trinity 35, Bates 13
MK: Trinity 48, Bates 10
CC: Trinity 52, Bates 6
RM: Trinity 44, Bates 16

Writers’ Pick: Trinity

Bowdoin @ Amherst, 1pm, Amherst, MA 

We’re still in the middle part of the season before the best teams and the worst teams start to play each other, and that leaves us with ho-hum matchups like this one. Both teams are coming off games in which a win was very much within reach. Amherst had a late lead and then squandered opportunities in crunch time to beat Middlebury in a classic, while Bowdoin opened some eyes by coming within a touchdown of undefeated Wesleyan. Polar Bears RB Nate Richam-Odoi ‘20 once again carried the offense, accounting for 177 of the team’s 282 total yards. He will need to have a similarly huge performance if Bowdoin wants to have any chance in this game. On the other hand, QB Austin McCrum ’21 has yet to really get going this season and that has really limited Bowdoin’s offensive capability. Amherst’s defense is likely going to focus on stuffing the talented Richam-Odoi, so McCrum should have some opportunities to connect with guys like Greg Olson ‘21 and Bo Millett ‘21 against a pass defense that’s surprisingly second to last in the league. Unfortunately for Bowdoin, their defense may have an even taller task this weekend as the unit that allows the most yards per game will need to figure out how to stop the lethal combo of Ollie Eberth and James O’Regan. 

Amherst has not been a terribly exciting team this season and they err more towards the middle of the pack in most statistical categories, but they make up for it by playing relatively mistake-free football. They are always disciplined and well-coached, so it was surprising to see them let the biggest game of the season slip away as they did last weekend. Nonetheless, we cannot ignore that they were that close to beating the championship front runner, so we have to assume that they will come out firing on their home turf and let Eberth go to work behind a traditionally strong O-line. DL Joe Kelly ’21 has stepped up and done a great job filling the void left by Andrew Yamin; he currently leads the league in solo tackles and sacks. He will help control Richam-Odoi and force Bowdoin to engage their pass game a bit more. I think Bowdoin’s close game last week exposed Wesleyan’s weaknesses more than it did Bowdoin’s strengths. Expect the Mammoths to get back on track at home.

SS: Amherst 28, Bowdoin 10
HC: Amherst 27, Bowdoin 7 
MK: Amherst 41, Bowdoin 6 
CC: Amherst 35, Bowdoin 6
RM: Amherst 27, Bowdoin 7

Writers’ Pick: Amherst

Hamilton @ Williams, 2pm, Williamstown, MA

Williams has looked sharp since their opening week loss at Middlebury, winning the first three games of a five-game stretch in which they are home four times. It’s too bad that they don’t get another crack at Middlebury, because this is a team with the talent to run the table and definitely the chance to beat the Panthers in a future matchup. Alas, all the Ephs can do is take care of business and hope Midd falters. This week they face a Hamilton team that definitely looks improved, but still in their own tier above the CBB teams and below the teams competing for a title every year. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Hamilton did keep up with Trinity on the scoreboard until late, but Kenny Gray ’20 completed fewer than half his passes and RB David Kagan ’20 fell way off from his usual production this season and only managed 18 yards on 14 carries. That’s not going to get it done against the league’s top scoring defense. Given that Hamilton only managed 10 points against Wesleyan and that Williams shut out Colby last week, it’s hard to feel good about their offense on Saturday unless WR Joe Schmidt ’20 comes back and puts up big numbers. 

Williams’ offense did not have one of their better weeks last week, but you can’t blame Coach Raymond for once again taking a run-heavy approach a week after they totaled nearly 400 yards on the ground the week before. They wore Colby down with RBs Dan Vaughn ’22 and Joel Nicholas ’23 each getting 13 carries and averaging 8.5 and 7.1 yards on each carry, respectively. This offensive strategy has gotten Williams wins so far and it keeps Bobby Maimaron safe. Additionally, establishing the run game will open up holes for WR Frank Stola, who is in the OPOY running and leads the NESCAC in receiving yards and touchdowns. While Hamilton looks to be more competitive with non-CBB opponents thus far, their offense has not shown enough promise for anyone to feel good about their prospects against an Ephs defense allowing only 8.8 points per game. Williams has made a habit of finishing in the top 3 without a ring lately, and this season could be looking like more of the same. They could make a great case for the NESCAC to offer postseason play, but that’s a discussion for another day. 

SS: Williams 35, Hamilton 27
HC: Williams 31, Hamilton 10
MK: Williams 31, Hamilton 14 
CC: Williams 31, Hamilton 14
RM: Williams 37, Hamilton 20

Writers’ Pick: Williams

Tufts @ Wesleyan, 6pm, Middletown, CT

It’s fitting that the rare NESCAC night game is also our Game of the Week. The excitement of this game stems from the fact that includes probably the league’s two most perplexing teams thus far. Tufts has been wildly inconsistent, beating Trinity and playing Amherst close but also getting smoked by Williams and barely holding off a late game rally by Bates last weekend. Wesleyan is 4-0, but they have only played the league’s four worst teams and they did not do themselves any favors by only beating Bowdoin by a touchdown (the game was tied with 6 minutes left). That makes this game a tough one to pick- we don’t yet know what the result is when Wesleyan plays a good game against a good team. Another offensive weapon did emerge for the Cardinals, as RB Glenn Smith ’21 scampered for 108 yards and a big touchdown on a day where the talented young QB Ashton Scott ’22 did not have his best day. It’s yet to be determined whether or not kicker Mason Von Jess ’23 will be the next Eric Sachse or Steven Hauschka, but he has been a major special teams asset so far and his kicking ability could end up being a deciding factor in this game. 

Tufts’ offense needed to wake up at some point, and Bates’ horrid defense was their alarm clock. Coach Civetti made himself look like a genius with his two-QB offensive approach. Jacob Carroll ‘20 had a strong game with 223 yards and two touchdowns, and Trevon Woodson ’23 was a sharp 5-6 with another touchdown while also averaging 6.3 yards a carry on the ground. Implementing multiple quarterbacks frequently is a strategy prone to scrutinization, so we’ll see if that will be a pattern continuing this week or if Civetti felt he could experiment a little bit against lowly Bates. Wesleyan is not a defense you want to mess around against, especially with DL Taj Gooden ’21 back in the lineup. This is our Game of the Week so we will have additional coverage, but it should be a good one and everyone else in the league will have finished their games and be able to watch Wesleyan try to keep pace with Middlebury in the race for the title.

SS: Tufts 21, Wesleyan 20
HC: Wesleyan 28, Tufts 21 
MK: Wesleyan 24, Tufts 17
CC: Wesleyan 28, Tufts 14 
RM: Wesleyan 27, Tufts 16

Writers’ Pick: Wesleyan

Almost Halfway: Weekend Preview 10/5

Williams @ Colby, 1pm, Waterville, ME

It will be homecoming weekend for this upcoming contest in Waterville where the struggling Colby Mules (0-3) will host a red-hot Williams (2-1) squad. The Ephs have won comfortably for the past two weeks, giving both Bowdoin and Tufts little room to breathe. The Ephs have stepped up on both sides of the ball during this hot streak averaging over 42 PPG and allowing less than 10. Much of this offensive success is due to QB Bobby Maimaron ’21 emerging as one of the best offensive weapons in the NESCAC this season. He has always been known as an effective runner, averaging over 65 yards/game last season and finishing 5th in the NESCAC with 8 rushing TDs. It is in the air where Maimaron has made big strides this year. So far he has thrown for 7 touchdowns through 3 weeks, whereas he threw for only 8 touchdowns all of last season. This could pose a great threat for the Mules has they have been scorched by the option this year.

The biggest problem for Colby hasn’t been the defense, despite how the score lines look, but rather it has been turnovers. Ball security has not been a virtue for the Mules as they lead the NESCAC with 4 lost fumbles. To make matters worse, QB Matt Hersch ’22 also leads the NESCAC with 6 interceptions thrown on this young season. The task will not get any easier this weekend as this group will have to face an Eph’s defense that has been able to compete with even the best offenses in the conference this year. A lot will have to change for Colby and quickly for them to have a shot in this game because right now it looks like Bobby Maimaron ’21, Frank Stola ’21, and the rest of the Ephs are primed to put on a show.

SS: Williams 38, Colby 9
RM: Williams 37, Colby 13
CC: Williams 38, Colby 14
MK: Williams 34, Colby 10
HC: Williams 38, Colby 14

Writers’ Pick: Williams

Tufts @ Bates, 1pm, Lewiston, ME

After the high of taking down back-to-back champs Trinity in week one, it has all been downhill for Tufts. The brick wall of a defense that dominated the Bantams has since disappeared and the Jumbos now find themselves in a 1-2 hole. Last week Frank Stola ’21 and Bobby Maimaron ’21 were able to move the ball up and down the field at will, combining for 3 touchdowns in the first half and 4 in total. The lack of defense gave the struggling offense no hope to recover and it all devolved from there. First half woes plagued the Jumbos once against last week against Amherst as they found themselves shoutout and down by 14 at the half. Tufts has not had the chance yet to play one of the lower-tier teams in the conference so this weekend will be a chance to reestablish themselves as a high-level competitor.

You really have to feel for the Bobcats at this point in the season. Their first 3 contests have been against Amherst, Middlebury and Wesleyan, who have a combined record of 9-0. While Tufts will be the first sub .500 team that Bates plays but that does not mean that they are not comparable competition. I have actually been fairly impressed with the way that the Bates defense has been able to keep some of these contests within respectable margins despite the extreme lack of contribution coming from the offensive side of the ball. The lack of QB Brendan Costa ’21 has put the Bobcat offense to an absolute standstill for which it appears it will be difficult to recover. Bates’ best chance in this contest is to play the consistent brand of defense they have throughout the years and hope for a few lucky breaks to come their way in the form of turnovers. This game is not completely out of reach for Bates but they would certainly need nearly everything to go right to pull it off.

SS: Tufts 21, Bates 6
RM: Tufts 34, Bates 10
CC: Tufts 31, Bates 14
MK: Tufts 28, Bates 0
HC: Tufts 24, Bates 3

Writers’ Pick: Tufts

Hamilton @ Trinity, 1pm, Hartford, CT

The Continentals are riding high heading into their third game of the season after capturing their first win of the year decisively over the Colby Mules. The offensive attack was too much for the Mules to handle as QB Kenny Gray ’20 threw for 2 TD and ran for another while RB David Kagan ’20 tacked on 2 TDs of his own. Despite this success the Bantams are different challenge for Hamilton and cutting through Trinity like they did Colby won’t be possible. The Hamilton defense has also been lackluster thus far, allowing opposing teams at least 24 points in each game. Allowing 24 points to each Bowdoin and Colby is not a good sign of what is to come when they are lined up against Trinity. With the offensive attack weakened and the defense overwhelmed, it could make for a sloppy weekend for Hamilton.

The Bantams have had some serious struggles of their own heading into week 3. Two disappointing losses sandwich a blowout win over Bowdoin in what has been a rollercoaster of a season up to this point. Trinity made it clear week 2 that they still have what it takes to put up crooked numbers against worse opponents, but they also made it clear again in Week 3 that they are no longer the impenetrable force that they had once been. That all being said, Trinity is being thrown a softball this weekend on which they should cash in greatly. The result here should look much more like week 2 and hopefully give Bantam fans some hope at salvaging what has been a season to forget.

SS: Trinity 38, Hamilton 17
RM: Trinity 49, Hamilton 13
CC: Trinity 42, Hamilton 21
MK Trinity 38, Hamilton 14
HC: Trinity 35, Hamilton 21

Writers’ Pick: Trinity

Wesleyan @ Bowdoin, 1pm, Brunswick, ME

Bowdoin fans will need to prepare themselves for what will be yet another tough weekend as they play host to the undefeated Wesleyan Cardinals. After putting up a fight against Hamilton in the first week Bowdoin has endured a couple of substantial road losses against the likes of Trinity and Williams. The blueprint for this game appears to be much the same as the last two unfortunately. It is fairly clear to see Austin McCrum ’21 and Nate Richam-Odoi ’20 do not have enough help offensively to generate an effective offense and the Bowdoin defense is not capable of containing the top offenses in the league. I’m not meaning to drag on the Polar Bears, this could probably be said about any CBB team. Until something big changes in Brunswick, and Maine as a whole, Bowdoin will have to continue to endure these tough losses for the foreseeable future.

Wesleyan’s 3-0 record looks fantastic at the moment and there’s almost no doubt that they will remain a perfect 4-0 following this weekend. While this undefeated reign of dominance is certainly impressive to start the season, it is important to note that Wesleyan’s strength of schedule thus far has been as weak as can be. So far they have taken on Hamilton, Bates, Colby and now get to face Bowdoin. Since the Cardinals have won fairly convincingly in every contest, they haven’t been challenged yet and it is hard to really see where they stack up with the likes of Midd, Amherst, Williams and others. This weekend will not give us any insight into that unfortunately as it should be another breeze for Wesleyan.

SS: Wesleyan 28, Bowdoin 7
RM: Wesleyan 41, Bowdoin 7
CC: Wesleyan 38, Bowdoin 13
MK: Wesleyan 35, Bowdoin 13
HC: Wesleyan 35, Bowdoin 10

Writers’ Pick: Wesleyan

Middlebury @ Amherst, 2pm, Amherst, MA

Finally we come to our most competitive, and possibly only, competitive match as both Middlebury and Amherst enter this weekend undefeated. For Middlebury their rise to the top has been mainly due to their smothering defense which suffocated the likes of Trinity and Williams. The improvement defensively has been extremely impressive considering that the lineup has not changed all that significantly from last year. QB Will Jernigan ’21 has been consistently effective for the Panthers, currently sitting in 3rd place in the NESCAC in passing yards. What has helped allowed Jernigan to have so much success has been the effectiveness of his running back Alex Maldjian ’23. Maldjian has been a workhorse for Midd, leading the NESCAC in rushes with 63 and is 2nd in rushing yards with 280. He has been an extremely valuable piece for this Midd offense and has helped them be so efficient at moving the ball up and down the field. Overall the narrative seems to suggest that the Panthers have everything going in their favor, but what happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force?

Amherst began the season with a few gimme wins over Colby and Bates but really established themselves as a candidate for title winners when they took down Tufts last week. The Mammoths played Tufts much closer than they did Colby or Bates, but it was clear that Amherst was in the driver’s seat the whole game. QB Ollie Eberth ’20 has commanded the offense well, averaging over 200 yards in the air and throwing 7 TDs through 3 weeks. His work on the ground has been impressive, as he averages nearly 70 yards a game. Eberth is the focal point of this Mammoth attack and he has yet to be contained this year. Defensively Amherst has been textbook thus far, allowing 13 points per game and having forced 10 turnovers. The defense has done more than enough work the past 3 weeks to keep Eberth and the rest of the offense in the game, but this weekend it may be a much tougher task. This game obviously has huge title implications, despite being just the halfway point in the season. Both teams are sure to leave it all out on the field Saturday in what is sure to be an exciting contest.

SS: Middlebury 28, Amherst 21
RM: Middlebury 27, Amherst 21
CC: Middlebury 24, Amherst 21
MK: Amherst 24, Middlebury 13
HC: Amherst 24, Middlebury 20

Writers’ Pick: Middlebury

Do We Have a Favorite Yet?: Week 3 Power Rankings

(1) 1. Middlebury

What’s Coach Ritter spiking the Gatorade with this season? Middlebury erased any suspicion that their opening win over Williams was a fluke by taking down another NESCAC heavyweight, three-time defending champion Trinity. What’s more impressive is that they did it mainly with great defense- and Middlebury has not been known for their defense in recent years. Nobody knows what’s going on with Trinity right now, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the same unit that Seamus Lambert tore up last year intercepted him four times. QB Will Jernigan ’21 only completed 13 of 29 passes, but he ran for a touchdown and threw for another with no fumbles or interceptions. That turnover differential is a big reason why Middlebury pulled off the win. With all the momentum in the world, the Panthers have a golden opportunity to further justify their number 1 ranking with a win over Amherst this Saturday. 

(3) 2. Amherst (3-0) 

The Mammoths showed that their tusks were a little stronger with a nice win over the Tufts Jumbos. Amherst has not put up eye-popping numbers this year (all of their games have ended with pretty similar scores), but they earned some respect by beating a quality non-CBB opponent. They have been quietly playing sound football, relying on their veteran playmakers and committing few penalties and turnovers- they were only flagged three times for 20 yards against Tufts. WR James O’Regan ’20 continued to produce with 97 yards and a TD. It’s clear that he is QB Ollie Eberth’s favorite target, so it will be interesting to see which team (if any) will be able to shut him down this season. This week’s matchup with Middlebury will be Amherst’s biggest test yet by far. If they continue to play quality football and hold teams under 20 points, though, they will dethrone Midd and become the clear top dog. 

(5) 3. Wesleyan (3-0) 

Ashton Scott has been making a name for himself in his first year as a starter

I honestly ran through all the 2-1 and 1-2 teams in the league wondering which of them might deserve this 3 spot, because Wesleyan boasts easily the least impressive 3-0 slate with wins over Colby, Hamilton and Bates. On the other hand, all you can do is play the schedule you’re given and Wes has done that quite well so far. Unfortunately for anyone wondering how good this team actually is, they’re likely going to have the least impressive 4-0 record possible after a win over Bowdoin this week. And unfortunately for Wesleyan, they have all the best teams at the back end of their schedule. Sophomore QB Ashton Scott ’22 continued to impress, completing 14 of 20 passes and throwing for two TDs. The only reason he didn’t put up bigger numbers is because Wesleyan’s backups were in for most of the second half. He is a dual threat QB that will be fun to watch in the next few seasons. The defense has been the best in the league so far in terms of scoring, only allowing Bates 117 yards of total offense while forcing four turnovers last week. The Cardinals need to use this game to fine tune their offense and maybe give their stars some rest, because they won’t be getting any breaks after this week. 

(2) 4. Williams (2-1) 

Some may say this team deserves to be above Wesleyan, but their two wins are honestly not looking much more impressive than Wes’s three. Tufts has fallen off big time since week one, and nobody was surprised when the Ephs smoked Bowdoin 41-10 this past week. Williams did show that they could run the ball well in addition to throwing it, as they ran it 43 times for an absurd 398 yards. Bobby Maimaron ’21 only threw ten passes. I love this strategy by Coach Mark Raymond. Keep your star QB fresh and keep the clock moving; blowouts get boring for everyone and Bowdoin probably wanted to hop on the bus back to Maine by halftime. With Colby, Hamilton and Bates next on the schedule for the Ephs, we may see more of this ground attack approach. Williams is in good position to be in championship contention late in the season if they take care of business the next few weeks. 

(7) 5. Hamilton (2-1) 

This is where the rankings begin to get more complicated. I’m not sure I can confidently say that Hamilton could beat both Trinity and Tufts, but they’re getting the fifth spot because they seem to be the only team of the three trending in a positive direction right now. They technically also have much better championship prospects than Tufts and Trinity given their record. I’m not saying that anyone should put money on Hamilton to win it all, but they certainly separated themselves from the CBB tier this weekend in a 45-24 win over Colby. Ironically, Colby had more yards of total offense, but picking off three passes and going 8 for 14 on third down helped Hamilton to victory. QB Kenny Gray ’20 had another solid game, throwing for two touchdowns and running for another. With strong special teams play and RB David Kagan ’20 leading the conference in rushing yards and touchdowns, Continental fans should be happy with how this season is progressing so far. They have a big test this weekend at Trinity in a game that they need to win to stay in title contention, but a win in this game is much more within reach for them than it has been in the past few years. 

(4) 6. Trinity (1-2)

I know they’re above a team they lost to in week 1, but it just doesn’t feel right putting Trinity so close to the CBB teams when they beat the only one they’ve played by 54. Nonetheless, 1-2 is not where anyone expected Trinity to be at this point in the season- they haven’t started a season 1-2 since 1995. This means that we will likely see a new NESCAC champion for the first time in three years, much to the excitement of everyone not in Hartford. QB Seamus Lambert ’22 leads the league in passing yards, so the Bantams’ terrific WRs have continued to produce, but he has also been sacked the most and is second in interceptions due to 4 in the loss to Middlebury. On top of that, Trinity was flagged for over 100 yards and RB Spencer Lockwood ’22 was not at the Middlebury game and is nowhere to be seen on campus. Lack of a run game, poor offensive line/quarterback play, and penalties have hurt the Bantams in their two losses. We know this team can probably still beat anyone, but this just isn’t their year so far. Having said that, three championships in four years is something other NESCAC players can only dream of, and the Bantams should still be a factor in determining who wins the title this year. A win over Hamilton at home this weekend will certainly propel Trinity over the Continentals in our rankings. 

(6) 7. Tufts (1-2)

Things haven’t been quite as smooth for Jacob Carroll and the Jumbos since their Week 1 win over Trinity

It’s looking like Tufts’ opening week win over Trinity has more to do with Trinity being down than Tufts being up. In fact, the Jumbos have had a brutal fall from grace since that week. Their offense is second to last in scoring, ranking above only Bates. We saw Jacob Carroll ’20 instead of Travon Woodson ’23 under center last week against Amherst, and he threw for 305 yards…but like Seamus Lambert, he was bit by the interception bug with three. This helped Amherst dominate time of possession and tire the Jumbos’ defense out. Tufts also has not been able to establish a run game this season, and they certainly needed one to beat Amherst. This team has a prime chance to get back on track when they pay Bates a visit in Lewiston; we should get to see who will emerge as the playmakers on both sides of the ball besides their usual standouts in WR OJ Armstrong ’21 and LB Greg Holt ’20. Still, you have to wonder why an 11,000 student university with Tufts’ location and resources has isn’t competing for a championship more often. 

(8) 8. Colby (0-3) 

It’s been a disappointing year in Waterville, both because people expected Colby to take a step forward this year and because the NESCAC is more exciting when the CBB teams can compete. Unfortunately, this gap between the CBB and everyone else got wider this past weekend when the Mules got thrashed by Hamilton. Last week was clearly a big week for interceptions, because Matt Hersch was the third quarterback to throw at least three of them. Although being 0-3 is never good, there are select individual performances the Mules should be happy with. Hersch (only a sophomore) is second in the league in passing yards per game, LB Marcus Bullard ’21 leads the league in tackles, and Chris George ’20 has been a decent replacement for Jake Schwern ’19 at running back. Colby has to step it up big time if they want to be competitive in any of their next three games- Williams, Middlebury, and Trinity. Sheesh!

(9) 9. Bates (0-3) 

You never want to be playing your worst football heading into the toughest part of your schedule, but unfortunately that’s the situation Bates finds themselves in after catching a 48-12 shellacking from Wesleyan in a game that really wasn’t that close. They’re playing far from full strength as their top two quarterbacks were both injured, but 117 yards of offense is pitiful no matter how you slice it. There really isn’t a lot of good to draw from their season so far, as they’ve put up the lowest point total in the league and allowed more than everyone except Bowdoin. Hopefully we will see QB Brendan Costa ’21 or at least backup Jack Bryant ’22 soon, or things will only continue to spiral downhill as they have since leading Amherst at the half in their opener. Nobody is expecting Bates to win any of their next three games against Tufts, Trinity and Williams, but if they get their QB back they should be playing some more exciting games in their last three. 

(10) 10. Bowdoin (0-3)

Admissions needs to loosen up in Brunswick, because the good people of Bowdoin deserve a better football team than what they have had to watch the past few years. One would think that a beautiful new football field and locker rooms would attract more talent, but we have yet to see the return on this investment on Saturdays. Bowdoin laid another egg last week in Williamstown, allowing the Ephs nearly 500 yards of offense. They did have two offensive standouts as RB Nate Richam ’20 managed 105 yards and a score and tight end Bo Millett ’21 passed the century mark in yards as well. Bowdoin should be thankful for these guys because frankly, they deserve to be on better teams. A team will only go as far as their QB takes them, so Bowdoin’s current situation makes sense given that Austin McCrum ’21 has twice as many picks than touchdowns this season and went 16 for 36 last week. Bowdoin is a great school with nice facilities, so it’s on new coach BJ Hammer to start bringing in better recruiting classes and actually show some results with this rebuild that Bowdoin has been trying to accomplish for years.

Mixing Things Up: Week 2 Power Rankings

(4) 1. Middlebury (2-0)

6.5 points. That’s what this Middlebury defense is allowing through the first two games of the season. While this number is (in all likelihood) unsustainable as we venture deeper into the season, it undoubtedly sets the tone going forward in addition to letting fellow conference opponents that scoring multiple times on this defense will be quite a challenge. Quarterback Will Jernigan ‘21 didn’t even need to rely on his legs this past Saturday against Bates, as the junior threw for nearly 300 yards and three touchdowns. What’s more impressive is that despite the absence of running back Peter Scibilia ‘20, the Panther offense is averaging a league-best 23 first downs per game; this number tells me the Panthers are sustaining long drives and winning the time of possession battle, which is key for keeping the defense off the field and rested. That defensive prowess will be challenged mightily at home against the Bantams this coming Saturday.

(5) 2. Williams (1-1)

Yes they’re 1-1, so what? Saturday’s annihilation of Tufts was extremely impressive: the Ephs put up 34 points by half and could have easily hung 50 on the Jumbos. Frank Stola ‘21 had the Jumbos’ secondary on skates all afternoon, breaking multiple school records in receptions (13), receiving yards (233) and touchdowns (4) in a single game. Bobby Maimaron ‘21 also had a fantastic bounce-back game, accounting for nearly 400 all-purpose yards and all five scores. The defense has been superb through two games, allowing a combined 25 points to Middlebury and Tufts, two of the better teams in the ‘CAC. Up next is a Bye, errr, I mean Bowdoin.

(1) 3. Amherst (2-0)

The people down in Amherst won’t be too pleased seeing their undefeated squad behind a one-loss team, and the fact that it’s Williams will further infuriate Mammoth supporters. However, let’s put this into perspective: Williams could easily be 2-0, losing on a last-minute touchdown on the road to Middlebury, then turned around and throttled a team that defeated Trinity. On the other hand, Amherst has defeated bottom dwellers Bates and Colby by 14 points each. Wins are wins, but neither of them was done in convincing fashion. The offense in particular has started slowly and is highly inefficient in the red zone, coming away with points on just three of nine times. Conor Kennelly ’22 went 2/4 on field goals against Bates, and followed up that performance by having a field goal and extra point blocked against Colby. Punter Henry Atkeson ‘20 actually took over for Kennelly midway through the game, converting a field goal before having a 34 yarder of his own blocked. Ollie Eberth ‘20 (on top of not leading a touchdown drive when inside the opponent’s 25 yard line) is only completing 54% of his passes, and has an interception in both games. Tougher defenses await the Mammoths, and this offensive inefficiency will not put them in a position to win the NESCAC Championship. 

(3) 4. Trinity (1-1)

Bowdoin had no answer for DeVante Reid or the rest of the Bantam offense 

It’s safe to say the Bantams’ offense had some frustrations to let out after failing to eclipse 10 points against the Jumbos. Poor Bowdoin served as a punching bag en route to a 61-7 demolition. Seamus Lambert ‘22 had virtually zero problems throwing the ball, racking up an astounding 391 yards and five touchdowns on a mere 13 completions. Surprisingly enough, the leading receiver for Trinity on Saturday was not Jonathan Girard ‘21 or Koby Schofer ‘20, but sophomore DeVante Reid ‘22. After catching three passes for zero yards against Tufts, Reid burst onto the scene with a monstrous game in which he caught six passes for 246 yards and four TD’s. Trinity clearly boasts the best receiving corps in the NESCAC, and it’ll need all of them to excel on the road in what most certainly is a do-or-die game against Middlebury.

(6) 5. Wesleyan (2-0)

The Cardinals continue to trend in the right direction, but Saturday’s game against Hamilton was (for 45 minutes) a little too close for comfort. Leading 14-10 at the start of the fourth quarter, Ashton Scott ‘22 led an 8 play, 80 yard drive to give Wesleyan a two-score lead, and a late pick-six from Ben Thaw ‘20 finally put the game out of reach. The defense continues to wreak havoc on opposing offenses, forcing a league-leading eight turnovers, six sacks, and is allowing a mere 10 ppg. Scott is completing close to 61% of his passes, and boasts a 6:1 touchdown to interception ratio. He’ll look to keep it going against a very porous Bobcat defense.

(2) 6. Tufts (1-1)

Everything came crashing down for the Jumbos in Williamstown. The same defense that stifled Trinity allowed 503 yards against Williams; in fact, Tufts allowed more yards to Williams in the first half (289) than to Trinity in the entire game (281) (the fact that Frank Stola abused their secondary makes me seriously consider how the WR combo at Trin didn’t make any sort of impact). Furthermore, quarterback Jacob Carroll ‘20 was benched late in the first half for freshman Trevon Woodson ‘23 after completing just 8 passes and tossing an interception. Woodson was more explosive with the ball (12/17 for 124 yards and 13 rushes for 79 yards) but turned the ball over twice. This is not the type of controversy you want to have before facing Amherst, so it will be interesting to see who Coach Civetti rolls out to start the game Saturday. 

(7) 7. Hamilton (1-1)

David Kagan continued to run well for the Continentals despite the loss

As previously mentioned in the Cardinals’ synopsis, the Continentals hung around for 3+ quarters on Saturday before fading off. Running back David Kagan ‘20 had another solid performance, totaling 94 yards on 16 attempts and hauling in seven receptions for an additional 46 yards. Kagan now leads all running backs in yards per game by a sizable margin, and given quarterback Kenny Gray’s ‘20 struggles as of late, Kagan should be getting 25+ touches a game. Until defenses begin to zone in on the run, there’s no reason a guy averaging 8 yards a carry shouldn’t be touching the ball as frequently as possible. Colby’s defense should not only provide Kagan room to run, but the Mules’ poor pass defense should give Gray a chance to redeem himself for his performance against the Cardinals.  

(8) 8. Colby (0-2)

I really thought this team could potentially achieve 4 wins with a few upsets this season, but two weeks in and that thought is far gone. The offense has been just average in terms of yardage gained, but quarterback Matt Hersh ‘22 really struggled against Amherst (155 yards and an INT). The defense has been downright atrocious against teams with solid but not fantastic offensive units, allowing close to 430 yards per game; what’s more concerning is that the run defense is virtually non-existent, allowing 215 yards per game. Hamilton is a winnable game, but if the defensive line continues to allow 200+ yards on the ground, the Mules will leave New York 0-3. 

(9) 9. Bates (0-2)

The losing streak is now at 12 for the Bobcats stretching back to 2017, and Saturday’s no-show against the Panthers provided more questions than answers on both ends of the ball. Bates is averaging a league-worst 6.5 ppg and does not have a quarterback it can rely on to consistently move the ball downfield. Brendan Costa ‘21 is last in the NESCAC in passing yards/game and efficiency rating amongst starters. He was benched for freshman Liam Foley ‘23 midway through Saturday’s til with Middlebury, but he fared no better, going 7-19 for 58 yards. Combined, the two quarterbacks have thrown for 281 yards through two games…eight other NESCAC quarterbacks have single-handedly surpassed that number, and three of them have higher single-game passing yard performances. The run defense is not too shabby, but the secondary (specifically the corners) are playing abysmally at the moment, allowing 264 yards per game. Next week’s visit to Wesleyan should* be easier on the defense, but the offense might see more of the same problems. 

(10) 10. Bowdoin (0-2)

We knew Bowdoin would be near the bottom of the standings upon entering 2019, but 61 points to any opponent is embarrassing. It was like watching an FBS team take on a pretty bad FCS team, to be quite honest. The offense failed to surpass 200 total yards after a respectable showing against Hamilton, and more trouble awaits them when they hit the road to take on Williams. The Polar Bears are averaging well under 100 yards per game on the ground, and desperately need someone in that department to step up and help quarterback Austin McCrum ‘21.

Can the Madness Continue?: Weekend Preview 9/21

The inaugural week of the NESCAC football season was one of the more unpredictable and exciting weeks of football we’ve had in quite some time. Trinity losing on the opening week? Check. Trinity somehow not scoring double digits? Check. Multiple first-time starting quarterbacks impressing in their debut? Yup. A game-winning drive with well under a minute on the clock to ensure an upset? You got it. Once the dust settled, behemoths Trinity and Williams found themselves in the cellar of the conference standings, essentially needing to win out in order to get back in the race for the NESCAC Championship. This week’s slate features some important matchups with title implications, and a few trap games in which relatively large favorites will have to hit the road for the first time this season. Let’s get right into it. 

Amherst (1-0) @ Colby (0-1), 1 pm, Waterville, ME

It wasn’t pretty, but the Mammoths found a way to take down the Bobcats after trailing at the half for the second consecutive season. Quarterback Ollie Eberth ‘20 connected with his favorite target James O’Regan ‘20 (five receptions for 140 yards) early and often, including a pair of 40+ yard touchdown passes. Eberth’s passing efficiency was slightly alarming considering the senior completed less than fifty percent of his passes; nonetheless, he finished with 234 yards through the air and another 68 on the ground, which isn’t too shabby for an opener. Along with O’Regan, Luke Mallette ‘20 caught five passes for 49 yards and sophomore tailback Brandon Huff ‘22 emerged as a solid receiving option out of the backfield, snagging three receptions for 43 yards. On the defensive side, the Mammoths came out a little sluggish but locked things down in the second half, shutting out the Bobcats for the remainder of the game. Defensive backs Matt Durburow ‘21 and John Ballard ‘20 combined for 20 tackles, and Joe Kelly ‘21 brought the heat on the defensive line with seven tackles and a forced fumble. More impressively, sophomore linebackers Matt Schiano ‘22 and John Schiano ‘22 answered any questions about the uncertainty at the position entering the season, combining for 14 tackles (2.5 tackles for loss) and 1.5 sacks. 

Many (including myself) expected Colby to compete with Wesleyan this past Saturday, but the defense looked like swiss cheese against a sophomore quarterback making his first career start. The Mules D’ allowed a porous 454 yards in their opener, and failed to generate any sort of pressure for the entirety of the game. The run defense was especially pitiful as the Cardinals gashed their way to 237 total rushing yards at around 6 yards per carry. That’s not good news considering the Mammoths averaged 4.5 yards per carry against a much more stout Bobcat defensive line. One bright spot for the Mules was senior running back Chris George ‘20; the first-year starter totaled 104 yards on 18 carries, and the Mules should make it a priority to feed their tailback in order to make life easier for quarterback Matt Hersch ‘22. 

Amherst improves to 2-0 as they total over 225 yards on the ground and catch the Mules secondary napping with some deep shots to O’Regan. 

MK: Amherst 28-7
RM: Amherst 34-17
SS: Amherst 28-17
HC: Amherst 34-21
CC: Amherst 31-13

Writers’ Pick: Amherst

Wesleyan @ Hamilton, 1pm, Clinton, NY

Not many people knew what to expect of sophomore quarterback Ashton Scott ‘22 considering he did not complete a pass his freshman season, but boy is he on every single NESCAC coaches’ radar after his performance against the Mules. Scott threw for 217 yards with three touchdowns and added 76 yards on the ground on just 13 rushing attempts, one of the best performances from the quarterback position of the week. A multitude of sophomores contributed in the offensive onslaught against Colby, including a pair of running backs in Charlie McPhee ‘22 (nine carries for 53 yards along with four receptions) and David Estevez ‘22 (ten carries for 54 yards). Ten different Cardinals caught a pass from Scott, led by Matthew Simco ‘22 (4 rec, 65 yds, TD) and Delando Clarke ‘21 (3 rec, 59 yds, 2 TD’s). Scott’s arm might be asked to do more this time around against Hamilton, who stifled Bowdoin’s ground game and held them to under 100 yards rushing. Linebacker Carmine Bruno ‘20 made plays all over the field with a whopping 15 tackles (two TFL), and defensive lineman James Ball ‘21 registered 1.5 sacks. Running back David Kagan ‘20 exploded against the Polar Bears to a tune of 195 yards and three touchdowns on just 20 carries, and I expect his workload to increase by 5-10 touches in order to slow the game down and wear down Wesleyan’s defensive front. 

Quarterback Kenny Gray ‘20 had a disappointing performance having completed less than 50 percent of his passes this past weekend, but the senior avoided turning the ball over and found the endzone through the air and on the ground. He’ll have to improve upon that performance a significant bit in order to spring the upset against the visiting Cardinals, but with Scott entering his first road game as a starter, the Continentals will surely be confident they can pull out a victory. In the end, however, I think Wesleyan’s offense looked too explosive against Colby, and Hamilton’s offense putting up 37 points is more of an indictment of Bowdoin’s atrocious defense. Scott once again completes over 60% of his passes for 220 yards and two scores while adding 50+ yards on the ground, and the Cardinals pull away late to escape Clinton, New York with a win. 

MK: Wesleyan 27-17
RM: Wesleyan 31-20
SS: Wesleyan 31-10
HC: Wesleyan 24-10
CC: Wesleyan 28-14

Writers’ Pick: Wesleyan

Bowdoin @ Trinity, 1pm, Hartford, CT

Seamus Lambert struggled under center in Week 1, but will he still be there in Week 2?

The second worst defensive performance of the NESCAC football slate in Week 1 belonged to the Polar Bears. Allowing 403 total yards against the Continentals is not what Coach Hammer wanted to see with a matchup against a very ticked-off Bantams squad, who lost their NESCAC opener for the first time since 1995. In the upset of the week (and possibly the 2019 season), Trinity failed to eclipse double digits and fell to Tufts 14-8. Neither quarterback found any success: Seamus Lambert ‘22 was 15/26  for a mere 111 yards (1 TD, 1 INT) before being benched in favor of last year’s opening-day starter Jordan Vazzano ‘20. Vazzano wasn’t much better, throwing an interception with less than three minutes left as the Bantams were marching deep into Jumbos territory. Despite their offense being stagnant for a majority of the game, Trinity had three chances in the fourth quarter to take the lead, and blew each opportunity. Brian Casagrande ‘22 penetrated the Jumbos’ offensive line and recorded a safety to make it a one score game with about 12 minutes remaining. After receiving the ball back inside the Jumbos 40 yard line, the Bantams were stifled on a 4th and 1 attempt and turned the ball over on downs. Vazzano’s interception would turn out to not be the game-clincher as the Trinity defense would force a quick stop in order to give the offense one more crack. After leading a drive all the way inside the Jumbos’ 10 yard line, Vazzano was sacked and the game-clock ran out of time. 

The defense played extremely well in limiting the Jumbos to under 300 yards of total offense and will have no trouble shutting down Austin McCrum ‘21 and Nate Richam-Odoi ‘20. The latter needs to be a focal point this week for the Polar Bears, as he had a tough time sledding against the Continentals. McCrum was relied on to throw the ball way too much last week, and as we saw last season, the junior quarterback is prone to turnovers when his throwing volume increases. Moral victories will be all the Polar Bears are concerned with on Saturday.

MK: Trinity 34-0
RM: Trinity 48-7
SS: Trinity 35-6
HC: Trinity 45-13
CC: Trinity 42-6

Writers’ Pick: Trinity

Middlebury @ Bates, 1pm, Lewiston, ME

Middlebury’s 17-13 upset of Williams was dwarfed in significance due to the Tufts-Trinity game, but the Panthers’ defense made a statement to the rest of the NESCAC world that their squad is a serious contender for the Championship in 2019. They did exactly what was needed to be done in order to take down the Ephs: shut down Bobby Maimaron ‘21 and the running game. The Panthers limited the Ephs to just 101 yards on the ground, and Maimaron ran 16 times for a mere 39 yards. Linebacker Pete Huggins ‘21 was flying around the backfield constantly, totaling 13 tackles (five TFL’s) and two sacks. Linebacker Wyllis McKissick ‘21 recorded his first interception of his career as well as his first offensive touchdown on a two-yard reception from quarterback Will Jernigan ‘21. With no Pete Scibilia ‘21 for reasons unbeknownst to the Nothing But NESCAC writers (assuming some sort of injury), Jernigan did more than enough to will the offense to victory; trailing by 3 with just 30 seconds left, the junior scored on a five-yard quarterback keeper to propel the Panthers into the win column. Jernigan found success on the ground (21 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown), but freshman running back Alex Maldijan ‘23 struggled in Scibilia’s absence (21 carries, 49 yards).  

Liam Spillane had a very solid Week 1 out of the Bobcat backfield

The same offensive and defensive formulas will be applied this week when the Panthers hit the road and take on the Bobcats. Junior quarterback Brendan Costa ‘21 is respected as more of a runner rather than a thrower; despite completing 23 of his 38 attempts, most of his completions were either of the wide receiver screen variety or swing passes. I thought Bates came out with a solid game plan against the Mammoths, but shortened offensive possessions due to turnovers forced the defense to take the field on short rest. Running back Jaason Lopez ‘21 had two of those fumbles in the second half in addition to one at the beginning of the game, but expect him to bounce back in a big way on Saturday, ready to atone for last week. Liam Spillane ‘21 (11 car for 55 yds, 2 rec for 10 yds and a TD) and Tyler Bridge ‘23 (4 car for 40 yards) round out the trio of tailbacks for the ‘Cats, and all three are capable of changing the game with a single carry. 

Costa has weapons on the field if he can get the ball downfield to them. Christian Olivieri ‘22 (6 receptions for 58 yards) is turning into a reliable ball-catcher and tight end Isaiah Saunders ‘21 has the potential to catch 3-5 passes a game if he can consistently get open. Freshman Mohamed Diawara ‘23 is electric when in space and caught three passes against Amherst, but he showed his physicality with an absolutely thunderous crackback block in the second quarter. He’s an immediate impact player, and Bates will need him ready to go in order to pull off the upset. 

It’s no surprise that Middlebury’s defensive plan will be to stack the box and keep an eye on Costa’s scrambling ability, forcing the junior to beat them with his arm. I really do think this is a trap game for the Panthers because of the volatility of their offense (specifically Jernigan), but I just can’t pull the trigger. Middlebury’s defense will once again win them the game, but it won’t be easy. 

MK: Middlebury 20-10
RM: Middlebury 24-20
SS: Middlebury 24-10
HC: Middlebury 35-24
CC: Bates 27-21

Writers’ Pick: Middlebury

Tufts @ Williams, 1:30pm, Williamstown, MA

I’ll keep this one short because it’s our Game of the Week, but no one could have predicted Tufts to knock off the three-time defending champions in Week 1. What an awesome feeling that must have been for first-year starter in senior Jacob Carroll, who waited his turn behind Ryan McDonald and finally got his chance on the big stage. Tufts has everything going for them heading into Williamstown, but my gut tells me the high from beating Trinity won’t last past Saturday. After stumbling on their own feet against Middlebury, Williams knows this game is a must win. Starting the season 0-2 is essentially a death sentence, so expect Maimaron, Frank Stola and co. to set the tone early and grind out some yards against a solid Jumbos defensive front. 

Also shoutout to OJ Armstrong for the Jumbos, Go Raiders*

MK: Williams 20-13
RM: Williams 23-17
SS: Tufts 17-7
HC: Williams 30-24
CC: Williams 24-16

Writers’ Pick: Williams

Trinity Isn’t Number 1: Week 1 Power Rankings

The return of NESCAC football also brings with it the return of our weekly power rankings. Our weekly power rankings are one of my favorite things we do because they are almost entirely subjective and opinion-based and yet they make people very upset. I have been blessed with the opportunity to rank 10 entire college football teams based almost exclusively upon 60 whole minutes of football—this should be a ton of fun.

IMPORTANT LINK: https://www.nescac.com/sports/fball/2019-20/standings

I have gone ahead and included the link to the standings after Week 1. This link is for the people who think that the power rankings and the standings are the same thing: I have saved you 5-10 minutes of your life reading this article. For the rest of us, let’s get into it.

1. Amherst (1-0)

The Mammoths certainly don’t get any points for style in their 27-13 win over Bates, a game they found themselves trailing 13-6 at the half. Any questions that were asked of this team over the summer still linger—whether or not they will be able to replace their two leading rushers, or if they will be able to overcome the loss of 4 of their top 5 tacklers to graduation. QB Ollie Eberth ’20 looked good not great, going 15-31 for 236 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 INT, but Amherst certainly will not complain about emerging from a hectic Week 1 at 1-0.

2. Tufts (1-0)

How about the Jumbos? I was tempted to put them a little bit lower, but it would have been almost impossible to justify after they held the Trinity offense to just 8 points. The defense sacked QB Seamus Lambert ’22 6 times on Saturday, 3 of which came from DPOW DE Jovan Nenadovic ’22. I’m not quite ready to say that Tufts is a true championship contender but beating Trinity in Week 1 will go a long way to getting them in the conversation. First time starting QB Jacob Carroll ’20 was 13-23 for 173 yards and 2 TDs, but 128 of those yards came on 3 catches of 30+ yards to 3 different Tufts receivers. RB Mike Pedrini ’21 will need to give them more than 71 yards on 27 carries if they hope to remain at the top, but it’s tough to be upset about anything after this start to the season.

3. Trinity (0-1)

The Bantams are still the class of the league, but it’ll be an uphill battle the rest of the way

Before you complain: name 3 teams you know for sure are better than the 3-time defending league champions. Okay, glad we got that out of the way. Yes, it was a very disappointing week for the Bantams, whose gave them 8 points after having the third highest scoring season (324) in league history to pair with the most total offense (4179) in league history. I say this all to remind everyone of the talent this team has on paper. Yes, QB Seamus Lambert’s performance and the fact that he was pulled late for Jordan Vazzano ’21 do not give Trinity fans a lot to write home about, but there is a whole lot of football left and this team is too talented to not be able to figure it out. They have a free win on Saturday against Bowdoin and then a bit of a test Week 3 against Middlebury, a team they are also better than. If they beat Middlebury, they should show up in Week 7 at 5-1. Everyone calm down.

4. Middlebury (1-0)

This is where it starts to get tricky, but give me the Panthers here, who had almost as impressive a win as Tufts, beating Williams on a late, dramatic TD drive. After accumulating just 218 yards of total offense all day, QB Will Jernigan ’21 led the Panthers on a 7 play, 78-yard drive in just 2:01, having taken over at their own 22 with just 2:31 left on the clock. The only reason it is difficult to assess their performance is because of how little we still know about Williams, who came into the game already banged up and looking like a carbon copy of the worst version of their offensive selves from last season. 2 months from now, this Middlebury win could look like a fluke, or it could look completely unremarkable—it depends on both teams’ trajectories.

5. Williams (0-1)

The Williams defense held Midd, as I just mentioned, to just 218 yards and 10 points in the first 57 minutes and 29 seconds of the game. Yet the Panthers managed to engineer a clutch drive and found the endzone with just 30 seconds left to steal a week 1 win. But if the Ephs get a stop on that drive, they are still the same one-dimensional offense with the same flaws on defense, they are just 1-0 instead of 0-1. Yes, they traveled to Vermont with 3 of their starting linemen at the start of camp, and missing top targets TE Justin Burke ’21 and WR Rashad Morrison ’21. But everything else was the same—the rest of the league is unable to cover WR Frank Stola ’21 (6 catches, 151 yards, 2 TDs), and the running game is non-existent, 35 carries as a team for 101 yards. Unluckily for them, they don’t get the same chance as Trinity to run their confidence back up because Tufts is coming to town this weekend, but on the other hand, a win versus Tufts will be a huge confidence boost and they will be right back in the swing of things. We are going to learn A LOT about this team this week.

6. Wesleyan (1-0)

Probably a tough break for the Cardinals here, finding themselves 6th despite the fact that only 5 teams are 1-0. Apparently to some a win against Colby is impressive, but the reality in this league is that there are only 6 teams that matter in the big picture, and that will remain true until proven otherwise. QB Ashton Scott ’22 had a very impressive debut, going 18-30 for 217 yards and 3 TDs, as well as adding 76 yards on the ground, as he begins his quest to fill the very large shoes of QB Mark Piccirillo ’19. Wesleyan has Hamilton, Bates, and Bowdoin in their next three games before taking on Tufts in Week 5, so it might be awhile before we know what kind of team this is going to be. For now, they just need to continue to take care of business.

7. Hamilton (1-0)

A very fine performance by David Kagan propelled the Continentals to their first victory

Being the only remaining team to win a game this week, Hamilton slides in at 7 after defeating Bowdoin 37-24. As it has the last few years, this team will go as QB Kenny Gray ’20 goes, as talented a thrower as any in this league, despite his junior year drop off. Week 1 was not the most promising for Gray, who was just 8-20 for 157 yards and 1 TD (also adding 43 yards and another TD on the ground). RB David Kagan ’20 was the biggest bright spot for this team, earning OPOTW honors for his 195 yard and 3 TD performance, a performance which also earned him d3football.com Team of the Week honors.

8. Colby (0-1)

Always tough to rank these last three, but I’ll give Colby the early CBB nod almost strictly because they had the best record (3-6) last year. They did lose by 20 though, the biggest defeat of the week, so it’s going to be a short leash. The Colby offense had a much better day than their 10-point total would indicate, going for 364 yards of total offense. Unfortunately, it was the combination of 4 turnovers and going a whopping 1-11 on third down conversions that did this team in. Reigning co-ROY QB Matt Hersch ’22 had an iffy day, going 22-40 for 244 yards with 1 TD and 2 INTs, but it’s a promising sign that they trust him enough to sling it 40 times. RB Chris George’s 104 rushing yards on just 18 carries is also a cause for excitement as they look to replace RB Jake Schwern ’19.

9. Bates (0-1)

To start the road to redemption after an 0-9 campaign with a 13-6 halftime lead at Amherst is not too shabby. Unfortunately, we play 60 minutes for a reason, and the second half was sung to a different tune, as Amherst scored the only 21 points of the final 30 and won 27-13. Much like the Williams-Middlebury game, the next 8 games will give us more of a feel for how this reflects on both Bates and Amherst—was it an off game for the Mammoths or is Bates going to be stingy this year?

10. Bowdoin (0-1)

In fairness, it was 24-21 Bowdoin with just 9:26 left in this game. Then David Kagan ’20 rattled off a 70 yard run and punched one in from 4 yards out just 54 seconds later, before adding one more a few minutes later for a rather misleading 37-24 score line in favor of Hamilton. You would’ve liked to have seen a few more standout individual performances from Bowdoin if there was any confidence to be gained going forward. RB Nate Richam-Odoi (who gets a lot of buzz for his 1400 career yards) had just 61 yards on 21 carries, and QB Austin McCrum was 24-43 for 229 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. The defense did have a collective 8 tackles for loss, which is going to be something they will have to lean on if they plan on allowing 246 rushing yards a game.

It’s Finally Here: Weekend Preview 9/14

This year we’ve decided to tweak the weekend previews during football season. Instead of having one writer make every pick and write the article, we had 5 of our writers pick the winners and scores of every game. These picks are included at the end of the write up for each game. I then wrote each preview knowing which team our writers had selected as the winner. This week’s slate of games wasn’t very exciting because there was only one game where we didn’t all agree on a winner, but hopefully it gets more exciting when the standings get messy in the middle of the season. For now we’ll just have to see who gets the closest score!

Hamilton @ Bowdoin, 1pm, Brunswick, ME

This is an interesting one to start off with. Neither of these teams had good seasons in 2018 and they’re both looking to bounce back in 2019 – Bowdoin even added a new head coach. On the Hamilton side, I love the Kenny Gray-Joe Schmidt QB-WR connection, and Joe Park ’22 had a terrific rookie season out of the backfield in 2018. Hamilton has a sneaky offense but they’re going to need their defense to compete in order for them to stay in games. Lafayette transfer Austin McCrum ’21 didn’t have a particularly impressive first season for the Polar Bears, but they return their entire receiving corps so hopefully they’ll be a bit more on the same page in year two. Nate Richam ’20 has proven to be one of the league’s best running backs when he gets good protection and he is likely the team’s deadliest offensive weapon. The only reason Hamilton gets the edge here is that they have proven slightly more in the past – and they haven’t lost to Bowdoin in 4 years. These two teams played an absolute shootout last season, so this one could be very exciting to watch.

MK: Hamilton 28-21
RM: Hamilton 32-21
SS: Hamilton 35-10
HC: Hamilton 28-14
CC: Hamilton 38-21

Writers’ Pick: Hamilton

Bates @ Amherst, 1pm, Amherst, MA

On paper this is a game that looks fairly lopsided. The Bobcats are coming off an 0-9 season, while Amherst was the league runner-up last year and is a perennial NESCAC powerhouse. One of the biggest problems for Bates in 2018 was that their offense wasn’t able to get much going, so the defense spent the entire game on the field. They have very solid skill players such as QB Brendan Costa ’21 and RB Jaason Lopez ’21, but the offensive line needs to give those guys a chance to shine or else it doesn’t matter. Everything isn’t all sunshine and rainbows in Western Mass either, because the Mammoths lost their top two rushers and their top receiver from last season. They’ve still got seasoned vet Ollie Eberth ’20 under center and James O’Regan ’20 out wide, but aside from them the offense is largely up in the air. Amherst has always been known for their defense and if that unit can get the job done then they won’t have any offensive questions to worry about. Should be a lot of purple on Saturday.

MK: Amherst 42-0
RM: Amherst 27-13
SS: Amherst 38-6
HC: Amherst 48-7
CC: Amherst 21-13

Writers’ Pick: Amherst

Colby @ Wesleyan, 1pm, Middletown, CT

If there’s one thing I can say about this game it’s that Colby has come a very long way. During my freshman year in 2016 this game was a blowout – 37-6 in favor of Wesleyan. The result wasn’t much better the following year, then in stepped Jack Cosgrove. Coach Cosgrove helped lead the Mules to a 3-6 season last year, including a 28-20 loss to the Cardinals in a very well played game. Heading into this season this game is very much in the air. Our writers gave the edge to Wesleyan, but let’s not look past this game too quickly. Wesleyan’s offense wasn’t particularly impressive last season and now they no longer have Mark Piccirillo taking snaps, so who knows what direction they’ll go. Colby, on the other hand, seemed to be just putting things together towards the end of 2018, settling on Matt Hersch ’22 as their quarterback. He saw some success there, but it will be interesting to see how he does without all-NESCAC running back Jake Schwern this season. Colby is still the underdog, but all I’m saying is this isn’t your classic Wesleyan-Colby football game.

MK: Wesleyan 28-17
RM: Colby 24-20
SS: Wesleyan 28-24
HC: Wesleyan 28-24
CC: Wesleyan 27-14

Writers’ Pick: Wesleyan

Trinity @ Tufts, 1:30pm, Medford, MA

This game follows nearly the opposite trend of the last one. Over the last three seasons Tufts-Trinity was a great game, but this year I’m not so sure. The Jumbo defense is always excellent but the loss of QB Ryan McDonald and their top three pass-catchers makes the offensive unit a hell of a lot less scary. The Bantams look as good as ever, returning two of the league’s best wide receivers in Koby Schofer ’20 and Jonathan Girard ’21 and their quarterback, Seamus Lambert ’22. And if for some reason Lambert isn’t doing the job, URI transfer Jordan Vazzano ’20 is ready to go. They’ll obviously suffer the loss of Max Chipouras, one of the best running backs in the history of the NESCAC, but Spencer Lockwood ’22 is in position to have a fine season as his replacement. All signs point towards Trinity for this one.

MK: Trinity 35-10
RM: Trinity 31-13
SS: Trinity 38-10
HC: Trinity 35-13
CC: Trinity 42-21

Writers’ Pick: Trinity

Williams @ Middlebury, 2pm, Middlebury, VT

There’s no doubt that this is the best game of the weekend – that is, best matchup combined with best title chances. Williams returns nearly everyone, headlined by QB Bobby Maimaron ’21, WR Frank Stola ’21, and LB TJ Rothmann ’21, who make up just a small part of this outstanding Eph junior class. They hoped to have a better year last year but were bit by the injury bug at the wrong time and the rest was history. Now they’re all healthy and ready to compete for a championship in Williamstown. You can never count out Middlebury, although I have to admit that this does not appear to be one of the better Panther teams in recent years. They return QB Will Jernigan ’21, TE Frank Cosolito ’20, and RB Peter Scibilia who were all key pieces of their offense last season, but the bar is set pretty high at Midd. Jernigan will have to navigate the passing game a bit better if he wants Midd to be able to compete with the top dogs of the NESCAC and I’m curious to find out if he can do that. Keep an eye on the score from the Green Mountain State.

MK: Williams 28-14
RM: Williams 27-17
SS: Williams 24-17
HC: Williams 38-14
CC: Williams 31-24

Writers’ Pick: Williams