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WILLIAMSTOWN, MA--95 combined points. 12 offensive
touchdowns. Nearly 1200 yards of total offense. If you
were in the greater Berkshire region on Saturday and you weren't at
the Williams-Middlebury football game, you were in the wrong
place. In one of the all-time great games at Weston Field,
the hometown Ephs (3-1) defeated the visiting Panthers (2-2) by a
score of 50-45 in a shootout for the ages.
Middlebury set school records for most 1st downs (47) and yards
passing (462) in a game, and their 594 yards of total offense was
the second highest in school history. Sophomore QB Donald
McKillop set marks for most completions (47), yards (462) and total
offense (506).
The victorious Ephs, on the other hand, set the school mark for
total offense with 590 yards, and junior receiver Nick Caro set a
school record for yards receiving in a game with an astounding 218
yards on just 7 catches.
Williams held a 20 point lead in the third quarter, 44-24, but
the Panthers refused to quit, stringing together big play after big
play and finally whittling the Eph lead down to within just one
score, 44-38, with more than six minutes left to play in the
game. Williams would answer right back however, as a 31 yard
completion to Caro would set up a Morrissey touchdown run to make
it 50-38. With just under three minutes left to play the Ephs
seemed to have finally locked up the game, but amazingly McKillop
would drive the Panthers down the field for another score, bringing
it to 50-45. Middlebury would pull no closer though as the
Ephs hung on for a dramatic win against a tough team.
Almost lost in the aerial fireworks on Saturday was senior
running back and co-captain Brian Morrissey's performance, as Mo'
rushed for 161 yards and 3 touchdowns on just 24 carries. The
effort put him over 2,000 yards for his career, an honor only four
Ephs before him since 1973 have earned. His second touchdown
of the day also led him past former Eph receiver Brendan Fulmer '07
for fourth all-time in Williams scoring. Morrissey did,
however, have a costly fumble in the game, and after the game it
was nearly all he could think about:
"It was an emotional roller-coaster," said Morrissey, "you know
like I fumbled the ball out of the end zone, I had a chance to put
it away - we would've been up by 26 - so you kind of get down on
that but you know that you gotta get back up and I loved the way we
came back on that final touchdown drive to win the game."
Said Head Coach Mike Whalen: "The characteristic of our players
is, well, if you talk to Morrissey right now it's not about 2,000
yards, it's about the fumble in the end zone - that's the kind of
kid he is. If you try to talk about the 15 great throws
Moffitt made today, he'll bring up the 7 that he didn't.
That's why we're successful, because we get those type of kids that
strive for perfection."
The Ephs looked great on both sides of the ball in the first
half. On Middlebury's second possession of the game, Williams
DB Iheoma came up with a huge diving play to break up a
3rd down pass intended for Andrew Matson in the end
zone. The play produced a four point swing as the Panthers
had to settle for a field goal.
Williams would answer right back though, driving down the field
in just 1:11 for a touchdown on a sliding 17 yard catch by Powell
in the end zone. The drive took just four plays and put the
Ephs up 6-3, and the Ephs would hold the lead for the rest of the
game.
A special teams miscue would leave the Panthers stranded deep in
their own territory on their next possession, and after a
three-and-out Middlebury would be forced to punt, giving the Ephs
great field position at their own 41 yard line. Again
Williams would waste no time, as on their second play a quick pass
to Caro and a great block by Powell would result in a 49 yard score
and a 13-3 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff the Panther again would struggle, downing
the ball at their own 5. Their early offensive woes would
continue as a McKillop pass would sail high and be intercepted by
"Phat" Pat Barren, who returned it to the 10. Williams would
have to settle for a field goal though and a 16-3 lead in the
second quarter.
After trading scores, another Williams interception (this time
by Milano) deep in Panther territory set up a Morrissey TD, making
the score 30-10 in favor of the Ephs.
The Panthers appeared to be coming apart at the seams, as their
next possession resulted in yet another interception, again by Pat
Barren and McKillop's third of the half. But the Ephs, who
until then had played a near flawless half, finally gave one back
with a fumble by Elijah Weeks. Aided by a few key third and
fourth down conversions, Middlebury finally capitalized and scored
a touchdown to cut it to 30-17 with just 48 seconds to play.
With the momentum squarely on the Panthers sideline, Williams
decided to come out firing instead of run the ball and limp into
the locker room. After a good return by Weeks, Moffitt hit
Powell for a 31 yard gain into Middlebury territory. Another
play to Powell would result in a 13 yard gain, and the Ephs would
spike it at the Middlebury 9 yard line. With only seconds
remaining, the Ephs had one last shot before the half.
Moffitt hiked the ball and rolled out to his left...and kept
rolling, and rolling for what seemed like an eternity before
unleashing a bullet-pass to Powell in the end zone, somehow
threading it between two Middlebury defenders. The play left
the Ephs up 37-17 going into the half.
"I think Moffitt did a great job running the offense today,"
said Whalen, "he even called the play that scored the touchdown at
the end of the half, and that was huge, that was a huge play to get
the momentum back for us."
If you can believe it, the Ephs scored just 1 minute, 19 seconds
into the second half to go up 44-17. The crowd, the press
box, the guy selling programs, even the band thought the game was
over. Luckily, the Ephs were wiser:
"We were talking about the lead," said Morrissey, "and honestly
none of us thought we had it put away, we knew they had a great
offense."
Said Coach Whalen to his team:
"There are positives that we can take away from this: obviously
we gotta give them credit for not giving up, you had them down and
they got off the carpet and came back. But we gotta give
ourselves credit for not panicking when they scored to make it a
one score game. So there are positives we can take away from
this game, but men you can never be satisfied: offensively, we
should've scored 70. Not that we wanted to do that, but we
should've done that."
In a statistician's nightmare of a game, a lot of players put up
big numbers. In addition to Caro's record-breaking
performance, Powell tallied 107 yards and 2 TD's on 8 catches, and
Moffitt had a career day with 381 yards and 4 TD's on 20 of 29
passing. Said Moffitt:
"I felt pretty good today after getting the first three games
under my belt and I think I'm definitely more comfortable now, just
focusing on going out there and playing the game the way I know how
to play it."
For the Panthers the receiving was balanced, as only James
Millard went over 100 yards receiving on McKillop's record setting
day.
Trying to gain perspective on an altogether crazy game, Whalen
commented "It was like one of those old Amherst games, man.
It was a brawl."
Williams will probably have another brawl on its hands again
next Saturday when they travel to Medford to face the Jumbos of
Tufts University. Game is set for 1:00 pm.
