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WILLIAMSTOWN, MA--For the second straight year the Williams
football team (1-1) came up just short against fellow conference
powerhouse Trinity (2-0), dropping a 20-17 contest. It was
the first time the Ephs' had lost at home since October 2, 2004 -
which, coincidentally, was against Trinity. The Bantam
victory snapped a 16 game home winning streak for an Eph team that
just couldn't seem to make enough big plays on offense. Said
Eph coach Mike Whalen:
"Our defense played very, very hard and put us in a position to
win - we just didn't make enough plays on offense. It's frustrating
because we know we have the ability to make a lot more plays than
we did today."
Experience at quarterback was one of the deciding factors
Saturday afternoon, as senior Bantam QB Eric McGrath made enough
big plays to compliment a 119 yard day by Trinity RB Oliver
Starnes, who broke free for a 30 yard touchdown run in the third
quarter to cap what proved to be the game-winning drive. The
Ephs, on the other hand, were unable to score in the second half
after entering the half up 17-14.
Each team's first drive of the game was rife with action.
Williams won the toss and elected to receive. The decision
seemed a smart one too when senior return man Elijah Weeks rattled
off a solid return of 40 yards, setting the Ephs up with great
field position. The hopeful return was quickly negated
though, as on the first play from scrimmage sophomore QB Pat
Moffitt zipped an ill-advised pass over the middle almost directly
to Bantam DB Conor Quinn. But before the Williams faithful
even had a chance to groan, Trinity had marched down the field for
35 yards into Williams territory and appeared poised to strike
first. In dire need of a big play, the Eph defense would
provide it with a forced fumble recovered by linebacker Dan Johnson
'11.
Both sides ensuing drives would end in punts, however Trinity's
would be returned by sophomore Eph returner "Fat" Pat Barren for a
25 yard gain. Barren juked his way all the to the Trinity 45,
and Williams would take advantage of the field position eventually
with a 39 yard field goal by Sobolewski '10 that looked, in a game
marked at that point by defense, as if it could prove to be a
crucial score.
That thought would quickly be quashed by the Bantams, though, as
Robert Jackson somehow found open grass enough of a simple
off-tackle for a 38 yard gain to the Williams 27 yard line.
The very next play Bantam senior QB Eric McGrath found receiver
Michael Galligan in the end zone for a TD and a 7-3 Trinity
lead. Galligan and McGrath were a dangerous combination in
the first half, hooking up for 93 yards and a touchdown on 7
passes.
Luckily for the Ephs, Moffitt would settle in towards the end of
the 1st quarter, exemplified by a 24 yard pass to Nick
Caro after almost losing his footing in the pocket and scrambling
out to his right to avoid a sack. The play got Williams down
to the Trinity 15. With the start of the second quarter, the
Ephs gave the ball on 3rd and 4 to Weeks for a huge 1st
down inside the Trinity 5 yard line. From there Morrissey
would finally push it across the goal line for the Ephs on a
3rd and goal dive to give Williams a 10-7 lead.
On the Bantams ensuing drive it would be the Eph defense again
providing the spark, as Sean Milano '09 would come up with his
second interception of the year on a shaky lob pass by McGrath on
3rd and long.
On the Williams takeover, freshman QB Matt Coyne would make his
game debut with a 7 yard keeper and a vicious hit to excite the
crowd before being forced out of bounds. Several plays later
Williams would call a timeout with 6:20 remaining in the
half. Moffitt appeared under center out of the timeout and
wasted no time in picking up a first down and a touchdown on
back-to-back completions; the first to WR Ryan Powell '09 for a 7
yard gain, and the second to Stew Buck '09 who somehow was left
wide open in the end zone for a 38 yard score.
Said Whalen: "Today I just felt that I wanted to get Matt in the
game...there's a lot of different ways to do it I don't know if
there's a right way or a wrong way, but I think the kid's a good
player and the only way he's going to get better is if we give him
experience. There's no real exact science to it - obviously
today we had them both in there one drive and we got a score out of
it. I also think Moffitt's a good player, and what I want is
for them to push each other in practice and make each other
better...if one guy down the road distances himself from the other,
then he'll be the quarterback; but right now that's not there."
"The biggest thing is to make sure the kids understand that
right now Pat Moffitt's our starter...if Coyne goes in and leads us
down the field and scores a touchdown, the next drive Pat's going
back in, he's our starter. I think the kids know that and I think
the team knows that. We have two good quarterbacks and until
one of them proves he's "the guy", they're both going to play."
A Trevor Powers '09 sack would eventually force Trinity to punt
on their next drive, but the Ephs would come up empty as well and
be forced to punt it back to the Bantams with 2:17 to go in the
half. On their own 8 yard line and down 17-7, things were
looking grim for Trinity. McGrath would turn that around
though, stringing together a number of long completions to get into
Williams territory. Another big sack by the Ephs (Charlie
Birns '09) would stick Trinity with an 8 yard loss and give the
Williams defense a chance to breathe as the Bantam aerial attack
seemed to be running out of fuel. Consecutive receptions by
receiver Conor Wells, though, would spell trouble for the Ephs, as
Wells would break several tackles on his second catch before
finally being brought down at Williams 1-yard line. RB Oliver
Starnes would run it in with 13 seconds left, and when the dust had
settled the Bantams had engineered an incredible 14 play, 92 yard
drive that took just over 2 minutes.
"Obviously when a team scores before the half on you like that,
it takes a little wind out of your sails," said Whalen, "But it's
not like we thought we were going to shut them out or anything,
they're a good football team. And again, I really can't say
enough about our defense; they gave up a big drive like that and
then came right back in the second half and played their hearts
out."
In the third quarter Eph QB Moffitt would throw his second and
most costly interception of the game again to Bantam DB Conor
Quinn. Trinity would take only two plays to capitalize on the
mistake, as Starnes broke off a 30 yard run for his second
touchdown of the game.
Still, Coach Whalen had nothing but praise for his defense:
"They're [Trinity] a good football team. We knew going
into this that we were going to have to throw the football to
win...honestly I thought going into it that we were going to need
28 points to win the game; turns out we could've got away with 21,
but we knew we'd have to throw it. I give them a lot of
credit, they made more plays than us today, but our defense played
really, really well. They kept us in it."
The rest of the game would be defined by some great plays made
by the Eph defense only to watch the offense struggle to move the
ball. The Bantams seemed to be a step ahead of the Eph
offense during the entire second half. With just under 10
minutes to go in the game, DB Will Cronin '10 made an incredible
diving, full-extension interception that got everyone on the Eph
sideline fired up. Just as quickly as the excitement rose,
though, it seemed to fade, as the resultant Eph possession ended
abruptly with another punt.
Refusing to give up, freshman Colin Curzi would give the Eph
offense one more shot when he tackled Starnes for a 7 yard loss on
3rd and 1 with just over four minutes to play, forcing
Trinity to punt the ball back to the Ephs for one last shot.
Williams would show some life, too, as on the first play from
scrimmage Moffitt bought just enough time to find Caro down the
field for a 20 yard gain into Bantam territory. As seemed to
happen all game though, the success was short-lived. An
overthrow, an attempted screen sniffed out by Trinity miles in
advance, and a penalty would quickly bring up 3rd and
long. Williams was forced to lob a low-percentage pass down
the field that came up empty. Taking over with under two
minutes to play and only one timeout for Williams, the Bantams ran
out the clock to shock an Eph team not used to losing at home.
Coach Whalen was proud of his team's effort but didn't sugarcoat
the team's need to play better:
"The effort was there, the kids played hard. When
you know your team puts it out there like that and then still comes
up short, that's very frustrating as a coach. When they play
like that you really want them to win, but unfortunately it doesn't
work like that: you have to make plays too. I think our
defense played championship-caliber football today; we didn't get
it done on offense. As coaches and players, we just have to regroup
and get better. We have a lot of football left; we had a lot
of opportunities to make plays today, and we're going to have to
make those plays to win games down the road."
Williams travels to Maine next weekend to play a Bates team that
gave Trinity a pretty good game last weekend in a 17-7 loss. Game
time is set for 1:00 pm.
