Ephs suffer 14-13 loss to Amherst

"Our defense played really well," Coach Raymond said. "They made some big stops, in the red zone they were great, just really proud of that unit."

First-year Mustafa Mozawalla started the game at quarterback for a banged-up Williams team. The Ephs were without Owen Johansen, who led the team at quarterback for most of the year, as well as Drew Renzella, who served as Johansen's primary back-up for most of the season before being injured against Wesleyan last week. 

Mozawalla fought hard for most of the game and made several big plays, finishing with 100 passing yards and a touchdown, as well as another touchdown on the ground, before he himself was forced from the game with an injury.

Both defenses set the tone early in this game, as the teams traded a pair of punts, before the Mammoths began driving on their third drive of the game. The first quarter ended scoreless but with Amherst's offense inside the Williams 10.

The Ephs' defense prevented an Amherst touchdown after Luke Mangini and Will Gale clogged the lane on a third-and-goal run. The 27-yard kick from Amherst's Hudson Fulcher-Melendy gave Amherst a 3-0 lead with 13:25 left in the half.

A deflected pass on the first play of the next Williams drive led to an Amherst interception that set the Mammoths up with the ball inside the Williams 25. Strong defense from the Ephs prevented the Mammoths from picking up a first down, but Fulcher-Melendy nailed a 37-yard field goal to put Amherst ahead 6-0. 

The Williams defense continued to keep the team in the game in the second quarter. After an Ephs drive ended on a failed fourth-down conversion with under three minutes to go in the half, Amherst took over. On the first play of the Mammoths' drive, running back Demitrius Smith took a handoff up the middle, and was wrapped up by Luke Mangini. As Mangini was tackling Smith, cornerback Jackson Fister came over and delivered a hit, popping the ball out, right into the waiting arms of Wyatt Cotton for a momentum-shifting turnover.

The Ephs' offense capitalized on the play, as Mozawalla scrambled twice for solid yardage and converted on a 4th-and-3 with a nice misdirection pass to Jon Oris. To cap the drive, on 2nd-and-3 from the 12, Mozawalla escaped to his right, juked outside to evade the tackle attempt of linebacker Luke Harmon, and sprinted to the outside, reaching the ball just inside the pylon as he tumbled out of bounds for a touchdown to give the Ephs a 7-6 lead going into halftime. 

The Ephs punted on their first drive of the third quarter, but the team's defense made another big play on Amherst's first drive of the second half. As Amherst wide receiver Carter Jung tried to race past Luke Mangini on a screen pass, Mangini reached his arm out and stripped the ball. The loose football bounced towards the sideline, but was recovered by Brandt Bickford before it went out of bounds for the Ephs' second fumble recovery of the game. 

Amherst's defense forced a punt after the turnover, and then the Mammoths' offense marched down the field but was again forced to settle for a field goal due to strong red-zone defense from Williams. Fulcher-Melendy's 22-yarder made it 9-7 with 6:59 to go in the third. 

The Ephs' offense responded with their best drive of the day. Starting at the 25, Mozawalla found Henry Machnik for a first down on a 3rd-and-11, and then Mozawalla hit a wide-open Justice McGrail for 26 yards to move into Amherst territory. After a nice 16-yard scramble down the left sideline from Mozawalla, the first-year quarterback lofted a pass to Riley O'Connell, who boxed out his defender for a 7-yard touchdown with 0:47 to play in the third quarter.

Unfortunately for the Ephs, on their ensuing 2-point conversion attempt, Mozawalla's pass was intercepted by Amherst's Ty Kazanowsky and returned down the sideline into the end zone for a 2-point conversion for the Mammoths, making the score 13-11. On the play, Mozawalla also suffered an injury, causing him to leave the game.

The Ephs continued to battle to keep the lead in the fourth quarter, as the defense forced another punt. Henry Machnik came in at quarterback for Williams on their next drive, replacing Mozwalla, but the Williams offense was forced into another punt after finding little room to run on the ground. 

Amherst finally got its offense moving late in the fourth quarter, driving into Williams territory and positioning Fulcher-Melendy for his fourth field goal of the game to make the score 14-13 with just 2:57 left.

On the final Williams drive, Machnik picked up a first down with a fourth-down completion to McGrail, before his pass down the sideline to Daven Bailey was intercepted by Amherst's Niles Riding to seal the 14-13 Williams loss. With the defeat, the Ephs finish their season at 5-4.