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Saturday October 9, 2010
Berkshire Eagle Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN -- When an average college student hears the words "road trip," it s time to head for the beach. When the Williams College football team hears those words, it s time for the annual excursion to Maine.
Williams left Friday for Lewiston and a Saturday afternoon date with Bates College. The game starts at 1 p.m.
"It is the long trip," Williams senior right tackle Graham McCullouch said. "It s rough getting on the bus for seven hours and then playing the next day."
It s all business for the 2-0 Ephs, because they ll be facing a team that is 1-1 and is playing on a brand new field.
"That s the first thing I said to them on Sunday," Williams coach Aaron Kelton said. "It s what I told them each day in practice. This is a business trip. Everything else that you ve done to this point is moot."
Gracelon Field, the 10th oldest college football field in America, underwent a $2.6 million donor-funded renovation project. The Bobcats and Ephs will play on a brand new FieldTurf playing surface.
All that is nice, but what might be more important to the Ephs is the fact that the Bobcats haven t had a win this early in the season since 2003, when they won after starting the year 0-2.
"It seems like every year when we go to Maine, we play down to our opponents level at first," McCullouch said. "This year we re going to focus on not taking anything for granted and going in and playing as well as we can. If we play as well as we can, the other things don t matter."
Williams enters play having beaten NESCAC rival Trinity 29-21, ending a three-game losing streak against the Bantams. It was a game where quarterback Pat Moffitt threw for 389 yards and four touchdowns, including TD tosses of 83 and 89 yards to Darren Hartwell. A win like that has the Ephs feeling confident.
"It s really high right now, but we know that game is in the past," Moffitt said. "If we come out and play the way we played the past two weeks, we ll be fine."
Williams is ranked third in the latest New England Division III football poll. NESCAC rival Amherst is first and Springfield is second.
No NESCAC school has reached the American Football Coaches of America Division III Poll, but Wesleyan received 23 points, Trinity 16, while Amherst and Williams had one each.
Bates coach Mark Harrimann, who is in his 13th season in Lewiston, has changed his team s offense and defense. This year, the Bobcats will run a 3-5-3 defensive alignment, with five linebackers. Offensively, they ll run out of the so-called "Pistol" formation.
That s similar to the shotgun spread formation except the quarterback is closer to the center and the running back lines up behind the quarterback.
"I feel we have a good idea of what they re going to do" on defense, Moffitt continued. "As long as our game plan works out, we ll be all right."
Kelton says each day is a work in progress for the Ephs, but the first-year coach is happy with the 2-0 record and happy with where his team is.
"I think we ve gotten better each week. We ve shown the intestinal fortitutde, if you will, to be able to handle some of the pressures that come in this game," he said. "We ve been up, we ve been down, we ve been close, we ve had a lot of different things occur."
Kelton cited last week s game against Trinity, where the Ephs had five turnovers (four interceptions and a fumble) and two blocked punts. A lesser team might have folded. Kelton said he was especially pleased the Ephs did not.
"Everybody in America loses that game.We were fortunate enough to win. That s the sign of a pretty good team," he said.
Williams enters the game as the No. 2 scoring offense in the conference averaging 31 points per game, while the Bobcats average 10 points a game and are last in the league.
The Bobcats are led offensively by quarterback Ryan Katon and wide receiver John Squires. Defensively, linebacker Brett McAllister leads his team with 23 tackles, 17 solo.
The offensive key to victory was the passing game. The Moffitt-to-Hartwell combination was stellar as Hartwell had 208 receiving yards in the game and three touchdowns -- one of 83 and one of 89 yards. The sophomore will have to make another key contribution because starting wide receiver Bryce Bennett will not play because of an injury. Kelton expects the senior tri-captain back for next week s home tilt with Middlebury.
Hartwell will start, but J.C. Stickney will see more time on the field and Todd Schnuck will make his debut. Schnuck had a thumb injury that held him out since preseason.
