Tough second quarter buries Mules
Danny Epstein
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 2 next >
On Saturday, Oct. 13, a wonderful fall day at Seaverns Field, with the biggest crowd of the season in attendance, the Colby football team prepared to notch its first win of the season. Unfortunately, on Family Homecoming Weekend, the Amherst College Lord Jeffs used a 28 point second quarter to beat Colby 28-13. The game did not go without positives for the Mules, as they scored their first two touchdowns at home and showed some potent offensive spark in the fourth quarter. The defense also performed admirably, as Amherst scored 14 of its points off of Mules turnovers.
The game started slow offensively for both teams. The Colby defense made a huge play on fourth down on the first Amherst offensive possession. The Lord Jeffs decided to run the ball with their star running back Aaron Rauth '10 behind their left tackle but John Murphy '09 and Mike Poplaski '08 teamed up to make a great play and stop him by a few inches. After the big defensive stand, neither team could get much going offensively with numerous three-and-outs and a few turnovers mixed in. Lucas Loeffler '10 finally hit his big wide receiver Brandon Bullock for a 17-yard touchdown reception to open the scoring with 12:10 left in the second quarter. Two minutes later, A.J. Scola intercepted Colby quarterback Patrick Burns '11 and took it to the end zone for a 47-yard interception return touchdown. Amherst tacked on two more scores and led 28-0 entering the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, Colby made a quarterback change to Billy Ryan '08, and it immediately paid dividends. With the leadership of the senior quarterback, the Mule offense started to gel. Colby began moving the ball effectively and captain Chris Bashaw '08 capped off a ten-play 54 yard drive with a touchdown to begin the fourth quarter. Ryan also hit Roger Bel '10 for a two yard touchdown later in the quarter and brought the Mules back to within two scores with 4:10 left in the fourth quarter, exciting the home-partisan crowd. Unfortunately, Amherst then used a solid running attack combining Rauth, Loeffler and Eric NeSmith '09 to salt away the game to the dismay of the Mules.
The game started slow offensively for both teams. The Colby defense made a huge play on fourth down on the first Amherst offensive possession. The Lord Jeffs decided to run the ball with their star running back Aaron Rauth '10 behind their left tackle but John Murphy '09 and Mike Poplaski '08 teamed up to make a great play and stop him by a few inches. After the big defensive stand, neither team could get much going offensively with numerous three-and-outs and a few turnovers mixed in. Lucas Loeffler '10 finally hit his big wide receiver Brandon Bullock for a 17-yard touchdown reception to open the scoring with 12:10 left in the second quarter. Two minutes later, A.J. Scola intercepted Colby quarterback Patrick Burns '11 and took it to the end zone for a 47-yard interception return touchdown. Amherst tacked on two more scores and led 28-0 entering the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, Colby made a quarterback change to Billy Ryan '08, and it immediately paid dividends. With the leadership of the senior quarterback, the Mule offense started to gel. Colby began moving the ball effectively and captain Chris Bashaw '08 capped off a ten-play 54 yard drive with a touchdown to begin the fourth quarter. Ryan also hit Roger Bel '10 for a two yard touchdown later in the quarter and brought the Mules back to within two scores with 4:10 left in the fourth quarter, exciting the home-partisan crowd. Unfortunately, Amherst then used a solid running attack combining Rauth, Loeffler and Eric NeSmith '09 to salt away the game to the dismay of the Mules.
Be the first to comment on this story