Football narrowly falls to Trinity

Author: Nick Martell

Trinity and Middlebury ­- it is not in any way a historical, traditional or school-wide sports rivalry between the two NESCAC colleges, but when it comes to football, the Panthers have a special place in their hearts for the Bantams they upset one year ago. For all the trash talking and arrogance of the perennial juggernauts out of Hartford, "we simply do not like them," said one anonymous Middlebury player.

The upset was not to be, however, with Middlebury succumbing to the Bantams 34-31. The loss dropped Middlebury to 3-3 on the year, guaranteeing that they will not be repeating as NESCAC champions.

Just as painful as the result was the brutally frustrating process in which the up-and-down game was lost. After six lead changes and eight combined interceptions, Trinity ultimately ended up on top with an 85-yard kick return midway through the fourth quarter.

The Panthers made a statement early on as Andrew Matson '09 and the offense scored on the first drive. The Bantams eventually broke through in the next quarter, beginning the high-scoring frenzy.

Fueling the aggressive Panther defense, Danny Haluska '10 tied a school record with three interceptions in the game, returning one of them for a touchdown. Haluska and Eric Kamback '10 led the Middlebury defense with ten and eleven tackles, respectively. "It was a rough game for us," said offensive lineman Paul Bennett, adding that "those boys on defense really had some individual moments of brilliance."

Despite two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and an impressive accumulation of 450 total yards on the afternoon, the Panther offense came up short at the very end. Matson and Timothy Dillon '09 each caught eight passes, while Ryan Bohling '10 led all rushers with over 100 yards on the ground.

An emotional Tim Monaghan '10 reflected on the loss after the game.

"I really thought we had them there, it's why we work so hard for so many weeks and will just have do it even harder for the next two."

One of the growing concerns for head coach Bob Ritter and the program right now though is the health of some key players. Since day one of preseason, Panthers have been going down faster than Vermont temperatures in autumn, forcing the coaching staff to cancel the remaining JV games typically played on Sundays. With potentially serious injuries to starting quarterback Donnie McKillop '11 and defensive threat Kamback, Middlebury will again look to more young players to step up to larger roles and greater responsibilities in the remaining two games.

Next week Middlebury football heads west over the ominous Adirondacks to Clinton, N. Y. In the small upstate town, the Panthers will look to take a vicious bite out of the Hamilton Continentals and begin to finally string back-to-back wins together with so little time left in the NESCAC season. Despite playing well in the face of so many frustrating injury-related obstacles, as last Saturday's standout Haluska said, the team simply "has to put last week's and every game behind us and focus wickedly on Hamilton."