By PAUL ZINN
Staff Writer
 

On a wet and rainy October afternoon at Garcelon Field, the Williams Ephs defeated the Bates Bobcats by a score of 27-0. The Williams offense was lead by sophomore tailback Fred Storz, who carried the ball for 113 yards and one touchdown, and junior quarterback Sean Keenan, who threw for 136 yards with no interceptions. In front of a Parents Weekend crowd of 750, Williams was not at all hampered by the inclement conditions and came out firing on all cylinders to score on their first two drives. Despite a gutsy effort by the Bobcat defense, Williams never looked back and went on to a 27-0 victory.

After Bates went three and out on the opening possession of the game, the Ephs took the ball 64 yards on eleven plays and put six early points on the board. Storz ran for 18 yards on this drive, and senior fullback Michael McAdam capped it off with a 12 yard run. Despite the success of the run, Keenan threw early and often in this game, continuing to keep the Bobcat defense off balance. After a failed extra point, the hometown team went three and out again. Williams then proceeded to score again, moving the ball 63 yards on this drive. The key play of the drive was a 34 yard pass completion from Keenan to Michael Cleary which put the ball on the Bates four yard line. Keenan then took it himself on the next play for the Ephs' touchdown. After the touchdown, Williams went for a two point conversion which failed.

The story of the game can be seen in these first two drives. In a driving rain, when field position is so important, Williams was able to control the tempo of the game and won the battle for field possession. They started each of their first two drives past their 35 yard line and had the ball for 34 minutes and two seconds over the course of the game, keeping the Bobcat defense on the field for much of the game.

The Bates defense, however, began to step up after these first two drives and stopped Williams on numerous occasions. Junior linebacker Frost Hubbard said, "We came out a little bit flat and weren't attacking Williams. It was the opposite, they were attacking us. It took us those two drives to get angry and realize we could play with them." Williams was able to score once more in the first half, but only after the defense was put in a bad position. Matt Bazirgan, the junior quarterback, threw an interception about a minute into the second quarter, and Williams was able to start at the Bates 34 yard line. Behind a huge offense line, Storz had runs of 24 and 7 yards on this drive, and then scored the touchdown, running it in from the Bates 1 yard line. Bazirgan, just coming off an ankle injury, appeared to be okay and was mobile in the pocket. He threw for 85 yards with three interceptions in extremely difficult conditions including a 38 yard completion to junior wide receiver Jason Coulie. On this particular play, midway through the second quarter, Bazirgan underthrew Coulie, but Coulie made a great play, coming back to get the ball and making the grab. This put the Bobcats near midfield, but the drive halted there and Bates was forced to punt. Also for the Bobcat offense, Brian Mulready '01 caught 3 passes for 30 yards and Ryan Jarvis, a junior tailback, ran the ball 14 times for a total of 44 yards.

However, the defense was strong through the rest of the second quarter and the third quarter giving up no points to an excellent Williams offense. Williams was forced to punt seven times in this span. The third quarter was a game of field position with the defenses of both teams spending a lot of time on the field. Towards the end of the quarter, Jason Place '01 was forced to punt deep in his own end, and Williams started their drive in Bobcat territory. The quarter ended with Williams on the Bates seven yard line and the Ephs would punch it in three plays later for their final score of the day. They would then complete a two point conversion for their final points of the day, making the score 27-0. As coach Harriman put it, "We made some big plays but we allowed Williams to take away field position."

The Bates defense was led by linebacker Frost Hubbard who had 20 tackles, 7 of which were solos. Keith Anthony '01 and Ryan Gray '01 each had one sack of Williams quarterback Sean Keenan. Anthony also had twelve tackles, while sophomore linebacker Bob Rosenthal added 8 more.

The Bates offense got into Eph territory twice, once at the end of each half. On the last play of the first half, on the Williams 37 yard line, Bazirgan was forced out of the pocket and had to run. He was taken down just inside the Williams 30 yard line. Deep into the fourth quarter, Bates moved the ball once again into Williams territory, but the drive stalled when a pass by Adam Greenlaw '00 was intercepted. In their first two games, the Bobcat offense was hampered by constant mistakes. Against Williams, according to Coach Harriman, they played with more consistency and made fewer mistakes.

The Bobcats fell to 0-3, while Williams improved to 3-0. Despite the problems the team had, there seemed to be improvement. The defense played well against a very good team and showed that they have good team speed. The offense struggled, but with the poor weather conditions that can only be expected. The Bobcats will next take on Wesleyan this Saturday at 1:30 on Garcelon Field. Wesleyan comes in with a 2-1 record. Last year, Bates held a lead deep into the fourth quarter against Wesleyan but lost the game 17-14.