Trinity Football Beats Bowdoin For Third Straight Shutout
Hartford, Conn. – Sophomore RB Ben Crick (Middlebury, Conn.) rushed for 119 yards on carries and scored on touchdown runs of 37 and 53 yards to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 31-0 victory over the visiting Bowdoin College Polar Bears in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) football action this afternoon at Jessee/Miller Field. Trinity, ranked No. 2 in New England, wins its 11th straight game to improve to 5-0 and its 42nd consecutive triumph at home. Bowdoin drops to 2-3 with its first loss in three games and its 13th straight lost against Trinity. Trinity last lost at home in 2001 to Williams, 31-10, and has never lost a home game on turf. At halftime, Trinity honored its posthumous College Football Hall of Fame inductee from the summer, Mickey Kobrosky'37, who was represented by his son, Gary, at the ceremony.
Trinity never trailed in its third consecutive shutout, scoring on its first drive of the game on a four-yard rush by sophomore RB Evan Bunker (Topsfield, Mass.) with 9:30 left in the first quarter, and on its second drive on Crick's 37-yard scoring sprint with 5:57 left in the first. Bowdoin mounted a 12-play, 44-yard drive, assisted by a Trinity running into the kicker penalty on a punt, to the Trinity 25-yard line, but the Trinity defense turned them over on downs from there. After the penalty, Bowdoin elected to punt again on 4th-and-2, but junior Beau Breton (Bedford, N.H.) took the long snap and darted down the left sideline 24 yards for a Polar Bear first down. Bowdoin reached the 25-yard line, but four straight pass plays resulted in only a two-yard gain and three incompletions.
The Bantams used an 18-yard run by freshman FB Michael Budness (Belchertown, Mass.), a 24-yard pass from junior QB Ryan Burgess (Dracut, Mass.) to classmate Drew Grombala (Cincinnati, Ohio), and a Bowdoin personal foul to quickly push the ball deep into Bowdoin territory, and finished the drive with a 28-yard field goal by rookie Zach Conte (Barrington, R.I.) in the opening minute of the second quarter. Bowdoin continued to move the chains throughout the second stanza, as Polar Bear freshman QB Mac Caputi (Brunswick, Maine) found junior WR Nick Goldin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) on first-down pass plays to keep two solid drives alive. Bowdoin got to the Bantam 30-yard line before turning the ball over on downs again, and to the Bantam two-yard line on its last drive before the break. Trinity senior LB Eamon Hanifan (Vienna, Va.) and senior NT Tom Finnucan (Orange, Conn.) stopped Bowdoin sophomore RB Zach Donnarumma (Ramsey, N.J.) for losses, and a bad Polar Bear snap on a 20-yard field goal try kept the Trinity defense's streak of 10 scoreless quarters intact right before the break.
Trinity took advantage of an interception in the middle of the field by junior S Rae Haynes (Hartford, Conn.) to score another touchdown in the third quarter, as sophomore QB Hedley Jennings (Charlotte, N.C.) found Grombala from five yards out for a 24-0 Bantam lead. Crick broke free through traffic to score Trinity's final touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
The Trinity defense, which had shutout Hamilton, 35-0, and Tufts, 9-0, the two previous weekends, held Bowdoin to 95 yards in total offense (27 rushing) and stopped them on 15 of 19 third-downs. Senior co-captain ILB Walter Fallas (Everett, Mass.) led the way with 10 tackles and a sack, while senior NT Matt Delconte (Berlin, Conn.) added six tackles, two tackles for loss, and one sack. Bowdoin sophomore LB Joe Cleary (Winchester, Mass.) posted a team-high seven tackles, one for loss. Burgess finished 8-for-15 for 98 yards with one interception through the air, and Grombala had five grabs for 52 yards. Caputi completed nine passes in 30 tries with two picks for 68 yards with four of those going to Goldin for a total of 50 yards.
