BRUNSWICK — If somebody says to you, “the only thing on the line in the game are bragging rights,” dismiss that person. He or she obviously has no idea how important bragging rights can be.

On Saturday afternoon at Whittier Field, Colby College and Bowdoin College played football against each other for the 127th time. This rivalry goes back to the days of the Benjamin Harrison administration. Bowdoin beat Colby 56-0 in that first game in 1892 and you can bet the Polar Bears’ players celebrated the bragging rights won on that day just as much as the Bowdoin players celebrated Saturday’s 35-13 win over the Mules.

There was no Colby-Bates-Bowdoin championship on the line Saturday. Bates clinched the CBB with a win over Bowdoin last weekend. There was no New England Small College Athletic Conference championship at stake. Both Bowdoin and Colby entered the game with one win.

The season was ending for both teams no matter the outcome. All that was left was good, old-fashioned, visceral bragging rights.

Rivalry games are often won with the help of an unlikely hero and that was certainly the case for Bowdoin. Due to injury, junior quarterback Tim Drakeley lost the starting job to freshman Noah Nelson. With Nelson out with a broken hand suffered in last week’s loss at Bates, Drakeley was back under center for the Polar Bears.

After a shaky start, Drakeley was fantastic and completed 24-of-43 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns. His first touchdown pass — a 40-yard throw to Nick Vailas — gave Bowdoin a 10-0 lead with 3:19 left in the second quarter. Early in the fourth quarter Drakeley connected with Vailas again, this time for 36 yards and a 27-7 lead for the Polar Bears.

Drakeley’s final touchdown pass came with 1:39 left in the game, a 30-yard strike to Bryan Porter that served as the decisive blow in Bowdoin’s win.

Bowdoin piled up 420 yards of total offense despite a completely worthless first quarter. Bowdoin’s only first down of the first quarter came when Colby was penalized for roughing punter Andrew Murowchick in his own end zone. Given another chance, the Polar Bears went just five yards before having to punt again.

In a rivalry game, the rare plays become magnified. After Colby’s Jabari Hurdle-Price scored on a 1 yard run with 8:54 to play to cut Bowdoin’s lead to 27-13, Cameron Rondeau returned the blocked extra point 98 yards for an extra two points for the Polar Bears. It’s a play many fans in attendance probably never saw before — unless they were at the Colby-Bowdoin game two years ago when Colby’s Jason Buco returned a blocked extra point 98 yards for the Mules. Because when bragging rights are the prize, you get once in a lifetime plays twice in three years.

For Bowdoin head coach J.B. Wells, it was his first time coaching against Colby and first win over one of Bowdoin’s in-state rivals. Colby head coach Jonathan Michaeles earned his first win over the Polar Bears in 2012, his first season as the Mules’ head coach.

After Colby won seven games in a row over Bowdoin between 1999 and 2005, Bowdoin beat the Mules six times in a row from 2006 through 2011. Lately, Colby and Bowdoin have settled into a pattern of I beat you, then you beat me. Since Colby snapped Bowdoin’s win streak with a victory in 2012, the teams have traded wins. If you think that makes bragging rights fleeting, you are wrong.

For the players who took part in the 2015 edition of the Colby-Bowdoin game, the bragging rights from Saturday’s game are special. Last season was last season. Next year is next year. Right now, the bragging rights belong to Bowdoin and all the honors that come with those rights will stay with the 2015 Polar Bears until the end of time.

Anybody who has ever beaten a rival at anything will tell you, bragging rights are a currency that increase in value over time.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM