WATERVILLE — The Colby College football team took a step backward after it dropped a 45-24 decision to Hamilton College last weekend, coach Jack Cosgrove intimated.
The Mules (0-3) face a tough New England Small College Athletic Conference challenge this week against Williams College.
“We had a really disappointing week last week, obviously. I thought we had made some really good advances from Wesleyan to Amherst. I felt really good about going out there,” Cosgrove said of the long trip to Hamilton’s campus in Clinton, New York. “For a three-minute period in the second quarter, we were just a bad football team.”
A bad snap on a punt set Hamilton up with excellent field position and the go-ahead touchdown late in the first quarter. An 82-yard kick return allowed the Continentals to begin a drive at Colby’s 13-yard line, and a blocked punt gave Hamilton another touchdown late in the second. Finally, an interception allowed the Continentals one more drive in the first half. They scored, taking a 42-10 halftime lead.
“Before you know it, it got away from us in a hurry. I’ve been through that before. It happens in football. We’ve got to bounce back from it,” Cosgrove said. “We’ve got to be a better team than we were last week. We’ve got to handle in-game situations better. We get a little bit ‘Uh oh’ and don’t respond well to some of the changes that take place over the course of a game.”
The best way to bounce back from such a loss is to forget it, Cosgrove said. To that end, Cosgrove changed up the Mules routine this week. Rather than practice on Sunday, the team just studied film.
“We spent time on Sunday going through it, coaching them up on it. We got them a rest day on Sunday. We usually practice, but we just watched tape and stayed away from the field,” Cosgrove said.
The Mules are normally on the practice field shortly before 6 a.m. each weekday. With exams going on this week at Colby, the team started Thursday’s practice a little later. Saturday’s opponent is Williams College. Led by quarterback Bobby Maimaron and wide receiver Frank Stola, the Ephs are as strong an offensive team as the Mules will face this season.
“Williams may be the best team we’ve seen so far,” Cosgrove said. “They’ve responded well. Their attitude and effort this week has been great. Now we’ve got to go play a football game.”
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Messalonskee graduate Jack Bernatchez, a senior tight end at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is currently out with a partially torn MCL. Bernatchez said he suffered the injury in a practice.
“The timeline is a little uncertain right now but I’m hoping to make it back for the last couple of games. I think it’s gonna be close, but I’d say I have a pretty good chance of being back before the season is over,” Bernatchez said in an email.
Last season, Bernatchez caught five passes for 70 yards and two touchdowns for the Engineers. MIT is 2-1 heading into Saturday’s game at the Merchant Marine Academy.
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Now in its second season, the University of New England is making obvious strides and improvements.
The Nor’easters are 2-2, already matching their win total from their inaugural season. UNE is averaging just over 30 points a game, up from 22 points per game last season. The increased scoring is a result of an offense moving the ball at a better pace, averaging 439 yards per game, up substantially from 2018, when UNE averaged approximately 300 yards per game.
Defensively, UNE has also improved, with four opponents so far averaging 31.5 points, down from 43 points per game allowed last season.
Saturday, the Nor’easters play a Commonwealth Coast Conference game at Curry College. UNE earned its first varsity win last season against Curry, 44-42.
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An anonymous donor has endowed the position of strength and conditioning coach at Colby in the name of Dawn Strout, the head strength and conditioning coach for Colby athletes for nine years.
“It was a community in the sense of there wasn’t one sport that was better or more important than any other. There wasn’t one student, or student-athlete, male or female, that was any better than anyone else,” Strout said in a Colby press release. “Everyone had the same, and deserved the same, kind of opportunity to become better. In regards to that, my door was always open.”
The position will now be known at the Dawn Strout Strength and Conditioning Coach at Colby. Strout is an assistant professor of exercise science at St. Joseph College in Standish.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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