FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Nescacman]

Headed back to Joisey from Hartford State...great weekend watching two NESCAC game in person and the others sporadically via the web...full report to follow but moral victories all over the place: 5-0 with our Week 1 picks, we survived "Hurricane" Lee in Maine, our car did not get broken into in Hartford, and we got to hang with "The Mole"!

[maineman]

Does anybody know if Alex Maldjian was seriously injured or was just held out of the second half for precautionary reasons?

Also, Donovan Wood did play, but was not the featured receiver.  I assume he is less than 100%.

[nescac1]

Very encouraging win by Williams, after going down early 14-0 the Ephs were in control most of the rest of the way.  I didn't catch the entire game but from what I saw / gathered:

First and foremost, it looks like the Ephs certainly found a QB in Owen McHugh.  While obviously early in his career, he reminds me of a Pat Lucey type with his elite athletic ability, in particular his ability to make plays while on the run.  And he puts a ton of zip on the ball, too.  I did not see the play SpringSt7 raved about but two good examples of what McHugh brings to the table:

https://twitter.com/WalshWrites89/status/1703123947372364170
https://twitter.com/WalshWrites89/status/1703105301598077198

Update: the gorgeous TD throw to Gehrig is at 1:40 of these highlights:

https://youtu.be/bWS1TVw2eqg?si=e2o5QpjX78TrMLDz

Williams looks very stout at the point of attack on both sides of the ball.  Osayimwen moving to DE gives the Ephs three huge, very physical run stuffers on the starting defensive line, and then Cameron Smith comes to give a boost to the pass rush off the bench.  At LB, Ethan Scott looks like he should be an all-league player this year.  Soph Calvin Pedatella also looks like the kind of speedy pursuit LB Raymond tends to favor.  As always, Raymond puts his key offensive linemen on the interior of the line, with veterans Tartaglia, Freeman, and Forth at C and the two guard spots.  By the end of the game, the line really started to wear Colby's line down and were blasting bigger and bigger holes.  Massive sophomore Joseph Ngnombouowo, who was a highly-regarded recruit, also looked impressive at LT. 

Fischetti is just awesome and even with a limited load in his first game back since his season-ending injury, looked fantastic.  When he has the ball it's just an entirely different dynamic on field for the Ephs.  The receiving corps looks quicker overall this year too, with frosh Holden Gehring living up to his hype as a recruit and Cam Lee and Paul Harshbarger providing some speed as well.  Gehring could be the playmaker down the field that Williams lacked last year.  I'm not sure how much depth the Ephs have on offense so they really need the OL and the McHugh/Fischetti/Gehring trio to stay healthy. 

Looks like a very impactful frosh class for Williams.  In addition to the guys mentioned, there were three first-year defenders on the field for Colby's last offensive play of the game - Nathan Rodi and Teddy Holland rushing the passer and Wyatt Cotton (who started for the Ephs) at corner.  On offense, besides McHugh and Gehring, I expect we will see an impact down the line from frosh RBs Jon Marvan and perhaps Luke Thorbahn, plus Brady Stahelski got some snaps at WR and is a big target for McHugh. 

The negatives:

- obviously, special teams was a disaster and needs to get cleaned up as it almost cost them the game.  Especially with a kicker as dependable as Shuran, there is just no reason to be getting 6's rather 7's from TDs. 

- a few important players were missing (presumably due to injury), in particular, captain James Hemmer.  Also Marvan, and I believe TE Sam Jaffe was not out there as well.  Papadopolous got banged up too and left the game, he is a key player for the secondary but he did walk off the field so fingers crossed he's OK.  Hopefully those guys are all on the field in the coming weeks.

- the Ephs gave up a few big plays in the passing game, which was the team's biggest achilles heel last year.  It's going to be very tough to run on the Ephs so the pressure will be on the secondary (and pass rush) to control strong passing attacks, staring with Andrew Boehl and Bowdoin next week. 

As for Colby, I'm not sure where Matt McHugh came from (a junior who has barely registered any stats in his career) but he burned the Ephs down the field a few times, huge day for him. Miles Drake looked like a keeper at QB for sure.  Julian Young was everywhere on defense.  But Williams badly outplayed Colby in the trenches, and that is where the game was won for the Ephs. 

[AmherstStudent05]

Obviously a disappointing 21-7 defeat for Amherst at Middlebury but I was perhaps a little more encouraged by this performance than my fellow Jeff posters.

To me the offense showed the first signs of life in God knows how long when they finally turned to the first year Collier at QB. I thought he Gaydos and Roberge formed a nice trio that showed promise. Now, the caveat here is this all happened while we were down 21 points so it is possible Midd took their foot off the gas a bit. Of course I don't have the luxury of being at practice, but I really hope Mills lets Collier take the reins of the offense from here on out.

Unfortunately our oline just got manhandled all day by Midd. Come to think of it, we really struggled in the trenches on both sides of the ball today. Hopefully that is just an aberration or a testament to Midd.

Anyway, congrats to Midd. Their qb in particular is very impressive. If he made a bad decision with the football today, I must have missed it.

On to Hamilton!

[Nescacman]

Obviously a disappointing 21-7 defeat for Amherst at Middlebury but I was perhaps a little more encouraged by this performance than my fellow Jeff posters.

To me the offense showed the first signs of life in God knows how long when they finally turned to the first year Collier at QB. I thought he Gaydos and Roberge formed a nice trio that showed promise. Now, the caveat here is this all happened while we were down 21 points so it is possible Midd took their foot off the gas a bit. Of course I don't have the luxury of being at practice, but I really hope Mills lets Collier take the reins of the offense from here on out.

Unfortunately our oline just got manhandled all day by Midd. Come to think of it, we really struggled in the trenches on both sides of the ball today. Hopefully that is just an aberration or a testament to Midd.

Anyway, congrats to Midd. Their qb in particular is very impressive. If he made a bad decision with the football today, I must have missed it.

On to Hamilton!

We watched a fair amount of the Lord Mammoth v. Middlebury game from the stands @ Hartford State (thank you high-speed internet). We're not as bullish on the Lord Mammoth offense as you appear to be. Some interesting facts from today's game: the LM's got sacked 9x today (reminded us of Giants/Cowboys last week), the LMs had 5 total rushing yards on the day, the LMs had <200 yards of total offense, the LMs had 2 first downs the entire first half, and the LMs were shut out until 1 minute left in the game. The busiest guy in Middlebury today was Amwurst's punter. Middlebury is probably one of the better defensive teams in the league and has some good players but the LMs offense made them look like the '85 Bears. Seems like the same old story on offense for the LMs in 2023. About the only positive is HCOF EJ seems to have moved on from the inept Piazza at QB.

[Gate90]

Hearing that the Trinity QB may have broken his hand although it may have been his non-throwing hand.  Sounds like he missed some throws in the second half that he typically makes because of that injured hand.

[Nescacman]

Hearing that the Trinity QB may have broken his hand although it may have been his non-throwing hand.  Sounds like he missed some throws in the second half that he typically makes because of that injured hand.

Hartford State QB Fetter was replaced late in the game by their back-up, but we think that change was due to the game being out of reach for the Jumbo's late in the 4th quarter and HCOF Devanney just getting the back-up some work. Fetter did return to end the game in victory formation, however. If Fetter was injured, it was not something that was obvious during the game. More on Fetter when we post our weekly rankings. However, if he is injured, we think it might slightly modify the Hartford State offensive approach. When the back-up was in, HS ran much more RPO with a back-up QB that seemed to be more adept at running the ball than Fetter. However, the increase in RPO plays may have been as much about the score as it was about the personnel. We'll continue to watch this development closely. Frankly, based on what we saw yesterday in Hartford, not sure it matters who is at QB. Hartford State has a bunch of skilled players on offense and are very competent at either passing or running the ball. You never want to lose your starting, all-league QB, but not sure it will matter much at the end of the day. Hope we are wrong. 

[HartfordState9-0]

Gentleman and Wesleyan Fans, Im happy to say that this is my first post! Before I get into the beat down that occurred on Broad street yesterday.. I would like to dedicate my username to NESCACMAN And The MOLE! Always great to cap off an undefeated season beating the little brother down the road from Hartford. On to the important stuff...

Thoughts on the game yesterday... Trinity with another reload, as they just have athletes all over the field, but the defense played much better than what the score showed. Aggressive, downhill football that really gave Tufts problems all game. And I'm going to say what everyone is thinking, Berluti without Lutz  is a different Berluti.. difficulty all game trying to get some consistency through the air. That is up until Civetti decided to keep him in the game to pad the stats against Trinitys JV team. Shoutout to the bantams Coaching staff, team was obviously prepared, minimal penalties and a really fluid and smooth offensive showing. Most impressive thing is they were able to beat Tufts through the Air, and then put the game away in the second half with a ground and pound approach. Thank you, and as always #ROLLBANTS

[SpringSt7]

Echo all from nescac1 but will just add on the state of the Ephs - I don't know that this team is any better on paper today than they were a week ago, but with what we saw from Owen McHugh, their ceiling is certainly a lot higher. I'm not telling you that they are going to seriously challenge Trinity or whoever, but the front 7 on defensively was really good, the secondary was fine, and the OL held up well. All of a sudden, adding an explosive QB that can stretch the field vertically to star RB Mario Fischetti, they are certainly capable of giving anyone a scare. At least, that's how it looks right now. McHugh will struggle as a young QB, but they look like they could be one of the two best teams in the league, and that was not true 48 hours ago.

[NESCACFball24/7]

Gentleman and Wesleyan Fans, Im happy to say that this is my first post! Before I get into the beat down that occurred on Broad street yesterday.. I would like to dedicate my username to NESCACMAN And The MOLE! Always great to cap off an undefeated season beating the little brother down the road from Hartford. On to the important stuff...

Thoughts on the game yesterday... Trinity with another reload, as they just have athletes all over the field, but the defense played much better than what the score showed. Aggressive, downhill football that really gave Tufts problems all game. And I'm going to say what everyone is thinking, Berluti without Lutz  is a different Berluti.. difficulty all game trying to get some consistency through the air. That is up until Civetti decided to keep him in the game to pad the stats against Trinitys JV team. Shoutout to the bantams Coaching staff, team was obviously prepared, minimal penalties and a really fluid and smooth offensive showing. Most impressive thing is they were able to beat Tufts through the Air, and then put the game away in the second half with a ground and pound approach. Thank you, and as always #ROLLBANTS

Berluti definitely didn't play as well without lutz but let's not exaggerate the amount of time he went against the 2's. Richardson who finished with 140+ and 3 tds scored twice and had 100+ yards in man coverage against Darren warren who was the #1 db in the league coming into the year and Cade moore went for 100+ on the day. The second teamers played one drive at the end of the 4th and then the starters were put back in. 

[HartfordState9-0]

Gentleman and Wesleyan Fans, Im happy to say that this is my first post! Before I get into the beat down that occurred on Broad street yesterday.. I would like to dedicate my username to NESCACMAN And The MOLE! Always great to cap off an undefeated season beating the little brother down the road from Hartford. On to the important stuff...

Thoughts on the game yesterday... Trinity with another reload, as they just have athletes all over the field, but the defense played much better than what the score showed. Aggressive, downhill football that really gave Tufts problems all game. And I'm going to say what everyone is thinking, Berluti without Lutz  is a different Berluti.. difficulty all game trying to get some consistency through the air. That is up until Civetti decided to keep him in the game to pad the stats against Trinitys JV team. Shoutout to the bantams Coaching staff, team was obviously prepared, minimal penalties and a really fluid and smooth offensive showing. Most impressive thing is they were able to beat Tufts through the Air, and then put the game away in the second half with a ground and pound approach. Thank you, and as always #ROLLBANTS

Berluti definitely didn't play as well without lutz but let's not exaggerate the amount of time he went against the 2's. Richardson who finished with 140+ and 3 tds scored twice and had 100+ yards in man coverage against Darren warren who was the #1 db in the league coming into the year and Cade moore went for 100+ on the day. The second teamers played one drive at the end of the 4th and then the starters were put back in.

While you might be right that he finished with a 140 yards, about 82 of those yards are from a long ball on a corner named not Darren Warren, so idk where that 100 yards stat is coming from... might want to confirm your sources before you post something like that. But agh yes lets resort to meaningless receiving yards in a blowout where the Quarterback went for 23 completions on 53 attempts.. yikes..

[Scoops]

I don't think it's debatable that Tufts didn't look the same without the offensive weapons they had last year. They gave up on the run game entirely, and Berluti was off target with his receivers all day. The whole team looked atrocious early on, and out of gas by the time they seemingly got their bearings. Offense, defense, and special teams were all bad. It's undoubtedly obvious that the Jumbos were not prepared to graduate the players they did.

I will say that, regardless of stats and when they came, Richardson was the only player on the entire team who seemed to come to Hartford ready to play. I still think it's a joke that he was not given an all-conference nod last season. They need to feed that kid early and often the rest of the season.

[Nescac24]

Watching the Amherst V Midd Game, some things are certain:

Amherst Offense is absolute garbage. Absolute terrible offensive efficiency, O-Line is non existent (although Midd's D-Line is a force), and horrible run game. Pretty sure the local high school team could've put up a better offensive front than Amherst did.

Midd Defense is solid. D-Line remained a force with Kenary and Filias racking up sacks and shredding through the Amherst Offense. Secondary also looked decent with a few pass breakups and small holes that weren't too damaging.

Midd Offense is terrible. Now this is the most mind boggling to me. Coming into the season, Midd O looked to be one of the top 3 offenses. Now, they do have a new OC but still the performance but up on Saturday was one of the worst I've ever seen on any collegiate level. The first quarter looked as usual for Midd, with a strong opening drive and we're absolutely crushing Amherst' defense but after the first quarter. Oh boy. Bad. Not just bad terrible. Let's go over the stats after the first quarter:

*Per drive* -3 yards, 17 yards, 22 yards,17 yards INT, -12 yards FUMB, 3 Yards, 3 yards, 20 yards, 4 yards, 4 yards, 2 yards

Keep in mind that NO scoring was made during any of these attempts. It was baffling to watch, the team went from a locomotive train, to a 8th grade JV team in a matter of minutes. Kennon threw for only 130 yards 11/22 (avg 305 per game last season). There seemed to be no connect with the receivers and Kennon the entirety of those quarters. Passes were either underthrown, overthrown or just plain not thrown when open.

Conclusion:

If Amherst didn't have the worst offense in the entirety of the United States of America, Midd would have lost that game. Their offense isn't up to par with that of last year and the tools they have are being underutilized or plain out neglected. They need to get it together before Saturday or else they will have a rude awakening vs a mediocre Wesleyan team

[The Mole]

doesn't  Mammoths defense deserve some credit? Mediocre team was not upset Friday night, much to your chagrin

Watching the Amherst V Midd Game, some things are certain:

Amherst Offense is absolute garbage. Absolute terrible offensive efficiency, O-Line is non existent (although Midd's D-Line is a force), and horrible run game. Pretty sure the local high school team could've put up a better offensive front than Amherst did.

Midd Defense is solid. D-Line remained a force with Kenary and Filias racking up sacks and shredding through the Amherst Offense. Secondary also looked decent with a few pass breakups and small holes that weren't too damaging.

Midd Offense is terrible. Now this is the most mind boggling to me. Coming into the season, Midd O looked to be one of the top 3 offenses. Now, they do have a new OC but still the performance but up on Saturday was one of the worst I've ever seen on any collegiate level. The first quarter looked as usual for Midd, with a strong opening drive and we're absolutely crushing Amherst' defense but after the first quarter. Oh boy. Bad. Not just bad terrible. Let's go over the stats after the first quarter:

*Per drive* -3 yards, 17 yards, 22 yards,17 yards INT, -12 yards FUMB, 3 Yards, 3 yards, 20 yards, 4 yards, 4 yards, 2 yards

Keep in mind that NO scoring was made during any of these attempts. It was baffling to watch, the team went from a locomotive train, to a 8th grade JV team in a matter of minutes. Kennon threw for only 130 yards 11/22 (avg 305 per game last season). There seemed to be no connect with the receivers and Kennon the entirety of those quarters. Passes were either underthrown, overthrown or just plain not thrown when open.

Conclusion:

If Amherst didn't have the worst offense in the entirety of the United States of America, Midd would have lost that game. Their offense isn't up to par with that of last year and the tools they have are being underutilized or plain out neglected. They need to get it together before Saturday or else they will have a rude awakening vs a mediocre Wesleyan team

[Nescac24]

doesn't  Mammoths defense deserve some credit? Mediocre team was not upset Friday night, much to your chagrin

Watching the Amherst V Midd Game, some things are certain:

Amherst Offense is absolute garbage. Absolute terrible offensive efficiency, O-Line is non existent (although Midd's D-Line is a force), and horrible run game. Pretty sure the local high school team could've put up a better offensive front than Amherst did.

Midd Defense is solid. D-Line remained a force with Kenary and Filias racking up sacks and shredding through the Amherst Offense. Secondary also looked decent with a few pass breakups and small holes that weren't too damaging.

Midd Offense is terrible. Now this is the most mind boggling to me. Coming into the season, Midd O looked to be one of the top 3 offenses. Now, they do have a new OC but still the performance but up on Saturday was one of the worst I've ever seen on any collegiate level. The first quarter looked as usual for Midd, with a strong opening drive and we're absolutely crushing Amherst' defense but after the first quarter. Oh boy. Bad. Not just bad terrible. Let's go over the stats after the first quarter:

*Per drive* -3 yards, 17 yards, 22 yards,17 yards INT, -12 yards FUMB, 3 Yards, 3 yards, 20 yards, 4 yards, 4 yards, 2 yards

Keep in mind that NO scoring was made during any of these attempts. It was baffling to watch, the team went from a locomotive train, to a 8th grade JV team in a matter of minutes. Kennon threw for only 130 yards 11/22 (avg 305 per game last season). There seemed to be no connect with the receivers and Kennon the entirety of those quarters. Passes were either underthrown, overthrown or just plain not thrown when open.

Conclusion:

If Amherst didn't have the worst offense in the entirety of the United States of America, Midd would have lost that game. Their offense isn't up to par with that of last year and the tools they have are being underutilized or plain out neglected. They need to get it together before Saturday or else they will have a rude awakening vs a mediocre Wesleyan team

Did not specify on Amherst Defense due to my previous post regarding to things that are "certain".

Could not tell if it was Midd's horrendous offense that made the Amherst Defense look so good or vice Versa. That being said, watching the game, Midd receivers were open majority of the time, that being said it looked as though Kennon wasn't even looking in the right direction.

In regards to Wesleyan. Watched the game on Friday, they are mediocre at best. Bates looked absolutely terrible and Wesleyan easily could've threw that game. That being said, it is week 1 so you can't take everything as you see it. From a current POV, the general consensus is that Midd will beat Wesleyan and only have to contend with Trinity and Tufts. If they play how they did on Saturday, they may lose against a mediocre Wesleyan football team.