Ephs football expects a perfect season with stars

WILLIAMSTOWN – Williams College opens their football schedule this Saturday as they host Colby to open the NESAC season. Head Coach Aaron Kelton expects nothing less than a perfect season, like every Ephs season, including a conference and Little Three championship.

“I think we have a chance to have a pretty good team, “ said Kelton, who is in his third year of coaching at Williams. “Winning every game on our schedule is our goal every year.”

Kelton, who won both the NESAC championship as well as the Little Three championship in 2010, looks to get back to that same prominence with junior quarterback Adam Marske and all-conference wide out Darren Hartwell from North Reading, Mass.

“[Marske] started six games last year as a sophomore, and we are expecting a big year from him,” Kelton said. “He has all the intangibles, and he has a solid arm, and he is heady and smart; he takes command of our offense and he puts guys in a position to make plays.”

The Ephs use a multi-set west coast offense and will utilize the speed of Hartwell, a two-time all-conference player with national honors capability to lift the Williams offense into the stratosphere.

“[Hartwell] is one of the most dynamic players in the conference and potentially the nation as also a kick returner/punt returner,” Kelton said.

While the Ephs will rely on the arm and legs of their two stars, they will also use a running back by committee in order to establish the run early on in games. The backfield will be leaning on all four backs including Alex Scyocurka, Tommy Tysse, Marco Hernandez and Kristian Lapointe.

“They all got significant minutes last year so we think we will be pretty potent,” Kelton said.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Ephs run a 4-3 pressure defense, where they will use a slew of blitz packages that exploit the strengths of their talented linebackers.

Chris Cameron and Emmanuel Whyte are both returning at linebacker, with Cameron being named all-conference the last two years.

Whyte, who has the potential to be an all-conference selection this year, is expected to create havoc for opponents in the backfield.

“We are going to blitz and put pressure on teams to make plays,” Kelton said. “Our linebackers are very important to us in what we do and we have two of the best in Cameron and Whyte.”

With Amherst and Trinity being the perennial obstacles to the Ephs yearly lofty goals this year, Kelton also expects Wesleyan to compete for the top of the league standings.

“This league everyone is getting better all the time, you have to buckle up,” he said. “We got Colby this week and we don’t worry about anyone down the road.”

Posted by Tim Davis on September 20, 2012. Filed under College Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry