Ephs easily handle Colby in football home opener

WILLIAMSTOWN – Williams College football players have been united this season by the same mantra – perfection. The seniors in the team’s media guide each recite the same goal, to be 8-0 on the year, and the Ephs started on the right foot last Saturday with a convincing 41-7 win over Colby.

The Ephs utilized a short passing game and special teams to overwhelm Colby throughout all four quarters, which appeared to be more of a tune-up for Williams before Saturday’s marquee match-up with perennial league power Trinity.

“What I really liked was our effort, we gave effort every second on the field,” said Williams Head Coach Aaron Kelton. “Trinity is coming in here and we will know what type of football team we are with these first two games.”

Offensively, the Ephs are a team that relies heavily on the arm of their star quarterback, Adam Marske.

Marske threw for 277 yards, completing 22 of 27 with three touchdown passes. The junior was able to stretch the field early before dismantling the Colby defense with an assault of short passes to all-conference wide-out Darren Hartwell.

“[Marske] missed the big throw early but he really settled down and came into his own,” Kelton said. “He is a good player and he really played well after that early throw [missed Hartwell in the end zone in the first quarter], he settled down and said ‘I got this.’”

Before the first quarter ended, the two (Hartwell and Marske) connected for 25 yards on a scoring drive to put the Ephs up early at 7-0.

Marske then picked apart the Colby defense in the second quarter by finding Hartwell for a six-yard scoring strike and Jeff Riemann for 19-yard touchdown to put Williams up 24-7 at halftime.

“We knew they were going to play off a little bit and we kept [passes] in front of them and forced them to think about coming up and then try to throw over the top of them,” Kelton said.

The one blemish on the Williams scorecard was a trick halfback pass that had the Williams’ defensive backs biting, allowing Colby to score on a 40-yard touchdown pass.

“I was on the phone yelling look out for the trick play,” Kelton said. “Sure enough the trick play beats us for a touchdown, but it was our guys playing aggressive – we will take the aggressiveness but we need to be more disciplined in those situations.”

Joe Mallock and the Eph’s kicking game, which may very well be the difference-maker in Saturday’s Trinity game, looked poised to be another strength of the offense as Mallock booted two field goals easily from both 39 yards and 42 yards.

Special teams continued to play a role, when after a blocked field goal, Williams was able to scoop up the football and rumble in for a touchdown to close out the scoring.

Against Trinity, don’t expect the Ephs to be as fortuitous, as the Bantams easily handled Bates 37-16, and will use their ground-and-pound running game to keep Marske off the field and the Ephs offense stymied.

“[The key will be] running the football; we got to be able to tackle on first contact and not allow their backs to get second yardage after contact,” Kelton said.

Posted by Tim Davis on September 27, 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