Amherst and Williams College have met 115 times on the gridiron, and Pratt Field has witnessed many great victories, but none was bigger than this one.
The Streak is finally over, and the Jeffs ended the drought with a combination of staunch defense and big plays.
Like all Amherst-Williams matchups, victory did not come easily. Williams had the early momentum, driving downfield on their first possession of the first quarter. The Purple Cows made it to the Amherst 22-yard line before the Jeffs finally held on the Eph third down. This set up a 41-yard field goal attempt, but the Williams kick dropped short of the cross bar.
Amherst failed to respond with a drive of its own and was forced to punt. The teams traded punts until the end of the first quarter, when Williams, using replacement quarterback Jake Moore, drove to the Amherst two-yard line after a 57-yard pass. The Ephs ran the ball into the endzone on their second try, but the point after attempt failed when the ball hit the left upright.
After a long Amherst drive that ended in a punt, the Ephs began their next scoring drive. Starting from the 20-yard line, the Ephs used several long passes to drive downfield all the way to the Amherst 19-yard line. The Ephs got no farther, however, as a sack by Ted Hollo '01 and Greg Stankewicz '02 forced another Eph field goal attempt. This time the kick went through, and the Ephs were up 9-0.
It looked as if the losing streak would continue, but the Amherst defense, ranked among the best in the country, redoubled its efforts and shut Williams down for the rest of the first half. Head coach E.J. Mills said there was no panic on the sidelines despite the early deficit. "It was similar to the Colby game," Mills said. "We just told the guys to relax. We got beat on that one play, but basically we were OK other than that."
The best chance for the Jeffs to score in the first half came with four minutes left in the second quarter. On the third play of the drive, veteran quarterback Peter Honig '01 found his fellow senior-receiver Matt Hall-streaking down the middle of the field for a 47-yard pass. Hall, who battled a hamstring injury for much of the season, was stopped at the nine-yard line.
But Hall's catch provided more than half of Amherst's total offense in the first half. The Jeffs were unable to capitalize on the play after Honig was sacked and senior Liam Fleming's subsequent 30-yard field goal attempt went wide left.
Hall's catch, however, exposed a weakness in the Williams defense. Hall and fellow receiver Derrell Wright '02 felt that they could beat the Eph safeties one-on-one and the Jeffs exploited this matchup in the second half. "The safeties were the weakest part of their defense, so we knew we had to throw it in order to put some points on the board," Wright said.
"They have great defensive linemen and linebackers, so we knew we had to spread things out and get one-on-one with their safeties," Hall added.
During halftime, Mills emphasized to his team that they there was no reason to panic. "We told the guys that they weren't getting pushed around, so we knew that physically we could play with Williams," Mills said. The Jeffs also adjusted the defense to prevent the play-action passes that Williams was using in the first half and decided to concentrate on shutting down the Eph passing game.
These adjustments paid off in the second half, although the first big play for the Jeffs came from junior running back Okey Ugwonali '02. On the opening drive of the half, Ugwonali took the handoff, faked a reverse to Wright, then cut up the sideline and ran 52 yards to the Williams one-yard line. Honig sneaked the ball over the line two plays later to cut the Williams lead down to two points.
The game would remain 9-7 throughout the third quarter, but the momentum had definitely shifted to the Jeffs side. Mills said that the run by Ugwonali keyed the win. "We were able to hit the big play on the fake reverse, and sometimes that's all it takes, is one play. Our guys just weren't going to be denied after that," he said.
In the fourth quarter, the Jeffs finally went ahead after recovering an unforced fumble that occurred when the Williams quarterback inexplicably dropped the ball while rolling out. After the recovery, the Jeffs took it right at the Ephs, with Wright forcing a pass interference penalty on the Williams defense and then catching a 36-yard pass to bring Amherst to the Williams four-yard line.
Ugwonali, who gained 107 yards on 18 rushes, took the ball in for the touchdown two plays later. After the two-point conversion failed, the Jeffs were up 13-9.
On the next drive the Jeffs added to their lead. After Hall brought in a 32-yard bomb from Honig, Amherst finished the drive with a 22-yard catch by Wright. Both Hall and Wright had over a 100 yards receiving on the day, while Honig passed for 230 yards on 15 completions.
Mills was especially pleased with Honig's play in the second half. "He played really well in the second half. When we needed him, he's been there for us," he said. "I also can't say enough about the offensive line. They gave him the protection that he needed."
With over eight minutes left in the game, the Jeffs led by a score of 20-9. The defense gave up another field goal to the Ephs, but the Jeffs sealed the win when Brian Daoust '01 picked off his third pass of the day with under two minutes left in the game. Daoust was honored as the Boston Globe's Player of the Week for his outstanding performance against Williams.
With the game in hand, the Jeffs were able to take a knee on the last two plays and run out the clock.
Mills summed up the game by saying, "This was a long time coming. You work and work and you set a goal, and feels good to achieve it. We needed to win that game, and we did it in a great fashion. It was great to see the goal posts come down."