Yet that is precisely the trifecta the Lord Jeffs managed to pull off last Saturday by beating the Ephs in Williamstown, 26-21, in the 124th meeting between the two archrivals.
Since by definition “perfect” is unsurpassed, any perfect season is arguably the greatest season ever — an assessment that will likely get no argument from Coach E.J. Mills or anyone else associated with the program.
To put the feat in perspective, this year’s squad became only the third in the illustrious history of Amherst football to post an 8-0 record and the eighth to go undefeated. (Irresistible trivia fact: Amherst’s first “perfect season” was in 1877, when the Lord Jeffs had a grueling one-game schedule, beating Tufts by the remarkable score of 8-4.)
The fact that the climactic victory came against Williams — who had won the last five meetings and had not lost at home to the Lord Jeffs since (believe it or not) 1985 — only made the outcome sweeter.
As Alex Vetras, junior starting quarterback, describes the feeling: “Just pure happiness and satisfaction. I’ve never been a part of a closer group than these 75 guys and knowing that what we accomplished this season will be remembered by us for the rest of our lives is an unbelievable feeling.”
Amherst went into Saturday’s contest atop NESCAC standings and with the league’s number one defense, yielding less than 10 points a game and a Division III best rushing defense (44 yards per game). Williams countered with the conference’s leading offense (30+ points per game) and its top rusher in junior running back Ryan Lupo.
But records and stat sheets have a way of flying out the window when Amherst and Williams get together, and it was the Lord Jeffs who drew first blood, taking the opening kickoff for a 12-play, 57-yard drive that resulted in a 29-yard field goal off the toe of sophomore Matt Rawson for a 3-0 lead. The Ephs promptly returned the favor by assembling a 60-yard drive of their own, scoring six on a fluke 24-yard pass play from junior quarterback Patrick Moffett to wide receiver B.J. Griffin ’12, whose Amherst defender had slipped and fallen. The point after made it 7-3. After Amherst sputtered on its next three possessions, Williams added a second touchdown early in the second quarter on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Moffitt to junior Bryce Bennett. A second point after from senior kicker Scott Sobelewski put the purple cows up 14-3, before the Amherst offense, frustrated and bottled up once more on the next drive, finally broke through with the biggest offensive gainer of the day, a 70-yard touchdown pass play from quarterback Vetras to sophomore wide receiver Andrew Reed. Rawson’s point after made it 14-10, and the reignited Amherst defense and fired-up special teams did the rest. A pair of possessions later, sophomore Eric Bunker picked up a muffed snap by the Williams punting team and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown and a 17-14 lead that Amherst would take into halftime and never relinquish.
Early in the third quarter, Rawson hit his second field goal on the day, a 28-yarder, to increase Amherst’s lead to 20-14, and on the Ephs’ ensuing possesion junior safety Nick Edwards made his second interception of the game off a pass by Williams reserve quarterback Matt Coyne ’12 to give Amherst another offensive opportunity. Although the drive stalled and a field goal attempt by Rawson failed, senior defensive back Fred Agir capped a great season and four-year Amherst career by intercepting quarterback Moffitt’s pass moments later and setting up Amherst’s final touchdown, a 10-yard toss from Vetras to Brian Murphy to make the score 26-14. The two-point conversion try failed, but it wouldn’t matter. Despite a four-yard touchdown scamper by Moffitt at the 10:23 mark in the fourth quarter, Williams would find the door barred the rest of the way by the gritty Amherst defense, the heart and soul of the team all season.
The Ephs’ last gasp opportunity, a short pass completion on fourth and four at the Amherst 23, would come up a yard shy of the mark with just over a minute to play; and Vetras would run the clock out to seal the deal.
Individual heroics mean little in a game of this magnitude, but plainly Alex Vetras saved his season’s best for last, punctuating a stellar year with perhaps his most clutch performance, completing 20 of 35 passes for 290 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. His 70-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Reed was easily the offensive play of the game. On the defensive side of the ball, all the usual suspects had a hand, particularly linebackers Sam Clark ’13, junior Brandon Quinn and likely NESCAC defensive player-of-the-year senior Mike Taylor. The defensive secondary was also outstanding, pulling down three more interceptions, but the play of the day belonged to special teamer Eric Bunker, whose fumble return for a touchdown tilted the momentum to Amherst.
With the season over, twelve members of the class of 2010 — Fred Argir, Brandon Bullock, Vincent DiForte, Matt Eberhart, Fran Florio, Chris Govey, Wyatt Moss, Mike Pender, Aarom Rauh, Dan Savage, Mike Taylor and Edwin Urey — saw their football careers draw to a close, but there could have been literally no better way to end it. “This is the tightest group of guys I’ve ever been around,” noted Vetras. “There is no division at any level, and after guys put in such an extreme amount of work in the nine-month off-season, no one was going to let us lose. That was our mentality all year: we don’t lose. And although they may not have always been pretty or blow-out wins, they were wins and we just continued with it week after week.” Enough said. Their record speaks for itself and can never be bested. As for next season, probably the only one already looking ahead is Coach Mills, along with his staff; the rest of us will savor this one for a long time to come.