Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
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Turnovers
Time of Poss.
Waterville, Maine - Sophomore QB Sonny Puzzo (West Caldwell, N.J.) totaled 336 yards of total offense, passing for two touchdowns and running for a third, to lead the visiting Trinity College Bantams to a 34-0 victory over the Colby College Mules in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) football opener for both teams this afternoon at Seaverns Field. Trinity snaps a three-game overall losing skid but extends its winning streak over Colby to 10 games and its streak of wins in season openers to 21 years in a row.
Puzzo tossed a 27-yard touchdown pass to junior WR Darrien Myers (North Andover, Mass.) 3:02 into the game, and scampered 49 yards around the left end to set up his own one-yard plunge into the end zone on the second Bantam drive to give the visitors a 14-0 lead with 11:58 remaining in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, two Mule turnovers led to another pair of Trinity scores. Colby senior QB Gabe Harrington was hit by Trinity first-year Shane Libby (Scituate, Mass.) and fumbled in the Mule backfield and senior DE Preson Kelly (Orange, Calif.) recovered the fumble. Puzzo fired the ball down the middle to Myers in the end zone on first down from 43 yards away. With 5:31 left before halftime, after the Colby defense had shown some life and turned the Bantams over on downs in the Mule end, but Trinity senior DB Paul McCarthy (North Attleboro, Mass.) intercepted a Colby screen pass and ran it back 34 yards to paydirt. A missed PAT made the score, 27-0, at halftime.
Trinity nearly added to its lead twice in the third quarter, but a 38-yard field goal try by first-year Eric Sachse (Jefferson, Mass.) was blocked by the Mules, and Colby forced a Trinity fumble on 4th-and-goal from the Mule one-yard line and returned the ball out of the red zone to end the threat. Colby engineered its best drive of the game early in the fourth quarter, marching 54 yards to the Trinity 14-yard line but was stopped on downs by the Bantam defense, and Trinity answered when a 32-yard pass from Puzzo to sophomore WR Bryan Vieira (Hull, Mass.) set up the first career touchdown for Bantam first-year RB Max Chipouras (Longmeadow, Mass.) on a two-yard run for a 34-0 Trinity lead.
Trinity outgained Colby, 439 to 159, and forced four Mule turnovers. Puzzo finished 14-for-22 passing for 278 yards including five tosses to Myers for a game-high 93 yards and three more to Vieira for 86 yards. Junior Nick Gaynor (West Hartford, Conn.) paced the Trinity ground attack with 58 yards on 11 carries, while Puzzo added seven rushes for 53 yards. Harrington completed 14 passes in 26 attempts for 96 yards but was intercepted three times. McCarthy had two picks and rookie LB Dago Pion-Roura (Roslindale, Mass.) had one to go with seven tackles. Bantam junior S Spencer Donahue (Naperville, Ill.) shared the team lead with seven hits and broke up a pair of passes. Don Vivian highlighted the Mule defense with four tackles, one tackle for loss, one fumble recovery, and one pass breakup.