/seasons/2012/contrib/20121101jgl62f

Bunker and Crick Lead Trinity Football to Win over Previously Unbeaten Middlebury

More news about: Trinity (Conn.)

Hartford, Conn., Oct. 23, 2012 –The Trinity College football team, which won, 27-10, at Bowdoin last weekend to remain unbeaten at 5-0, will host the Middlebury College Panthers on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 12:30 p.m. in a battle of the last two undefeated teams in the both the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) and in New England Division III football. Head Coach Jeff Devanney (7th season, 46-7) and the Bantams are looking to extend their nation-best 45-game regular-season winning streak at home against a Panther squad that has not lost since a 42-7 setback to Trinity last fall in Vermont. Trinity leads the all-time series against Middlebury, 26-9, and has won the last two meetings. Saturday's game will be the first time Trinity and Middlebury face off when both teams have 5-0 records. Trinity won last year's game to improve to 6-0, and Trinity blanked Middlebury, 43-0, in 1992 to drop the Panthers to 5-1 the last time the Panthers entered this game undefeated. Trinity is currently ranked No. 1 in the New England Division III Poll and No. 7 in the ECAC Lambert Meadowlands Poll, and the Bantams received seven votes in the latest D3Football.com National Poll and two votes in the latest American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) National Poll.

Watch Video Preview on TSN.com

Trinity took advantage of five Bowdoin turnovers and scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns on Saturday. Senior QB Ryan Burgess Dracut, Mass.) threw for 225 yards and a pair of touchdowns while junior RB Evan Bunker (Topsfield, Mass.) rushed for 136 yards and scores of one and seven yards. Burgess found senior WR Drew Grombala (Cincinnati, Ohio) on a 15-yard scoring strike and connected with junior WR A.J. Jones (Freetown, Sierra Leone from 68 yards away. Grombala finished as Trinity's leading receiver with four catches for 70 yards, while senior S Julian Brown (Philadelphia, Pa.) had seven tackles, including two for a loss, a fumble recovery and an interception.

Trinity leads the NESCAC in rushing offense (294.2 ypg, 8th in nation) and pass efficiency (158.9 eff.), and tops the league in pass defense (119.2 ypg, 6th in nation), pass efficiency defense (73.4 eff., 2nd in nation), and total defense (229.2 ypg, 5th in nation). Bunker is the conference's top rusher with 780 yards (156.0 ypg, 4th in nation) and also leads in all-purpose yards with 887 (177.4 ypg, 10th in nation) to go with six touchdowns, while junior RB Ben Crick (Middlebury, Conn.) ranks fourth on the rushing list with 357 yards on the ground and seventh in all-purpose yards with 570. Burgess leads the NESCAC signal callers with a 168.6 efficiency rating (12th in nation), having completed 55 of 94 attempts for 847 yards with 11 touchdowns and just two picks. Grombala leads the Trinity pass catchers with 14 receptions for 190 yards, while Jones ranks eighth in the conference with 247 receiving yards on eight grabs (30.9 per catch).

Sophomore LB Tom Szymanski (Dracut, Mass.) has a team-high 28 tackles with four tackles for loss, while Brown has 26 tackles, four tackles for loss, and two interceptions, senior tri-captain S Rae Haynes (Hartford, Conn.) has 25 hits, two pass breakups, and two interceptions, and senior CB Nick Campbell (New Albany, Ohio) adds a team-high five pass breakups, a fumble recovery, an interception, and a blocked kick. First-year Kyle Pulek (Cheshire, Conn.) is the second-leading punter in the league with an average of 36.9 per boot.

The Middlebury football squad, under the direction of Head Coach Bob Ritter (12th season), is 5-0 after a 38-23 win against Bates on Saturday. Averaging 35.2 ppg this fall, the high-powered Panther offense starts with junior QB MacCallum Foote who is averaging 383 yards per game passing with 21 touchdown tosses. Senior WR Zach Driscoll and senior TE Bill Chapman have 95 receptions between them, including 11 touchdown catches by Driscoll, and senior Remi Ashkar adds a team-high 311 rushing yards. Freshman LB Tim Patricia leads Middlebury in tackles with 56, including 2.5 for loss, while senior LB John Wiet adds 48 tackles and three sacks, and senior DB Daniel Kenerson has 27 tackles, three interceptions, and three pass breakups. Foote missed last autumn's meeting between the teams with an injury.

Sep. 4: All times Eastern
TBA
Pacific at Howard Payne
6:00 PM
Averett at N.C. Wesleyan
7:00 PM
Brockport at Buffalo State
7:00 PM
Franklin and Marshall at Lebanon Valley
7:00 PM
King's at Wilkes
7:00 PM
Marietta at Westminster (Pa.)
7:00 PM
Carroll at UW-Eau Claire
8:00 PM
Coe at Cornell
Sep. 5: All times Eastern
TBA
Hobart at Alfred
6:00 PM
Concordia (Wis.) at Thiel
7:00 PM
Moravian at Muhlenberg
7:00 PM
Juniata at Gettysburg
Sep. 6: All times Eastern
TBA
John Carroll at Waynesburg
TBA
Case Western Reserve at Rowan
TBA
Kenyon at Bluffton
TBA
TCNJ at Lycoming
TBA
Plymouth State at New England College
TBA
McDaniel at Catholic
TBA
Coast Guard at University of New England
TBA
RPI at WPI
TBA
Crown at Hamline
TBA
Macalester at Grinnell
12:00 PM
Grove City at Cortland
12:00 PM
Union at Susquehanna
12:00 PM
Johns Hopkins at Ithaca
12:00 PM
Utica at Washington and Jefferson
12:00 PM
Calvin at Oberlin
12:00 PM
Hampden-Sydney at Delaware Valley
12:00 PM
Morrisville State at Kean
12:00 PM
Minnesota-Morris at Concordia-Chicago
1:00 PM
Wooster at Wilmington
1:00 PM
Alfred State at Anderson
1:00 PM
Salisbury at Washington and Lee
1:00 PM
Ky. Christian at Brevard
1:00 PM
Trine at Christopher Newport
1:00 PM
Apprentice at Southern Virginia
1:00 PM
Methodist at Shenandoah
1:00 PM
Carnegie Mellon at Chicago
1:00 PM
Alma at UW-River Falls
1:00 PM
Maryville (Tenn.) at Hendrix
1:30 PM
Ohio Northern at Franklin
1:30 PM
Wheaton (Ill.) at Mount Union
2:00 PM
Baldwin Wallace at Wittenberg
2:00 PM
Denison at Allegheny
2:00 PM
Central at Illinois Wesleyan
2:00 PM
Wabash at St. Norbert
2:00 PM
Albion at UW-Stevens Point
2:00 PM
Augsburg at Valley City State
2:00 PM
Carleton at UW-Whitewater
2:00 PM
Millikin at Luther
2:00 PM
UW-Platteville at Aurora
2:00 PM
Beloit at Rockford
2:00 PM
Dubuque at UW-Stout
2:00 PM
Westminster (Mo.) at Manchester
4:00 PM
UW-Oshkosh at Linfield
4:00 PM
Gustavus Adolphus at Whitworth
6:00 PM
Huntingdon at Berry
7:00 PM
DePauw at Rose-Hulman
7:00 PM
Hanover at Centre
7:00 PM
Augustana at Simpson
7:00 PM
Carthage at Lakeland
7:00 PM
North Park at Ripon
7:00 PM
Trinity (Texas) at Texas Lutheran
7:00 PM
Adrian at Valparaiso
7:00 PM
Kalamazoo at Austin
8:00 PM
Mayville St. at Concordia-Moorhead
8:00 PM
Monmouth at Wartburg
8:00 PM
Rhodes at Washington U.
8:00 PM
Nebraska Wesleyan at Dakota St.
9:00 PM
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at Lake Forest
@ Chandler, Ariz.
10:00 PM
Hardin-Simmons at Chapman
10:00 PM
George Fox at Redlands
Maintenance in progress.