The host of students’ family and friends who were at Amherst for Family Weekend got to watch a huge win by the Amherst football team on Saturday.

The Mammoths picked up an important victory against the Trinity Bantams, who had entered the showdown undefeated.
With the win, Amherst improved to a 7-1 record, while Trinity fell to a matching 7-1, so the Mammoths are now tied for first place in the NESCAC with only one game left in the season.

Against the Bantams, Amherst jumped out to a quick lead, scoring on its first possession.

The offense showed patience and skill as it marched down the field in 11 plays highlighted by an 11-yard rush by Jack Hickey ’19 and an 18-yard connection to Bo Berluti ’19.

Quarterback Ollie Eberth ’20 sealed the deal for the Mammoths, keeping the ball and rushing for the five-yard touchdown. After some confusion later in the first quarter, Trinity capitalized on a fresh set of downs, throwing the ball into the end zone for a six-yard touchdown to tie the game at seven with three minutes left in the quarter.

The second quarter was scoreless until an impressive 55-yard pass from Reece Foy ’18 hit sophomore James O’Regan in stride.

O‘Regan broke one tackle and glided into the end zone to make the score 14-7 in favor of the hosts with only 33 seconds left in the half, a lead the Mammoths would never relinquish.

Receiving the ball to start the second half, Amherst again marched down the field, scoring a touchdown on a 65-yard drive. Hickey capped off the drive with a rushing touchdown, giving the Mammoths an imposing 21-7 lead. For the rest of the quarter, the Mammoths played solid defense and made several great special teams’ plays, including a 16-yard punt return by Nate Tyrell ’19 to give Amherst excellent field position at the Trinity 18-yard-line.

From there, Hickey recorded his second rushing touchdown of the day and ninth of the season to give the Mammoths a commanding 28-7 lead with 7:28 left in the contest.
Trinity attempted a comeback, scoring two touchdowns within the last four minutes of the game, but Amherst was able to do just enough to hold the Bantams off and emerged with a 28-20 win.

Linebacker Andrew Sommer ’19, who has had a stellar season for the Mammoths, notched six tackles and broke up one pass against Trinity.

“I think the big thing for us was playing together as a team. We haven’t played a complete game of football this entire year, and we were pretty confident this was going to be the week,” Sommer said. “We had a great week of practice leading up, and everyone was really cranked for the game. Yesterday was really exciting for us but we knew that we had it in us the whole year, [it] just took us a while to figure it out. When we play together at our best, we’re unstoppable.”

Next week the Mammoths will travel to Williamstown to play their arch rival Williams in the final game of the season.
If Amherst wins, the team will close the season guaranteed at least a shared conference title.

“Next week, obviously, it’s a big rivalry game,” Sommer said. “They’re going to be coming in firing, and these games always have a way of taking on a life of their own. But for us, it’s all about taking it one play at time — six seconds at a time for 60 minutes. If we do that and play as a team, the rest will