In the 131st meeting of the “Biggest Little Game in America”, the Amherst football team scored 28 unanswered points to notch a 28-3 victory over archrival Williams Saturday, Nov. 12 at Pratt Field on homecoming weekend.
This win snaps Amherst football’s three-game losing streak and concludes their season at 4-4 overall. Both rival teams faced particularly disappointing seasons after losing significant talent on the field, with Williams finishing its 2016 campaign 0-8 — the first time the Ephs have gone winless in a season since 1947.
For the first time since 2008, the Amherst football team has lost back-to-back games. On Saturday afternoon at Pratt Field, Tufts pulled away in the second half for a 27-10 victory over the purple and white.
Midway through the first quarter, Tufts drove down to the Amherst 21-yardline and seemed poised to take an early lead. However, linebacker Parker Chapman ’17 improbably punched the ball out of the hands of a Tufts receiver, forcing the ball to bounce into the end zone and out of bounds giving the purple and white a touchback and a brief respite.
For the first time since 2007, when Williams defeated the purple and white 20-0, Amherst was shut out in a football contest. The purple and white’s 20-0 loss against little three rival Wesleyan this past Saturday put Amherst’s record at 3-2 for the season. This is the team’s first multiple loss season since the 2012 campaign.
Wesleyan started its first drive at its own 23-yardline and marched 49 yards in eight plays as Mark Piccirillo completed a 31-yard pass to Andrew Mehr to help set up a 45-yard field goal by Ike Fuchs, giving the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
Amherst starting quarterback Alex Berluti ’17 helped to lead the purple and white to a 31-10 victory over Bowdoin with his 187 passing yards and pair of touchdowns on Whittier Field in Brunswick, Maine in Saturday afternoon’s NESCAC matchup.
With the win, Amherst extends its win streak to a program-record 21 games, improving to 2-0 on the season. The purple and white are now victors of 11 straight games against Bowdoin (0-2) since 2006.
On Oct. 8, the purple and white’s 21-game winning streak was snapped by Middlebury in a competitive 27-26 match on the Middlebury’s home turf. This was the program’s first loss since Oct. 19, 2013.
With 20 returning athletes and a promising group of first-years, the Amherst men’s cross country team is looking forward to a very successful year. Under the guidance of head coach Ned Nedeau and assistant coach Luke Maher, the purple and white seek a third straight top-10 finish at nationals.
The Amherst women’s track and field team finished with 19 points to place 10th in the 11-team field at the NESCAC championship at the college.
Senior Victoria Hensley tabbed a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter race with a time of 57.81 seconds.
The purple and white demonstrated success in the field events with Becki Golia ’18 finishing third in the high jump with a mark of 1.63m. This mark improved upon her previous career best of 1.62m.
