Football Falls to Williams in First Loss of the Season

Blythe Hastings ’23

Sports Editor

The Trinity Football team suffered its first loss of the season against Williams. Joel Nicholas rushed for 175 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Williams College Ephs to a 42-3 victory over the visiting Trinity College Bantams in NESCAC football action this afternoon at Farley-Lamb Field.  Trinity, ranked No. 1 in New England, loses for the first time this fall and sits a game behind the undefeated Ephs (7-0) in the conference with a 6-1 record and two games left to play.  The Bantams host Amherst next Saturday in their final home game and Williams welcomes Wesleyan, which is tied with Trinity for second place at 6-1. 

Trinity’s problems started almost immediately when junior star quarterback Spencer Fetter ’23 was sacked on third down on the first Bantam drive and a bad snap to punter Nick Mangio sailed over his head. Bantams’ fans cringed as Mangio was able to ground the ball, but only a few yards from his own endzone. Williams took over at Trinity’s six-yard line and scored on a three-yard run by senior quarterback Bobby Maimaron. Williams scored again in the first quarter on a 33-yard pass from Maimaron to Dan Vaughn. 

The Bantams got on the board in the second stanza on a 24-yard field goal by rookie Matt Jumes ’25, set up by an 18-yard pass from Fetter to sophomore RB William Kirby ’24 on 3rd-and-9.  The home team answered with a late score by Nicholas on a 39-yard run up the middle with less than 5 minutes left before the break. Both defenses held up in the third quarter, as Trinity junior DL Joseph Lepore ’23 was in on a sack and a tackle for loss to split up a Williams drive and the Ephs intercepted Fetter on one drive and stopped Kirby on 4th-and-1 for no gain on another. 

Williams scored its fourth touchdown on another long run by Nicholas, who this time ran right for a 26-yard sprint to the end zone with only three minutes left in the third quarter. Nicholas and Vaughn added two more touchdown runs in the fourth quarter for Williams, squashing any Bantam hope of a comeback late in the game. Fetter finished 15-for-28 for 141 yards, while Kirby rushed 21 yard for a team-high 69 yards, and senior WR Jonathan Girard ’22 caught four passes for 51 yards.  Williams ran for 313 yards, while Maimaron just four passes for 62 yards but ran for 58 yards.  Bantam senior LB Brian Casagrande ’22 made a team-high 10 tackles with seven solo tackles. The Bantam’s chances of finishing first place in the NESCAC conference are now much slimmer after facing the energetic Ephs.