The Wesleyan football team suffered its first loss of the season this past weekend, narrowly losing to Hamilton College 7-6.  This is the Continentals’ third win over the Cardinals in the past four years.  LaDarius Drew ’15 was the workhorse for the Cardinals on Saturday as he ran the ball 36 times for 146 yards.  The Cardinals finished with 242 yards on the ground with a total of 59 attempts.  The Cardinals held the ball for just over 36 minutes in the contest, including 22 of the 30 minutes in the second half.  Wesleyan ran 69 plays on the day compared to Hamilton’s 44 plays.

Hamilton scored the first of only two scoring plays the entire game.  Hamilton quarterback Jordan Eck threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to receiver Kevin Petrick to put Hamilton on the board.  The Continentals successfully kicked their extra-point, which came to be the deciding point in the game.  The Cardinals struck back in the third quarter on an eight-play, 48-yard drive.  QB Matt Coyne ’12 opened the drive with a 19-yard run to get the Cardinals to the 29-yard line.  Drew would go on to carry the ball three times for 20 yards while Gabe Manzanares ’14 picked up eight yards on a carry of his own.  Sitting first and goal, the Cardinals picked up a five-yard penalty, which Coyne neutralized on the next play with a five-yard run back to the one-yard line.  Manzanares would find the end zone on the next play.  Wesleyan failed to convert the extra point as kicker Sebastian Aguirre ’14 narrowly missed to the right.  The successful drive was set up by a blocked Hamilton field goal  blocked by Morgan Hansen ’13.  Hanson pushed through the center of the line and was able to block the kick, which was then recovered by the Cardinals.  The block was Hanson’s second this season.

The Cardinals had a decent scoring opportunity with 49 seconds remaining in the game.  Wesleyan ran a 12-play drive up to the Continentals’ 17-yard line.  The drive ate six minutes of game time.  Aguirre would see a 34-yard field goal attempt in some light rain.  The kick had the distance, but missed to the left, and the Cardinals turned the ball over to the Continentals, who kneed their way to victory.  The game was the second lowest-scoring game in the history of the two teams, extending back over 40 years.    The Cardinals will look to spur their offensive scoring abilities this week in practice before taking on the 0-2 Colby Mules at home on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 1 p.m.