Cardinal football suffered a loss in its first game against a strong Middlebury team this past Saturday in Vermont. This was the team’s first game under the direction of new head coach Mike Whalen, and was the debut of transfer quarterback Matt Coyne ’12. Despite the loss in the season opener, the Cardinals made an outstanding effort in the light of having an entirely new coaching staff and strategy.
“Middlebury was a good team and our effort against them was outstanding,” said Captain Justin Freres ’11.
Middlebury drove downfield for a 35-yard field goal in the first possession of the game. The Cardinal offense responded on their very first possession when running back Vince Miller ’12 completed the Cardinals’ 70-yard drive with a 25-yard run up the left side for a touchdown. Middlebury combated the Wesleyan touchdown with one of their own, and the half ended with the Panthers up 10-7.
Middlebury struck the first blow in the second half with another touchdown, taking a commanding 17-7 lead. The Cards quickly nullified the Panther touchdown when Shea Dwyer ’10 ran 10 yards for a Cardinal touchdown, completing a 79-yard drive. Despite the Cardinals’ quick response, Middlebury scored another quick TD on just three plays. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 24-14.
In the fourth, the defenses traded stops early. The Cardinals suffered a turnover off a run from Miller on Middlebury’s goal line, resulting in touchback for the Panthers. Despite the turnover, Middlebury failed to score on their next possession and were forced to punt. Miller would find success on his next attempt for the end zone, culminating a 16-play, 80-yard drive that landed the Cardinals within three points of the Panthers, 24-21, with just 2:18 to go in the game. Coach Whalen called for an onside kick from rookie Sebastian Aguirre ’14, which was recovered by Wesleyan Senior Bo Brown ’11. Wesleyan, on their own 43, managed only to advance the ball five yards in four downs. With little more than a minute to play, the Cardinals had run out of timeouts and the Panthers kneed the ball to victory, sealing their victory 24-21.
Dwyer was the top rusher in the game with 119 yards on 16 carries, closely followed by Miller who ran for 114 yards on 17 carries. Dwyer and Miller are the first Wesleyan running backs to rush for over 100 yards apiece since 1997. Coyne rushed for 33 yards as well and the team rushed for a total of 216 yards in their first game. In the 2009 season, Wesleyan only managed to rush for 77 yards a game on average, hardly more than a third of what the Cardinal offense has accomplished in their first game.
“I thought we played well except for a few mental mistakes,” Freres said. “The more we learn the new offense and defense, the more games we will win.”
Co-captain Joe Giaimo ’11 expressed similar views.
“We just made too many mistakes that included illegal procedures and lining up incorrectly, which cost us two timeouts in the second half,” said Giaimo. “The mistakes we made are very correctable, and we’ll work on those mistakes this week in preparation for Hamilton.”
Wesleyan faces the Hamilton Continentals in our home opener this Saturday.
Leave a Reply