In the final game of the season, Cardinal football suffered a close loss against an extremely strong Trinity team in one of the best-played games of the year. Trinity, who has just one loss on the season, was expected to comfortably beat the Cardinals based on the results of matches leading up to the final game, but the Cardinals held steady with an outstanding effort, nearly winning the back-and-forth contest. The game was close throughout, with neither team taking a lead of more than seven points at any given moment. Shea Dwyer ’10, in his last game ever for the Cardinals, ran for 114 yards, capping the new Wesleyan single season rushing record at 1,242 yards.
The scoring started with a Trinity touchdown mid-way through the first quarter. The Cardinals responded two minutes later on a 25-yard touchdown pass to rookie Kevin Hughes ’14 from quarterback Matt Coyne ’12. Coyne played one of his best games all season, completing 16 of 21 passes on the day for 170 yards.
The Cardinals opened the second quarter with another touchdown, this time on a 70-yard touchdown pass from Coyne to receiver Pete Modera ’11. Modera circumvented the Trinity defense and raced down the right side of the field to the Trinity 35, where he caught the well-placed bomb by Coyne. Modera would scamper the remainder of the way to put Wesleyan up 14-7 with nine minutes left to play in the second quarter.
Trinity’s next possession ran into a solid Cardinal defense, and Trinity could only respond with a field goal to close the gap to 14-10 with just four minutes left in the first half. However, the remaining four minutes would see a great change in momentum in favor of the Bantams. In the next Wesleyan drive, Dwyer ran for nearly 30 yards to put Wesleyan in scoring position, but the Cardinals were called for an illegal procedure on the play, and were sent back five yards from the original line of possession. On fourth and long, Trinity blocked the Cardinals’ attempt to punt, and the Bantams recovered the ball inside the Cardinal red zone. With 13 seconds left, Trinity threw a nine-yard pass into the end zone to take the lead 17-14 going into halftime.
At the start of the second half in this tightly-contested, three-point game, both defenses held fast and no points were scored throughout the third quarter. Wesleyan scored the first points of the fourth to tie the game at 17 when kicker Sebastian Aguirre ’14 kicked a 34-yard field goal just two minutes into the quarter. Trinity responded with a field goal of its own five minutes later to take the lead once more at 20-17. Neither team saw much offensive success until the two-minute warning when Wesleyan found itself in field goal position once more. Aguirre stayed cool and hit the clutch 31-yard field goal to tie the game at 20 with just 1:52 left to play.
However, Trinity took advantage of the little time they had, and stormed down the field into scoring position in less than one minute. Despite solid coverage by cornerback Jordan Greene ’12, Trinity wide-receiver Michael Galligan made an outstanding one-handed grab over his shoulder and shot into the end zone to give Trinity the lead at 27-20. Wesleyan had just a minute left in the game to generate some offense but failed to do so, turning the ball over on downs. Trinity knelt the ball once to end the game.
Despite losing to the Bantams, the fact that the Cardinals were able to play them so closely is a testament to the improvement of the football program this season. The Cardinals finished this season with a 4-4 record, a solid improvement over the 2-6 record the Cardinals collected in the 2009 season.
“It was a great year, and you can really see how improved our team was come the last game against Trinity,” said tri-captain Joe Giaimo ’11. “Coach continually challenged us to raise our level of play in the second half of the season. We were overwhelmed by Amherst, then we played better against Williams for a half, and then we really exhibited how much we learned and grew as a program when we took Trinity down to the wire in the final game of the season. Respect in this league is not given freely – it must be earned. The coaching staff and leaders of next year’s team are going to continue to work towards that with the vision of a Little Three and NESCAC championship as the ultimate goal.”
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