LEWISTON — Dylan Schultz and the Williams College defense scrubbed the shine off Bates College’s new football FieldTurf with one shoulder-to-shoulder shot Saturday.

Faced with fourth down and the length of a credit card at its own 41-yard line in a scoreless first quarter, Bates took the no-guts, no-glory tack.

That meant Ryan Katon lining up under center, something that’s a foreign concept in the Bobcats’ new triple option offense, and trying a quarterback sneak. Which meant taking dead aim at Schultz, a middle linebacker from central casting and the Ephs’ leading tackler.

Schultz didn’t let Katon anywhere near the stake. Williams needed only three plays to take advantage of the resulting short field and scored the first of many touchdowns in a 41-0 NESCAC romp.

“Fourth down, obviously that was a big play,” said Schultz, a junior. “It definitely was a game-changer.”

Pat Moffitt’s 32-yard strike over the middle to J.C. Stickney provided the silverware for Ryan Lupo’s feast from 5 yards out.

With the leading donors to its $2.6 million Garcelon Field renovations and an overflowing Parents and Family Weekend crowd looking on, Bates had 12 possessions on a breezy afternoon.

Its turnover on downs was the only series that didn’t end with a Gavin Segall-Abrams punt. Bates’ deepest march reached the Williams 35, a far cry from the long, drawn-out drives that characterized last Saturday’s 21-20 victory at Tufts.

“If somebody told me after last week the way our offensive line came off the ball that we couldn’t get fourth-and-inches, it would have been a big surprise,” said Bates coach Mark Harriman. “In retrospect it put them in good position.”

Once Williams (3-0) got that puff of momentum, Bates (1-2) was guaranteed a long afternoon.

Alex Scyocurka ran for a 4-yard score early in the second quarter. Moffitt (21-for-29, 280 yards) threw the first of his three touchdown passes just before the half, connecting with Darren Hartwell.

Stickney and Jon Carroll also grabbed touchdowns from Moffitt, who found seven different receivers in the absence of his favorite target.

“Our senior receiver Bryce (Bennett) is out with an injury this week, so a lot of other guys stepped up and made some nice plays for us,” Moffitt said. “The coaches always put together a good game plan. After the first drive we got everything ironed out and were able to put points on the board.”

The first six were plenty. Williams held Bates to 87 yards on the day and one first down in the second half.

Schultz, Tim Kiely, Dan Canina and Dan Vaczy notched quarterback sacks for the Ephs. Kiely and Schultz made theirs on back-to-back plays for twin 11-yard losses to start the second quarter.

That constant pressure and the defense’s ability to keep Bates in daunting down-and-distance situations kept Bobcats quarterbacks Katon and Trevor Smith a combined 2-for-15 through the air.

“It’s definitely a look that we haven’t seen before, but we practiced all week against it,” Schultz said of the triple option. “We made sure we looked at the tendencies out of certain formations. We came out and made big plays.”

“They did a great job up front. It was nothing fancy. They were just able to come off the football and control the line of scrimmage,” Harriman said. “Our passing game is better when the running game is working. We’re more of a play-action team on early downs. When you haven’t established the run game, it’s pretty tough to continue that.”

Marco Hernandez added a late rushing TD for Williams.

Myles Walker, Andrew Kukesh, Kyle Aulet and Kevin Helm were leading hitters for the Bates defense.

The Bobcats’ resistance took a hit when Brett McAllister was injured while trying to tackle Stickney on what turned into a 37-yard catch-and-run late in the second quarter.

Williams is now 22-1 in the series. Bates’ lone victory came in 2003.

“It means a lot to our defense with how we practice every week to hold them to as few points as possible,” Schultz said. “We accomplished that, so it’s a great testament to our defense.”

koakes@sunjournal.com

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