LEWISTON — To coin a little Coachspeak from some pot-bellied amalgam of Bill Parcells and Dennis Green, you are what the scoreboard says you are.

And the digits told a typical tale Saturday at Garcelon Field, labeling Bates a 35-14 loser to reigning New England Small College Athletic Conference football champion Trinity.

Before you chalk this up as another season-opening blowout, however, it pays to peek a little closer. Trinity wasn’t so much three touchdowns superior to Bates as five plays better.

“We got in some situations where guys didn’t make good decisions,” said Bates coach Mark Harriman, “and it hurt us.”

That was the difference between being tied 14-14 at halftime, as the Bobcats should have been, or down 21-7 as they actually were. 

It was the thin line between taking away Trinity’s first touchdown (a would-be interception by Bill Jennings) and essentially handing it to the Bantams (a roughing-the-passer penalty to wipe it out).

Bates’ fumble as Tom Beaton stretched for the goal line also turned a possible TD into a Trinity touchback early in the second quarter. Just before the half, a gruesome three-and-out led to two Trinity third-down conversions and a soul-crushing score.

Later, Trinity’s Ben Sherry ran for a 37-yard TD on a fake punt.

“I thought we played great,” said Bates sophomore defensive back Brett McAllister, who did his part to keep the score presentable by recovering two fumbles. “All things are fixable out there. You can’t really say the game was that one-sided. We just have to correct a few mistakes we made.”

No stretch of game film will haunt the Bobcats more than the final 65 seconds of the first half.

Trailing by a touchdown after Ryan Katon’s 9-yard TD pass to Sean Wirth with 3:09 left, Bates had an opportunity to run out the clock with a first down.

Instead, Walter Fallas stuffed Judd Smith for a one-yard loss on first down, and Matt Walker was involved in back-to-back sacks of Katon on second and third. Trinity, which saved all three of its timeouts for that sequence, took possession after Gavin Segall-Abrams’ short punt at the Bates 37.

“What we did as a team at the end of the first half changed the game,” said Trinity coach Jeff Devanney. “Instead of it being 14-7 and they go in all excited, it was three stops and three timeouts and a score for us.”

Craig Drusbosky hit only two of his six passes on Trinity’s ensuing drive, but they were big ones. Winston Tuggle’s 26-yard grab and a subsequent personal foul pushed the ball inside the 6. After two incomplete lofts into the end zone, Drusbosky found Michael Galligan on a quick slant with 13 seconds to go.

McAllister’s older brother, senior captain Kyle, also recovered a first-quarter fumble, and Ted Durkin scooped up another for a Bates defense that deserved a better fate that the halftime tale of the light bulbs.

“We made a lot of mistakes. Turnovers. Penalties. Too many,” said Trinity running back Oliver Starnes, one of only nine seniors in uniform for the Bantams. “Coach always emphasizes that it’s what you do when you get in bad situations, and we did the right things today.”

Starnes rushed for a team-high 73 of Trinity’s 190 yards on the ground, including an 8-yard TD to get the Bantams on the board after the roughing-the-passer flag. Trinity contained Bates’ backs to a net 30 yards on 29 attempts.

Drusbosky and Tuggle hooked up for a 71-yard TD in the second quarter. 

Trinity’s Robert Jackson and Bates’ all-purpose star Beaton exchanged short TD runs prior to Sherry’s special teams salvo.

Katon was 25-for-43 for 203 yards through the air for Bates. Wirth, Beaton and Matt Gregg combined for 21 of those catches.

The Bantams have celebrated four undefeated NESCAC championship seasons in the last six years.

“It doesn’t get any easier the next two weeks,” said Harriman, whose
team faces Tufts, then Williams. “We know the level we need to play
at.”

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