Foote, Sadik-Khan Connect in Senior Day Blowout

McCallum Foote ’14 threw five touchdown passes and just four incompletions in the final home game of his decorated career, leading Middlebury to a 40-13 blowout victory over Hamilton on senior day and improving the Panthers’ record to 6-1 on the season. Tight end Billy Sadik-Kahn ’14 caught three touchdown passes, improving his NESCAC-leading touchdown receptions mark to nine, and emergent running back Ryan Hislop ’15 scored the first two touchdowns of his career.

After stalling on fourth-and-one at the Hamilton 30-yard line on its first drive, the Middlebury offense elevated to previously unreached heights, finding the end zone on each of its next six possessions.

“There are times, particularly with a passing offense when everybody feels in sync and things are a little slower and the windows are a bit bigger and I think that’s the way the offense felt,” said head coach Bob Ritter. “And certainly defensively we played really well and forced some early three-and-outs.”

First-year wide receiver Grant Luna ’17 catalyzed the outburst, hauling in three of his seven catches on the first touchdown drive. On the first play of the drive from the Middlebury 30-yard line, Foote sailed a sideline throw that Luna brought down with a leaping, one-handed catch. Then, two plays later, on third-and-10, Luna made a streaking catch over the middle for 16 yards and a first down. The Panthers slot receiver ran a similar route out of the slot on the next play, this time picking up 18 yards to the Hamilton 21-yard line.

“He has done a tremendous job for us,” Ritter said. “For a first-year, his knowledge off our offense and how to run routes is really impressive. And he runs with a lot of precision, he catches everything and he has no fear. And that has made him one of Mac’s favorite targets.”

A Foote-to-Sadik-Khan connection for 16 yards put the ball at the five-yard line, where, on first-and-goal, Foote hit his running back Hislop in the flat for a pylon-reaching score, the first of Hislop’s career.

“We knew they were going to blitz when we were in the red zone and we called a certain protection where I don’t have any responsibilities to protect the quarterback — I just get out into a route,” Hislop said. “I got out into the right flat as soon as I could and before I knew it Mac threw me the ball and I dove to try to get into the end zone.”

After waiting nearly three seasons for his first career score, Hislop found pay dirt for a second time fewer than 70 seconds later, this time on the ground. The second touchdown was set up by a pair of ball-hawking plays, first by the Middlebury kick-coverage unit, followed by a defensive takeaway. On the kickoff subsequent to Middlebury’s first touchdown, gunner David Elkhatibb ’15 stripped Hamilton return man, Joe Jensen, of the football, which the Continentals recovered at their own one-yard line. Running back James Stanell carried the ball to the four-yard line on first down, but on the next play Continentals’ quarterback Chase Rosenberg, facing pressure from an edge blitz, fluttered a ball over the middle, which first-year linebacker Addison Pierce ’17 intercepted and returned to the one-yard line.

On the sideline, Hislop realized that he might have a chance to score a second touchdown in quick succession.

“The ball was on the half-yard line and I thought, ‘it could be a run play, I have to get dialed in’” Hislop said.

On the first play from scrimmage, Hislop took a handoff from Foote, bounced the ball to the outside away from a penetrating defensive lineman and twisted his way into the end zone.

Hamilton found some continuity on its next drive, injecting heavy doses of the run, to great effect. Stannell and Rosenberg combined to run the ball six times for 29 yards on the drive’s first seven plays. Then, on second-and-seven from the Middlebury 30-yard line, a Rosenberg 11-yard scramble was negated by a holding penalty. On the following play, outside linebacker Jake Clapp ’16 blitzed over the left tackle, sacking Rosenberg and ultimately forcing a Continentals’ punt.

The Middlebury offense drove 80 yards in less than two minutes, as Foote completed five of six passes, including a high-arcing spiral over the top of the Hamilton defense, hitting Brendan Rankowitz ’16 in stride for a 42-yard gain. Three plays later, Foote found Sadik-Khan running a post route for a 13-yard touchdown, giving the Panthers a 20-0 lead less than three minutes into the second quarter.

The defense forced three-and-outs on each of the next two Hamilton possessions, which the offense turned into two more touchdowns and a 34-0 lead. Foote marched the offense 52 yards in 2:06, connecting with Minno for a 29-yard touchdown down the sideline. On the following possession Matt Rea ’14 entered the game, carrying the ball and lowering his shoulder for added emphasis. Again, Foote capped off the drive, making a pair of precision throws over the middle, first threading the needle to a sliding Luna before high-pointing Sadik-Kahn on a seam route for a 25-yard scoring strike.

“Coming into the game I told Billy it should be a pretty good day for him,” Foote said. “Their safeties play pretty deep and pretty wide and I knew we were able to hit a couple of seam balls against them last year with Billy Chapman.”

Trailing 34-0, the Continentals softened the scoreboard with a touchdown drive of their own to end the half. Jensen, somewhat atoning for his earlier fumble, took the kickoff following Foote’s fourth touchdown pass 44 yards up the sideline where he was forced out of bounds by kicker Mike Dola ’15 at the Middlebury 48-yard line. 11 plays later, Rosenberg punctuated the drive with a six-yard quarterback-keeper off right tackle.

The Panthers opened the second half with their sixth and final touchdown drive of the game. Foote and Sadik-Khan continued to exploit Hamilton’s two-high safety scheme, as the senior tight end hauled in three more receptions for 53 yards, including a 22-yard touchdown on the same route concept the pair dialed up on the second touchdown. Alertly, Hamilton’s backside safety read the play and covered enough ground to make a play on the ball, resulting in a simultaneous catch that was awarded to Sadik-Khan for the touchdown.

“That route is an option route, so if the safety is over the top, I’m supposed to cut it off,” Sadik-Khan said. “I saw him in the corner of my eye and I thought we had enough room, but as the ball was in the air, I saw he was gaining ground pretty fast. You’re going to get hit either way so you go up and catch the ball, but he definitely had a good piece of the ball. My hand was over the tip of the ball, but his hands were around the side of it … but I had it.”

Stannell ran for 53 yards on the ensuing Continetals’ drive, culminating in a four-yard score and narrowing the Middlebury lead to 27. With 6:46 remaining in the third quarter, however, Ritter elected to pull Foote, who completed 25 of 29 passes for 33s yards and five touchdowns, followed by most of the first-team offense, shortly thereafter.

Neither team scored from that point, as the Middlebury offense was largely ineffective after Foote and the first-team unit exited the game. Middle linebacker Tim Patricia ’15 registered his second career interception in the fourth quarter, stepping in front of an underneath route over the middle and boxing out the intended receiver.

“I had been caught staring at the quarterback’s eyes earlier in the game; I kind of floated and guys got underneath me a couple of times,” Patricia said. “The difference on that one was that I made sure to take my drop right off the quarterback’s eyes and then focus also on where the receiver was in relation to me. So check the quarterback, check the receiver and I got underneath it and made a play.”

Patricia added 12 tackles to lead the defense, including a sack of Rosenberg. Safety Matt Benedict ’15 added 11 tackles, giving him 30 in the past two games and Jake Clapp sacked Rosenberg to increase his total to 4.5 on the season —good for fourth in the NESCAC.

Middlebury travels to Tufts (0-7) on Saturday for the final game of the season. A Middlebury victory and a Wesleyan loss would guarantee the Panthers a share of the NESCAC title. The Cardinals (7-0) play at Trinity (5-2) where the Bantams have won 50 straight regular season games.

[CORRECTION: The photograph above went uncredited in the print edition of this story; it should be credited to Paul Gerard.]