Without Lebowitz, Football Falls to an Undefeated Trinity

On Homecoming weekend, a day filled with returning alums, friends and family, the Middlebury Panthers fell to 5–2 after a 27–5 loss to Trinity College Bantams on Saturday, October, 29. At times they squad look ed promising, but Trinty proved to be well seasoned and ready to extend their 15-game win streak.

On the opening drive, the Bantams took the ball 79 yards on 11 plays for the first score taking an early 7–0 lead. Panthers responded with their own score as Connor Massengill ’19 connected from 28 yards out, cutting into the guests’ 7–3 advantage. Diego Meritus ’19 led the drive with 7 carries while Jake Merservy ’19 completed several passes to bring his team to Trinity’s six-yard line. After Jared Lebowitz ’18 suffered a season-ending knee injury in the 47–14 victory over Bates College, Merservy took the reins at quarterback. Unfortunately, the Panthers could not muster their offense and the defense could only contain the Bantams, a team, at that point, had a 15-game winning streak.

In the second quarter, the Trinity pulled away a little more, scoring four minutes into the second quarter, extending their lead 14–3. Sonny Puzzo led the Bantams down the field, racking up close to 50 rushing yards and aided by a Middlebury face mask penalty.

At the ten-minute mark, Matt Daniel ’19 blocked a punt at Trinity’s 28-yard line Ian Blow ’18 picked the loose ball up and returned in 13-yards to the Bantam five-yard line. The drive looked promising until the Panthers turned it over on downs, four plays later. And in a twist of fate, the Bantams, on the first play of their drive, fumbled. The ball hopped around the edge of the goal line, dangling between the fingertips of several players and was picked up by Puzzo and then tackled for a loss and a two-point safety by Robert Wood ’18.

The defensive unit looked promising, Jourdon Delerme-Brown ’20 backed up his claim saying, “defense is always a fun side of the ball on this team. Everyone loves playing together so the mentality is to just continue to play together regardless of who we play and we tried to do that in this game.”

Unfortunately, the defense received no help from their offensive brethren. Leading 14–5, the Bantams did not look back, recording two field goals and a score in the final two quarters.

For Middlebury, a couple of drives looked promising, as Merservy tried to rally his offensive. With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter and the ball on their own 45-yard line, the Panthers marched up the field. He completed a pass to Maxwell Rye ’19 for 17 yards, rushed for several yards himself and handed the ball off to Drew Jacobs ’18 who rushed for 22 yards on four carries — but could not complete the job as the final play of the drive resulted in an incomplete pass to Conrado Banky ’19.

Middlebury seeks to bounce back with two games remaining in their season. On Saturday, they will compete against the Hamilton Continentals for their final home game before heading down to Connecticut to face the Tufts Jumbos.