The football team dropped its second straight contest last weekend, losing to undefeated Wesleyan 34-14. The Cardinals improved to 6-0 on the season, while the Polar Bears fell to 2-4.
The Wesleyan offense proved too much for the Polar Bears to handle, totaling over 380 yards, with over 200 on the ground alone. The Cardinals were led offensively by running back Ladarius Drew, who ran for 167 yards and scored two touchdowns.
Bowdoin running back Tyler Grant ’17 had his second impressive performance in a row, rushing 23 times for 119 yards and a score.
The Cardinals struck first with 2:05 remaining in the first quarter, when Drew broke through the Bowdoin defense for a 41-yard touchdown run. They doubled their lead in the second quarter, when a two-yard run by Drew capped off a dominant 13-play, 87-yard drive.
Trailing 14-0, Bowdoin fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half, giving Wesleyan prime field position to extend its lead. But after a huge defensive stand, the Bowdoin offense drove 86 yards on 14 plays to cut the Cardinals’ lead in half, 14-7. Grant capped off the drive with his second touchdown run of the season, a 16-yard run.
“The defense came up big with a huge stop and the offense finished the drive and scored, which really changed the momentum,” said defensive back Matt Savard ’14.
The momentum carried over into the next few defensive possessions, when Brian Glazewski ’14 recovered a fumble, giving the offense prime field position at the Cardinals’ 47-yard line late in the third quarter. But, as has been a common theme throughout the entire season, the Polar Bears failed to take advantage of the field position. Quarterback Mac Caputi ’15 was forced out of the pocket and sacked, causing a fumble that was quickly recovered by Wesleyan.
The Cardinals made the turnover hurt, scoring a touchdown to make it 21-7 only four plays after Caputi’s fumble. The Cardinals added to their lead only a few minutes later, after a 13-play, 74-yard drive ended in a touchdown, making it 27-7.
Bowdoin chipped away at the Cardinals’ lead with a late touchdown run by Caputi, but Wesleyan responded with a score in the last minute, sealing a 34-14 victory.
Defensively, Wesleyan prevented Bowdoin from making any big plays and won the turnover battle 3-1—two crucial factors in what turned out to be the team’s sixth win.
Bowdoin was lead defensively by senior linebackers Glazewski and captain Joey Cleary, who had 10 and eight tackles respectively. Sophomore linebacker Brendan Lawler saw his role increase drastically, starting in place of captain Griffin Cardew ’14, who sustained a season-ending leg injury earlier this month. Lawler ended the game with seven tackles.
“Lawler did a great job—those are big shoes to fill,” Savard said.
But the Bowdoin defense was unable to contain Drew’s speed.
“I think the biggest difficulty was stopping him from breaking the big plays,” Lawler said. “The breakaway speed he has really separates him from other backs in the NESCAC.”
Drew’s biggest play was his 41-yard touchdown run.
“For most of the game, we shut him down, but there were a couple plays where he broke away,” Lawler added.
The Bowdoin offense struggled with many of the same problems it has had in the past couple of games. Three costly turnovers ended promising drives, and whenever the Polar Bear offense had some success moving the ball, one single play or mistake ended the progress.
Looking forward, Wesleyan will attempt to stay undefeated next week when it hosts Williams, while the Polar Bears will play Bates, beginning the Colby-Bowdoin-Bates challenge (CBB) Cup.
“The biggest goal is to win the CBB,” Lawler said. “And the first step for that is beating Bates.”
Last year, Bates won the CBB, beating Colby 31-6 and Bowdoin 14-6.