The football team capped off its season with a dramatic last-minute 32-22 win over Colby last Saturday at Whittier Field in the teams’ 125th matchup. After Colby came back from a 20-6 deficit in the fourth quarter to tie it at 20-20, Bowdoin quarterback Mac Caputi ’15 found wide receiver Dan Barone ’16 on a Hail Mary pass, giving the Polar Bears the lead with just three seconds left.
Facing fourth-and-nine with 12 seconds left on the clock, Caputi took the snap, waited in the pocket, and threw the ball from midfield toward the end zone, where Barone made the dramatic 43-yard catch amid a crowd of Colby defenders.
“We had run that play before in practice,” Barone said. “I just ran down the field and when I got close to the end-zone, Mac had thrown the ball—and before I knew it I was on the ground in a pile with the ball and held on pretty tight. It was kind of joint-possession, then I wrestled it away.”
The play was No. 3 on ESPN SportCenter’s Top Ten, marking the second time in three years the football team has been featured on the show. The first was in 2011 when now-senior linebackers Joey Cleary and Griffin Cardew returned interceptions for 99 and 100 yards, respectively, againstTufts in Bowdoin’s 27-6 victory.
The Polar Bears were led offensively by running back Zack Donnarumma ’14, who had 23 carries for 100 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Justin Ciero provided the offensive spark for the Mules, passing for 227 yards and two touchdowns.
The Bowdoin defense came out strong, forcing two turnovers that ultimately led to offensive scores. A fumble recovery on the Colby 27-yard line led to one of the touchdown runs by Donnarumma. He later scampered 32 yards for another score after an interception from Jon Fraser ’15, bringing the Polar Bears to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Two Colby field goals trimmed the lead to 14-6 at half. After a scoreless third quarter, Donnarumma rushed for his third touchdown of the day, extending Bowdoin’s lead to 20-6. But the Mules answered quickly, scoring two late touchdowns in the fourth—both on passes by Ciero—to tie the score with only 51 seconds left in regulation.
Bowdoin returned the ensuing kickoff to its 34-yard line. Caputi then hit Ken Skon ’16 for a 10-yard gain and scrambled for 12 yards on the next play, bringing the Polar Bears into Colby territory. After a sack and two incompletions, Caputi’s fourth-down Hail Mary gave Bowdoin the lead for good. But the game was far from over.
Sophomore kicker Andrew Murowchick’s point-after attempt was blocked by Colby. The Mules’ Jason Buco scooped up the loose ball and took it the length of the field for a two-point score, cutting Bowdoin’s lead to 26-22. On the ensuing kickoff, Colby’s return team completed a series of laterals before Bowdoin linebacker Brian Glazewski ’14 snatched one out of midair and streaked into the end zone with no time remaining.
Glazewski was named NESCAC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance. He recorded nine tackles—two and-a-half for a loss—a sack, and two fumble recoveries, including the one that he returned for the game’s final score.
With the win, the Polar Bears finished the season with a 3-5 record, while the Mules finished at 4-4. The CBB Championship ended in a tie, but Bates will retain the trophy after winning in 2012.
Bowdoin has been plagued by injuries for much of the season. The team struggled somewhat to replace these injured players, but Head Coach Dave Caputi was pleased with the effort the team displayed in fighting through the adversity.
“We had some injuries during the course of the year, where we had to regroup,” he said. “We had to reinvent ourselves a little bit, and I thought the players did a good job doing that.”
Caputi also highlighted the team’s adaptability as a positive from the season.
“We want to look forward to building on those things,” he said. “We have a lot of returning players.”
Due to some of these injuries, the Polar Bears didn’t achieve the success on paper they had hoped, but beating archrival Colby was the highlight of the season—and was an appropriate capstone to the seniors’ college careers.
“That was definitely a fitting way to end the season,” Barone said. “Obviously, record wise, it hadn’t gone how we had hoped. But we thought with the Colby game, that was a chance to send our seniors out on a right note and send us into the offseason on a high.”
“It’s not the season we had expected coming in, but looking back on it with how guys regrouped—especially how we finished—I thought our kids displayed some character and resilience that made us proud,” Dave Caputi added.