Jumbos brace for Bowdoin

It's the age old saying in football that we hear a hundred times each season. We heard it when the Patriots won the Super Bowl last year, and we heard when the Ravens won the year before. Defense wins championships. And after two weeks of regular season play, it seems that this is true for NESCAC football as well.

Heading into its third game of the season at Bowdoin, the football team finds itself at 2-0, and has yet to allow a point. The Jumbos have held opponents to 103 yards rushing and 258 passing in the first two weeks, which is topped off by five interceptions.

"We have a lot of talent on defense," said senior cornerback and co-captain Evan Zupancic. "If we play the way we're capable of playing, solid, true defense, we can dominate any team in this league."

But as much as the defense may have proven itself in the team's first two games, the squad has yet to see the strength of what the NESCAC has to offer. Against Bowdoin, the Jumbos will face a much stronger and more disciplined offense, which put up 20 points against an Amherst defense which was tops in the nation last season.

Bowdoin "is a much different team, and they have a much better offense," Zupancic said. "This is going to be a good test for our defense to see where we really are."

The Bowdoin attack will be lead by senior quarterback Justin Hardison, who is 23-48 this season for an average of 103.5 yards and has surrendered only one interception against the tough defenses of Williams and Amherst. With Hardison's accurate arm, interceptions, and turnovers in general, may be hard to come by.

"They don't make too many mistakes," Zupancic said.

The Polar Bears other main weapon is senior running back Sean Starke, who is averaging 95.5 yards rushing per game. Starke ran 26 times last week against Amherst, and gained 133 yards on the ground. Slowing down Starke will be an important part of the Jumbos' game plan.

With rain in the forecast for Saturday, Bowdoin's primary attack may be on the ground meaning Starke should see a lot of touches.

"Rain is a great equalizer," coach Bill Samko said. "So we'll see what happens."

While the defense should face a much greater challenge from Bowdoin this week, the offense should have an easier time. The Polar Bears' defense has left something to be desired so far this season, as it allowed 80 points through its first two games. In the first game of the season, Bowdoin's defense surrendered 38 points to a powerful Williams team. The Polar Bears followed this performance the next week by allowing 42 points by Amherst.

Bowdoin has allowed 468 rushing yards overall, 456 yards in the air, and has been outgained 924 to 522. Against a defense that has allowed 234 rushing yards per game, Jumbos running back Chuck McGraw should be looking at a big day on Saturday. McGraw has stepped up in the absence of last year's star Kevin Kelley, and racked up 106 yards last week against a solid Bates defense.

Once again this weekend, the biggest obstacle for the team to overcome is mental. Through their first three games of the season, the Jumbos face three of the weakest teams in the NESCAC, in Hamilton, Bates and Bowdoin. They will have to be careful not to look past Bowdoin and think ahead to bigger challenges in upcoming weeks, like Williams and Amherst.

"I think everyone's pretty much concentrated on" Bowdoin, Zupancic said. "I think maybe in the past we've kind of looked past certain teams, but I think there's enough guys who experienced that and saw the effect."

While Tufts may be favored in this game, entering as the eighth ranked team in New England, history is on Bowdoin's side.

"Our last two time up there we beat them," Samko said. "But before then it had been fifty years since the last time we did that."