Late hit creates bad blood between teams

With Saturday's football game in Williamstown virtually over, Williams cornerback Kevin Greener decided to run out of the end zone after intercepting junior quarterback Jason Casey's pass with 48 seconds left in the game and Williams up two scores.

Mack and the rest of the offense started to chase him, attempting to strip the ball.

While Mack was all over Greener, senior wide receiver Ed Casabian trailed the play. Though Casabian was not in any position to make a tackle, Williams' reserve linebacker Richard Counts IV laid a tremendous block on Casabian, knocking him unconscious.

After the play, Casabian laid motionless next to the Tufts sideline. Trainers ran to the wide receiver and said, "Ed can you hear me?" Casabian didn't respond to anything the trainers said, but just continued to breathe heavily.

Tufts players huddled as close to Casabian as they could get while remaining on the sidelines with a look of disbelief and fear on their faces.

Eventually Casabian was helped off the field, but the tension between Tufts and Williams didn't end there.

The game ended in favor of Williams 23-10, but the two teams didn't shake hands after the game.

Williams linebacker Graham Goldwasser, was on the field for Williams during the play, and lived with Casabian two summers ago in Cape Cod.

"It was a clean hit," Goldwasser said. "We don't go into a game wanting to hurt anybody. I was really feeling for Ed, I didn't want to see anybody get hurt."

Tufts senior quad-captain Tim Mack had an opposing view of the play.

"It shows that they have no class," Mack said. "I don't know if the hit was clean or not, but from my understanding it wasn't a clean hit."

According to special teams/defensive ends coach Brian Carroll, Casabian sustained a bad concussion. Carroll said Casabian had a hard time getting off the field, but is now responding well.



Big Mack attack

With junior running back Steve Cincotta missing his second straight game with a sprained ankle, senior quad-captain Tim Mack and sophomore Scott Lombardi got their chances in backfield. Although Lombardi was effective with five carries for 26 yards, the converted receiver, Mack, excelled at tailback, rushing the ball 22 times for 114 yards.

"He was running his nuts off today," offensive coordinator Mike Daly said. "He had a hell of a game. He was the guy who was getting it done so we stayed with him."

In last week's game against Trinity, Mack rushed the ball three times for zero net yards, but always had confidence he could make things happen with the ball.

Although Mack played halfback in high school, at the beginning of his freshman season, he says it was his choice to convert to wide receiver for college. After the solid rushing game he put up against Williams, one wonders if Mack could have been effective in the backfield during his first three seasons.

"I think I could have been doing this all the time I've been here," Mack said. "It's nothing that I regret. I liked that I moved to wide out, it was a new challenge for me."



>Can't stop the rush



There are multiple reasons Tufts did not beat Williams on Saturday, but the biggest was the Jumbos' inability to stop Williams' rushing game.

As a team, Tufts had 279 net yards, including passing and rushing, while Williams rushed for 250 yards alone. Tailback Mike Hackett tore Tufts' defense up for 156 yards on 35 carries. And when Hackett didn't get the ball, backup Tim Crawley did, rushing 14 times for 77 yards. Towards the latter stages of the game, the Ephs' fullback, Tyler Shea, who resembles a bowling ball with legs, got five carries for 20 yards.

"Our defense as a whole had some problems closing gaps and stuff," senior cornerback Mark Tilki said. "Just on the whole we didn't play as well as we could of or should of."

Williams entered the game ranked seventh in the NESCAC in rushing, but Samko believes those numbers are unreliable as Hackett has always had the potential to rush like that.

"Statistics are a bunch of bull****," Samko said. "If you are behind in the game, you have to throw the ball more, so your statistics don't look unbelievable."

Samko continued, "That kid is the third running back in Williams history to go over 2,000 yards. I guess he doesn't suck."

While statistics don't paint an accurate picture in some instances, other times they do. It's difficult to score points against a good team if you don't have the ball. Williams dominated in time of possession, controlling the ball for 39:40 compared to Tufts, which held the ball for only 20:20.



Just throw it up



With Tilki shadowing Williams' leading receiver Jaamal Mobley (two receptions for 20 yards) all game, freshman cornerback Brian Rowe and junior cornerback Donovan Brown, who had been injured with a high ankle sprain, split time covering Williams' second receiver.

While the Ephs other starting receiver, C.J. Bowker was only held to one reception for eight yards, freshman Brendon Fulmer did the real damage.

Listed at 6'6", Fulmer posed a tremendous threat to both Brown and Rowe, neither of whom exceed 5'9". Although Fulmer only caught three passes, they were for a total of 59 yards. The duo of Brown and Rowe played him tough all day, but sometimes Fulmer's height was just too much.

Rowe felt he played well, except on the play where Williams quarterback Joe Reardon hit Fulmer for 38 yards.

When giving up an excess of nine inches on a player, there are only a couple things you can do, according to Brown.

"Never let him get outside," Brown said. "Try to get a body on his body and try and out jump him."

When asked how he felt he played today, Brown answered, "not good enough."