WATERVILLE, Maine --- In the final two plays in their careers on Seaverns Field at Harold Alfond Stadium, senior defensive backs Randy Person and Jason Buco each knocked down passes to help the Colby College football team hold on for a 14-7 win over rival Bowdoin College on Saturday in the 126th meeting between the two teams.
On Senior Day at Colby, the Mules and Bowdoin were playing for pride after Bates College won the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin (CBB) title last weekend. Both teams finished the season with 2-6 records.
While Colby finishes the season with a victory, Bowdoin was hoping to win for head coach Dave Caputi. After 15 seasons with the Polar Bears, Caputi was coaching his final game.
Colby was close to clinching the game in the final minutes with a 14-7 lead, but kicker Louw Scheepers had his 34-yard field goal attempt hit the right upright and bounce back with 1:10 to play.
Bowdoin quickly went to work and were able to get off a number of plays. Senior quarterback Mac Caputi, the son of Dave Caputi, had five completions on the drive. The last catch of 12 yards put the ball at the Colby 32-yard line with seven seconds remaining and gave the Polar Bears two final plays.
Caputi tried to go down the right sideline on the first play, but Person got nice position at the goal line and batted the ball away. On the final play with 1.7 seconds remaining, the Mules forced Caputi out of the pocket and his throw was a little wobbly. Buco read that the ball would come up short of the goal line and deflected the ball away at about the 4-yard line.
Trailing 7-6 in the fourth quarter, Colby sophomore quarterback Gabe Harrington had his best drive of the game with a clutch 24-yard completion to senior Connor Emmert on a 3rd-and-8 play. Emmert made a nice catch in coverage for the biggest catch of his collegiate career.
After a 9-yard completion to Ryder Arsenault near the right sideline, Harrington went down the right sideline again on a 25-yard touchdown pass to senior Luke Duncklee with 9:50 left in the game.
The Mules went for two points to make it 14-7 and converted when Harrington took a one-step drop and lobbed a pass to first-year Mark Snyder for the conversion points.
Bowdoin did not panic and stayed with its workhorse running back Tyler Grant, who had 37 carries for 156 yards and one touchdown. Grant had seven carries for 41 yards, but the Mules forced a punt from their own 35-yard line. The Polar Bears tried a fake and snapped to up man Tom Wells, who was tackled after a short gain and Colby took over.
The Mules took 2:51 off the clock before punting back to the Polar Bears, who started their drive at their own 15 after a solid punt by Scheepers.
Bowdoin, with 2:46 to play, went four plays and gained just 4 yards before giving the ball to Colby on the Polar Bear 19-yard line. Bowdoin, though, did have two timeouts left and forced the field goal attempt by Scheepers with 1:15 to play.
Despite just 21 combined points, the game started like it might be a shootout. The Mules took over at their own 14-yard line after a three-and-out to start the game by the Polar Bears. Jabari Hurdle-Price, who had a collegiate-high 189 yards on 30 carries, rushed 9 yards on the first carry. He then went left on his second carry and got to the sidelines and went all the way for a 77-yard touchdown run. The extra point was missed and Colby led 6-0.
Bowdoin's touchdown to go ahead 7-6 was set up after Harrington was intercepted at midfield by Jon Fraser, who took the ball 30 yards to the Mule 20-yard line.
Grant did the rest of the work with runs of 6, 6, and then 8 yards to the left side for the touchdown. Bowdoin kicker Andrew Murowchick made the extra point to give the Polar Bears the lead at 7-6.
While Hurdle-Price had the big day for Colby, Harrington did finish with 228 yards passing on 19 completions. Duncklee, an All-NESCAC receiver last year, had five catches for 79 yards and the go-ahead touchdown.
Hurdle-Price finished the day with 237 yards of total offense after catching four passes for 48 yards. He finished the season with 131 carries for 533 yards (4.1 per rush).
Caputi threw for 109 yards and Daniel Barone caught three passes for 37 yards for Bowdoin.
After missing nearly the entire season with an injury, Colby tri-captain Zach Padula led the Mules in tackles with 11 in his first game back. Tony Atkinson added 10 stops, Stephen O'Grady made seven tackles, and Duncklee made six tackles while playing both ways. Buco had his league-leading sixth interception of the season and made five tackles.
Jake Prince made 10 tackles for the Polar Bears. Jibrail Coby and Branden Morin each made seven stops.
Colby 14, Bowdoin 7
Bowdoin............. 0 0 7 0 - 7
Colby............... 6 0 0 8 - 14
Scoring Summary:
1st 12:41 COLBY - Jabari Hurdle-Price 77 yd run (kick failed)
3rd 07:17 BOWDOIN - Tyler Grant 8 yd run (A. Murowchick kick)
4th 09:50 COLBY - Luke Duncklee 25 yd pass from Gabe Harrington (Mark Snyder pass from G. Harrington)
BOWDOIN COL14FB
FIRST DOWNS................... 17 21
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 47-154 40-216
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 109 228
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 30-11-1 36-19-1
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 77-263 76-444
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............ 0-0 1-5
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 2-47 2-42
Interception Returns-Yards.... 1-30 1-1
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 8-35.1 6-31.8
Fumbles-Lost.................. 0-0 0-0
Penalties-Yards............... 3-28 3-12
Possession Time............... 22:48 37:12
Third-Down Conversions........ 8 of 18 7 of 17
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 0 of 2 0 of 1
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 1-1 0-3
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 1-7 1-11
RUSHING: Bowdoin-Tyler Grant 37-156; Drew Prescott 4-15; Tom Wells 1-1; Garrett
Thomas 1-1; Mac Caputi 4-minus 19. Colby-Jabari Hurdle-Price 30-189; Robert
Murray 6-22; Gabe Harrington 4-5.
PASSING: Bowdoin-Mac Caputi 11-30-1-109. Colby-Gabe Harrington 19-36-1-228.
RECEIVING: Bowdoin-Daniel Barone 3-37; Liam Blair-Ford 2-22; Ethan Drigotas
2-17; Jack Donovan 2-11; Tyler Grant 1-12; Seamus Power 1-10. Colby-Luke
Duncklee 5-79; Jabari Hurdle-Price 4-48; Alex Kramer 3-23; Ryder Arsenault 3-22; Connor Emmert 1-24; Robert Murray 1-19; Mbasa Mayikana 1-11; David Von Euw 1-2.
INTERCEPTIONS: Bowdoin-Jon Fraser 1-30. Colby-Jason Buco 1-1.
FUMBLES: Bowdoin-None. Colby-None.