Hartford, Conn. – Sophomore RB Tijani Harris (Hagerstown, Md.) ran for 158 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 43-7 victory over the visiting Colby College Mules in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) football action this afternoon at Jessee/Miller Field. Trinity improves to 4-2 with its third victory in a row and extends its winning streak over Colby to 13 games and its overall home winning streak to 20 games. The Mules drop to 0-6. Trinity hosts Williams next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and Colby entertains Bates the same day at 1 p.m.
Trinity jumped out to a 14-0 lead after one quarter thanks to an 11-yard touchdown run by Harris and a 73-yard punt return to paydirt by sophomore WR DeVante Reid (London, England). The Trinity defense was dominant in the first half, forcing Colby punts on all five of the visitors' possessions. The Bantams marched 93 yards in 11 plays to take a 20-0 lead on a three-yard pass from sophomore QB Seamus Lambert (North Andover, Mass.) to senior TE Joe Samuelman (North Andover, Mass.), and Trinity rookie kicker J.P. Dallazem (Gainesville, Fla.) tossed the ball Samuelman in the end zone after a botched PAT try to make it 22-0 with 5:54 remaining in the second quarter. Trinity nearly scored a fourth touchdown later in the second frame, but Reid had the ball punched out of his hands at the Mule one-yard line by senior Patrick Sopko (Buck Hill Falls, Pa.) at the end of a 65-yard reception resulting in a touchback.
The Trinity defense forced two more punts to open the third quarter, and Trinity used a 13-play, 60-yard drive that ended in a two-yard touchdown run by Harris to go ahead, 29-0, after its first possession. Harris scored for the third time with 3:17 remaining in the third quarter on a one-yard run, after Lambert set up the score with a 56-yard pass to junior WR Jonathan Girard (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.). Trinity sophomore DB Jalen Weathers (Chicago, Ill.) picked off Colby sophomore QB Matthew Hersch (Monroe, Conn.) at his own goal line to thwart the next Mule drive. Trinity capitalized with its final touchdown of the game on a 12-yard pass from Lambert to senior tri-captain WR Koby Schofer (Northbridge, Mass.) that gave Schofer his Trinity-record, 22nd career touchdown reception. The mark passed Tom McDavitt's '94 previous record of 21. The Mules scored their first points against the Bantams since 2014, when Hersch found freshman WR Matt Panker (Hawthore, N.Y.) for a 26-yard scoring strike late in the fourth quarter to make the final tally, 43-7.
Trinity finished with 480 yards of total offense to 268 for the Mules, and Colby was just 3-for-14 on third down. Lambert finished nine-for-12 passing for 230 yards and two touchdowns, including five passes to Girard for 144 yards, and added 67 rushing yards. Hersch was 14-for-32 for 183 yards, while Panker paced the Mules with 60 receiving yards on four catches. Dallazem was stellar punting the ball with a 41.8 average on four tries. Sophomore LB Brian Casagrande (Madison, Conn.) and first-year LB Michael Masse (Westwood, Mass.) paced the Trinity defense with six tackles apiece, while junior LB Marcus Bullard (Brockton, Mass.) notched a game-high 11 tackles and senior LB Sean Godin (West Roxbury, Mass.) had four tackles for loss and a sack for the Mules.