New England Small College Athletic Conference

Yeah, the Dylan Rayola revenge last drive of the game.

And there was no shortage of action in the NESCAC either.

I mean, it crossed divisions.

It was just everything was firing.

You said you're from Connecticut, Miles?

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know if you went to a prep school, if you know anything about the prep schools, but our leagues merged into just the NESCAC.

So two weeks ago, I was at an away game at Hotchkiss.

Yeah.

[upbeat music] We go region by region, and region one, who's getting it done in the one? Amherst, Trinity Connecticut, and Wesleyan are all still getting it done in the one, Greg, as the race for the first ever automatic bid in football for the NESCAC got through the fifth week of the NESCAC season with all three of these teams still unbeaten.

Amherst rallied with two fourth quarter touchdowns to win 21-15 on the road at winless Colby, while Trinity got a road win, 28-9 at Tufts, and Wesleyan cruised at home against winless Bates 34 to 8.

The collision course starts this week when Wesleyan makes the trip up to Amherst, and then two weeks later it's Amherst Trinity and, uh, it's Wesleyan Trinity in week 11, but so far, all three of these teams unbeaten overall and unbeaten in the conference standings, and they're all getting it done in region one.

The NESCAC is certainly exciting, as is the NEWMAC, and Merchant Marine got it done in the one with a 28 to 21 win over Salve Regina.

We're probably not gonna talk about Merchant Marine having a big game without talking about Bubba Mustain, and Mustain had another big game, shaking off a rare interception early to account for all four Mariners touchdowns.

He had two passing scores, he had two rushing scores, he had a game high 131 rushing yards on 32 carries.

I would've gladly come up to cover it.

Think outside the box, NESCAC.

I know that's tough to do sometimes when it comes to football for you guys.

Not, not for the teams-

It's just, uh, that's gonna be my score on that.

Uh, Trinity tosses me, uh, the start.

I, I still think Trinity is the class of the NESCAC.

I'm gonna give them a 31 to, uh, 14 win in this one.

That's right.

[laughs] You did a story on this guy who had no business by his background ever being a candidate to play in Division III NESCAC, never mind the NFL, and you, you killed it.

This guy, Jihad Ward, who had a few cups of coffee in the NFL, and he just had this crazy, crazy backstory, and you did a great job with it.

Oh, he had to...

Angelo Fleary from Misericordia, 13 rushes, 109 yards, one rushing touchdown.

Then Bowdoin at Tufts in the NESCAC.

First quarter with just 17 seconds remaining, Soren Hummel hits Peter McCauley for a three-yard touchdown, and it's a seven to three Bowdoin lead at that point.

10 to three Bowdoin at halftime.

Um, you know, the Panthers gave them a good run for their money.

Um, their, uh, running back, Connor McClellan, uh, had three rushing touchdowns, but it was Merrick Hill with the, uh, 29 for 36, 315 yard, three passing TD performance which ultimately helped, uh, get the Mammoths a big win.

They're 4 and 0 in the, uh, NESCAC for the first time in a while, and seem to be on a crash course to go up against Trinity and Wesleyan.

Elsewhere in region one, one of the games we talked about that we thought the Rams were gonna win, well, almost, uh, 500 yards of offense for the Bridgewater State Bears.

That was, uh, on the men's side, so a Division III institution, um, that, uh, uh, I jumped in with Chris Potter and his, his crew there and, uh, had a, had a great experience, great time.

We actually wound up winning a NESCAC championship my final year there right before the world shut down with COVID.

So we were on our way to, uh, the NCAA tournament, and, uh, we got the news that, uh, that was it.

That was, that was all for the season.

That win came one week after Wesleyan needed to hold on down the stretch to beat Hamilton by four on the road.

Whether the NESCAC gets one team, two, or three in the playoffs, still to be determined over the last five weeks of the regular season because Trinity, Wesleyan, and Amherst are all still unbeaten after this week's play.

But Trinity looks stronger here in the early going, at least in my opinion.

The Bantams, they did the bend-not-break thing on defense on Saturday as Hamilton had five drives of seven plays or more, but they scored on just one of them with Trinity getting interception on one and forcing a turnover on downs on the other three.

I talked with the folks on Nine Weeks in NESCAC, the NESCAC-focused podcast.

If you want to learn a little bit more about the NESCAC, these teams that, uh, team or maybe teams that we're going to see in the postseason for the first time, I'd recommend you, uh, downloading and giving it a listen.

I think I'm on episode four this season.

They might need a new name this year.