{"id":63537,"date":"2013-03-10T15:05:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-10T19:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=63537"},"modified":"2016-01-14T12:07:09","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T17:07:09","slug":"bates-in-brief-sports-footballs-winning-season-cross-country-heads-to-ncaas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/03\/10\/bates-in-brief-sports-footballs-winning-season-cross-country-heads-to-ncaas\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates in Brief Sports: Football’s winning season, cross-country heads to NCAAs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five Great Moments<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\n

The Winning Season<\/h3>\n

Sept. 22: Trinity<\/strong> 37, Bates 16
\nSept. 29: Bates 31, Tufts<\/strong> 23
\nOct. 6: Bates<\/strong> 33, Williams 6
\nOct. 13: Wesleyan 24, Bates<\/strong> 22
\nOct. 20: Middlebury<\/strong> 38, Bates 23
\nOct. 27: Bates<\/strong> 31, Colby 6
\nNov. 3: Bates 14, Bowdoin<\/strong> 6
\nNov. 10: Bates<\/strong> 47, Hamilton 33<\/p>\n

bold<\/strong> = home team<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

From last fall\u2019s memorable football campaign \u2014 a 5\u20133 record (best since 1981), an outright CBB title, NESCAC co-coach of the year honors for Mark Harriman \u2014 here are five great ones.<\/p>\n

ONE: \u2018Everyone Touches\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Oct. 6, Week 3 vs. Williams, pre-game<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Bates marches onto Garcelon Field, each player and coach touches the jersey of Troy Pappas \u201916, a teammate who had died the day before, six days after falling down a Parker Hall stairwell.<\/p>\n

The No. 8 jersey is held high by team captain Patrick George \u201913 of Gloucester, Mass., who says over and over, \u201cEveryone touches.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few days earlier, with the team grieving their gravely ill teammate, Harriman had gathered his players off campus for a special dinner at Gipper\u2019s Sports Grill. There, he told the team that the Williams game would be played. \u201cThat was my message: We\u2019ve signed on to do this, now it\u2019s time to go back to work,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As for the Bobcats\u2019 mindset vs. Williams, a 33\u20136 victory one day after Pappas\u2019 death, Harriman says, \u201cI don\u2019t know if a team will ever get that high again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bates<\/a>

Bates players touch the No. 8 jersey of the late Troy Pappas \u201916 while entering Garcelon Field for the Williams game, as Pappas\u2019 uncle Gary Blackwell (Bates shirt) and President Spencer (black coat) show their support. Photograph by Mike Bradley<\/p><\/div>\n

TWO: \u2018We\u2019re Good\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Oct. 6, Week 3 vs. Williams, first quarter, first and 10 at the Bates 18<\/strong><\/p>\n

Williams drives smartly into Bobcat territory and it all feels familiar, but not in a good way. Sure enough, Eph quarterback Adam Marske lobs a high pass into the end zone to 6-foot-3 Darren Hartwell, a three-time All-NESCAC receiver \u2014 but 5-foot-9 cornerback Michael Lee \u201916 of Bealeton, Va., outfights Hartwell for an interception. Hartwell is held to one catch for 4 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat play crystallized where our talent level was,\u201d Harriman says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just about playing tough. It was about being physically pretty close to where we need to be against teams like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Slot<\/a>

Slot receiver Mac Jackson \u201915 of Hood River, Ore., stiff-arms a Wesleyan defender \u2014 emblematic of coach Mark Harriman\u2019s statement that the Bobcats in 2012 were physically on par with any NESCAC team. Photograph by Mike Bradley<\/p><\/div>\n

THREE: Triple Play<\/h3>\n

Oct. 27, Week 6 vs. Colby, third quarter, first and 10 at the Bates<\/strong> 3<\/p>\n

A 52-yard Colby punt pins Bates at its own 3. On first down, quarterback Trevor Smith \u201913 of Malvern, Pa., keeps the ball for 8 yards, the first of nine consecutive rushes by Smith and three different Bates backs, to whom Smith deftly pitches or hands off. At midfield, Smith passes to Shawn Doherty \u201914 of Mansfield, Mass. \u2014 \u201cthe fastest player we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d says Harriman \u2014 on a perfectly run hitch in the left flat, and Doherty gallops for the score.<\/p>\n

The triple-option offense requires precision rather than brute strength. It\u2019s Fred Astaire, not Gene Kelly, and in 2012 Smith made the Bates offense boogie.<\/p>\n

FOUR: Take a Seat<\/h3>\n

Nov. 3, Week 7 vs. Bowdoin, fourth quarter, fourth and 1 at the Bates 34<\/strong><\/p>\n

On fourth and 1, Bowdoin goes for it and loses a yard, stuffed by Matt Gaither \u201913 of Winchester, Mass. On its next possession, Bowdoin tries again on fourth and 1 at the Bobcat 14. This time John Durkin \u201915 of Rye Beach, N.H., and Josh Chronopoulos \u201913 of Tyngsboro, Mass., drop Bowdoin for a loss. A good defense gets offenses off the field in key situations, and Bates came up big in 2012.<\/p>\n

FIVE: Pick 18<\/h3>\n

Nov. 10, Week 8 vs. Hamilton, fourth quarter, third and goal from the Bates 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a shootout that will end with a 47\u201333 Bates win, linebacker Gilbert Brown \u201915 of Gloucester, Mass., seals the victory by intercepting a pass in the end zone and returning it 101 yards for a touchdown. It\u2019s one of a record three pick sixes in 2012, a year that saw the Bobcats lead the nation in average turnover margin (+2.25 per game).<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s return is 1 yard shy of the 102-yard return by Barney Marcus \u201937 vs. Maine in 1936.<\/p>\n

\n

Athletics Facts<\/h3>\n

Bobcat athletics livestream is at bates.edu\/athletics\/live<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s hoops coach Jon Furbush \u201905\u2019s brother Charlie pitches for the Mariners.<\/p>\n

Lyric from the Bates fight song: \u201cToday the garnet Bobcat conquers again.\u201d<\/p>\n

700 campus people signed the athletics Ally Pledge supporting LGBT persons.<\/p>\n

John Murphy \u201913 competed in front of 20 scouts at a pro soccer combine in January.<\/p>\n

\n

First for Everything<\/h3>\n
\"Photograph<\/a>

Photograph by Mike Bradley<\/p><\/div>\n

While it\u2019s common for individuals in sports like track or cross-country to earn a spot in a national meet, it\u2019s harder to earn a team bid.<\/p>\n

But in 2012, both the Bates men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams earned bids in the NCAA Division III Cross-Country Championships, held in Terre Haute, Ind. Never before had both Bates teams earned spots the same year.<\/p>\n

Here, the women bring it in before their race on Nov. 17.<\/p>\n

The men finished sixth in the nation, up from seventh in 2011. The women, in their first NCAA team appearance since 1997, placed 19th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bates in Brief Sports from the Winter 2013 issue of Bates Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":63540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10574,10856,9873],"class_list":["post-63537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-batesnews","tag-bates-in-brief-2","tag-bates-magazine","tag-winter-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63537"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64345,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63537\/revisions\/64345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}