Young program has arrived
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Gabby Price was brought on board to start the program and has seen it improve season by season. It was the final game of the second season when he felt confident the program was on the right course. That was a victory over William Paterson.
"When we beat William Paterson up here that day, I thought, 'we can do something.'"
The Eagles (then called the Braves) took their lumps the first year, as expected. It was a plunge right into the varsity wars.
"Maybe we should have played a JV schedule first, but my thought was that we couldn't get anyone to come to Bangor to play JV," Price said.
He felt that win over William Paterson on a windy day when his defense picked off six passes, energized everyone for the offseason.
"Everyone came back very excited," he said. "The kids really felt good about themselves."
"We had a very good team that third year. Both the offense and defense got a lot better. We were still a little off on the special units.
"When you are starting football in a place where they haven't had football, you have to keep changing the culture. Each year we've had better players."
This week's 46-20 win over Becker either put an exclamation point on the end of the season or helped them prolong the season. That question will be answered soon.
The Eagles hope to take another step next year, their last as an independent. They begin play in the new North Atlantic Football Conference in 2009.
Price, as athletic director at Husson, has seen first-hand the operation of the NAC in other sports and feels good about its potential as a football conference.
"We have a good commissioner and it's a very professional conference. I think we just have to start playing so people can see that we are a good football conference."
As with any new conference, it must establish its legitimacy. Five years after stepping on a football field for the first time, nobody is questioning the legitimacy of the Husson Eagles.
C is for consistency, Coast Guard and Curry
Few programs can measure the recent consistency of Coast Guard and Curry. Coach Bill George has his Bears in the New England Football Conference championship game for the second straight year and Curry is making its fifth straight appearance. Coast Guard has won 16 of its last 17 regular season games since joining the NEFC and Curry has finished unbeaten for the second year in a row.
Coast Guard is trying to avenge a 34-28 defeat to Curry in last year's NEFC title game.
Curry will have to contend with quarterback Christian George who has rushed for 710 yards and 11 touchdowns and thrown for five more. Lance Lynch has added 601 yards rushing. The Bears also have a big weapon in David Lieberman who has nailed 12 of 14 field goals and is 32-for-32 in extra points. That's one giant step up from 2006 when Lieberman was three of 12 on his field goal attempts. He goes into the championship game with 10 in a row.
Curry quarterback Ryan Van Giesen has thrown for 2,046 yards with 26 touchdowns against just seven interceptions. Like his coach Skip Bandini, he is a product of Bridgton Academy. He is complemented by Jamaal Woods (799 yards rushng and nine TDs) and Steve DiFabio (610 yards, four touchdowns.)
Van Giesen has some dangerous targets like Felix Borukhov and Brian Taylor, who have caught 12 and nine touchdown passes, respectively.
Both teams are coming off solid wins. Curry defeated UMass-Dartmouth 40-25 and Coast Guard bounced Framingham State, 34-7.
George has earned the moniker "Little Flutie" for his five comeback wins in the fourth quarter over the past two seasons.
He did not play in last year's NEFC title game against the Colonels so if the score is as close as it was last year, he bears watching.
D-III grad basks in Orange Bowl limelight
Last season Steve Hauschka was setting school records for placekicking at Middlebury. This past weekend he booted a 42-yard field goal to lift North Carolina State to a 19-16 overtime victory over Miami in the Orange Bowl. It was just part of a big day for Hauschka who kicked other field goals in that game of 31, 35 and 47 yards.
"It had to be an unbelievable experience for him," said Steve Wolf, his tutor and kicking guru who holds kicking camps up and down the East Coast. Hauschka had never played football before coming to Middlebury, having been a high school soccer player in Needham, Mass. He played jayvee soccer his freshman year at Middlebury and then was urged by friends to give kicking a whirl for the Panther football team.
After graduating from Middlebury, with one year of football eligibility, he was granted permission by the NCAA to play football during a year of pursuing graduate studies at North Carolina State. A connection Wolf had with the Wolfpack staff was one reason for going to Raleigh.
Hauschka has made 14-of-15 field goals this season and Wolf said he is getting attention from the NFL.
Catching on at Colby
Justin Candon caught nine passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns for Colby in its 19-16 upset of Tufts in the New England Football Conference. Candon was named NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance. It was the second straight game in which Candon had more than a hundred yards in receptions and two touchdowns.
He is sure to be the toast of family Thanksgiving celebrations. Candon has an aunt and an uncle who graduated from Middlebury. Colby's win over Tufts means Middlebury will earn the NESCAC crown outright on Saturday if it beats Tufts.
If Middlebury loses, the NESCAC could end in a four-way tie for first place. The last time Middlebury would have won a NESCAC title was in 1992 when the Panthers went 7-1. The NESCAC did not recognize football champions at that time, however.
In fact, for a number of years, the NESCAC released "standings," not according to won-lost record, but alphabetically. That should draw a chuckle in Alliance, Ohio.
Good times at PSU
The good times are back at Plymouth State. The Panthers defeated Salve Regina 21-0 to finish 8-1 and put themselves in line for at least an ECAC postseason game. Jeff Mack rushed for a career high 207 yards with two touchdowns as the Panthers reached their most victories since 1999 when they finished 8-3.
Spartan Stadium
Castleton State president David Wolk unveiled plans for a turf field stadium, called Spartan Stadium for the time being, at a press conference last week. The stadium is part of a plan for $25 million of improvements on campus and will be home for the Spartans in field hockey, soccer and lacrosse. There is a great deal of speculation about an announcement in December that will add football to the school's intercollegiate offerings. One thing is for certain, having the stadium is not going to hurt the chances of that happening. Stay tuned.
The big games
Three games have to catch your eye and you can start with "The Biggest Little Game in America." Amherst and Williams are clashing for the 122nd time in what is one of the great spectacles in small college football. Williams brings a 5-2 record into the game and the momentum of a 33-13 victory over Wesleyan. Amherst comes in at 4-2 and with two straight losses.
The NCAA Division III playoff berth is on the line for Coast Guard and Curry in the NEFC title game. Enough said.
And the Middlebury Panthers can claim an outright championship and finish 7-1 by beating Tufts on the road.