CBB is a special slice of Maine
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Some games take on a life of their own and become great rivalries where the date is circled on the calendars of alumni. The Curry-Plymouth game could be achieving that status. Last season Curry handed Plymouth its only loss,
This year it was Plymouth getting one of the biggest wins in years for the program by prevailing 28-17 with Jeff Mack rushing for 115 yards and two touchdowns.
Mack and the running game have been Plymouth’s calling card, but while quarterback John DeMarco threw sparingly, he was very, very effective by going 3-for-4 for 130 yards and two touchdowns.
Other rivalries are big every year, regardless of records. Colby, Bates and Bowdoin have been fighting for bragging rights for over a century and the CBB Championship the three schools battle for is a special part of Maine’s sports landscape.
It was once the Maine Championship Series and involved the University of Maine. When the Black Bears went the Division I route, it became the CBB Championship.
Bates got its first win of the season, Saturday beating Colby 31-21 to get a leg up on the CBB title. Bates can claim it outright this week by winning at Bowdoin.
Bates head coach Mark Harriman coached at Harvard and his assistant Matt Dence was on the staff at Yale so they sometimes talk of the similarities of the CBB games to those Harvard and Yale classics.
“There is an extra edge everywhere to these games, from the alumni to the players,” Harriman said. “These are the same type of kids who are at Harvard, Yale and Princeton and they are excited to get to play in these games.”
Mark Candon followed his son Justin around the Northeast when he was a receiver at Colby through last year. He quickly gained an appreciation for what the CBB means.
“The Colby-Bowdoin-Bates games were the hardest fought games I saw,” Candon said.
“Our rivalry with Bowdoin is the third-oldest in Division III,” Colby coach Ed Mestieri said.
He begins talking to his players about the history and the meaning attached to the series on the Sunday before the game, allowing the older players to speak to the team about what the series means to them.
Mestieri and Bowdoin coach Dave Caputi were both involved with the Norwich-Middlebury series in Vermont, Mestieri on the Norwich side and Caputi on the Middlebury side. The teams played 100 games before the rivalry ceased in 1991 because Middlebury’s conference precluded the Panthers from playing any game outside the league.
The Norwich-Middlebury game, played in November, attracted mammoth crowds where the hues were Norwich maroon, Panther blue and blaze orange. Deer hunters would come out of the woods to attend the event.
“The CBB is very much the same. It is a game that takes on added meaning,” Mestieri said. “There is a sense of pride and these are the games that really matter to the alums.
“The crowds are the largest of the year and at the beginning of the week I get emails and phone calls of well wishes.”
“It is a rivalry of mutual animosity and respect,” Caputi said.
The weather can only add to the aura of the CBB games which are played late in the season. A couple of years ago there was a striking photo in Sports Illustrated, part of an essay on football in America, that showed players in a Colby-Bates game sloshing through mud and deep water.
“You never know what the weather will be in Maine that time of year. In 2005, we played a CBB game when it was 72 degrees and we coached in polo shirts,” Caputi said.
It was not that warm Saturday for the Bates-Colby game, but it was a nice day with a large crowd for Bates’ homecoming.
The 1969 class was honored at the game. That was the group that had the best four-year record in Bates football history and included Jim Murphy, the school’s women’s basketball coach.
Those players addressed the current Bobcats on Friday and obviously it didn’t hurt. It’s just one of the extra touches that make a long-standing rivalry like this special.
Adding to the rivalry is that Harriman, Mestieri and Caputi all know one another well and are united through their work in the Maine chapter of the National Football Foundation and the common problems they face in being from Maine.
They host the CBB Football Clinic each year, drawing about a hundred young players. It rotates between the three schools.
“It is a recruiting tool,” Harriman said. “Usually those players make it a Maine day and visit all three schools.
“We also face the same things, like travel. Being up here, most of our trips are overnight, more so than it probably is at the other schools.”
“The CBB is unique because the schools are all in the same state, unlike the Little Three (Williams, Amherst, Trinity) and some of the other rivalries,” Caputi said.
The rivalry does not have a lot of Maine high school teammates or rivals on the roster as the schools have more of a Northeast/national base.
“A program from about 25 years ago had about 12 to 15 kids on each roster from Maine,” Caputi said. “Now, there might be six to eight total.
“But the players get indoctrinated early about contrived differences between the schools.”
The Bates players and alumni had a special homecoming. A CBB victory is always sweet.
The Bobcats pulled it off with freshman quarterback Ryan Katon completing 13 of 23 passes for 139 yards and three touchdowns. The TD tosses went to three different receivers: Sean Wirth, Evan Tierney and Matt Gregg.
“It’s been a learning experience with him (Katon),” Harriman said. “Like all freshmen, he has made mistakes. But he is a very good player and he is going to be a great player.”
Best of all, the Bobcats get to experience the CBB excitement again this week with the short trip to Brunswick with a chance to win the title outright against Bowdoin.
It might be played in the muck and mire, or even in the snow. But whether it’s those type of elements or the 72-degree day Caputi remembers in 2005, it will be another chapter in the CBB series that Mainers, the players and alumni will treasure for a long while.
Another Maine rivalry that would feature dozens of Maine high school products on both rosters would be the one between the North Atlantic Conference’s Husson Eagles and the NEFC’s Maine Maritime Mariners.
Larry Mahoney made a plea for MMA officials to initiate that rivalry in a column this week in the Bangor Daily News. He pointed out that while the fifth-year Husson program is still a new kid on the block, there would be no embarrassment in getting beat by a program that has quickly branded itself as a very formidable one.
Husson remained unbeaten against Division III competition this season by rolling past Gallaudet 49-0.
Bogan Division madness
Who will be the first to lose in that wild scramble in the Bogan Division of the NEFC? Bridgewater State, Maine Maritime and Fitchburg State all remained atop the standings with 4-1 records and Coast Guard is a game behind at 3-2.
Fitchburg did its part to share the penthouse by whipping Mass. Maritime with Marlon Thornton rambling for 202 yards and three touchdowns on 31 carries.
Quarterback Jim Miller complemented him by going 19-of-31 for 225 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for a score.
Maine Maritime had no problem in dispatching Framingham State 51-0 as Jim Bower ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns. The Mariners scored touchdowns on their first three possessions and piled up 582 yards of total offense.
MMA could get a test this week when it hosts Coast Guard. Coast Guard roared past Worcester State 17-14 with17 unanswered points in the second half. The Lancers had seen that film before. Last year Coast Guard scored 40 unanswered points to beat them 46-10.
Coast Guard pulled this one out in dramatic fashion as quarterback Niles Pierson hooked up with Cale Cooper for an 80-yard touchdown pass with 5:30 remaining.
Bridgewater State kept its spot at the top by toppling Westfield State 35-21. Bridgewater quarterback Jessy Resende rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns. Jesse Teixeira caught three passes for 84 yards and two scores.
Trinity perfect with wild win
Trinity ran its record to 6-0 with a wild win over Middlebury at home, a game in which the lead changed hands six times.
When it was over, the Bantams had a 34-31 victory with Eric McGrath throwing for 342 yards and two touchdowns.
It was a duel of gunslingers as Middlebury quarterback Donald McKillop went 29-of-52 for 325 yards and three touchdowns.
Both quarterbacks were plagued by interceptions. McKillop threw three of them and McGrath four.
Middlebury safety Dan Haluska tied a school record with three interceptions.
More from Morrissey
Brian Morrissey carried Williams to a 14-7 victory at Hamilton by amassing 201 yards and a touchdown on 41 carries.
In a low-scoring game where field position was so important, Will Cronin’s punting was a big piece of the victory. Four of his punts were downed inside the 20-yard line.
Williams, 4-2, has Wesleyan in town this week for homecoming and The Little Three rivalry.
Brown carries the mail
What can Brown do for you? Plenty of you are MIT coach Dwight Smith. DeRon Brown rushed for a whopping 250 yards and four touchdowns on 26 carries to lead the Engineers to a 34-19 victory over Salve Regina.
J.T, Harold also did the job on the ground, running for 168 yards to help lift UMass-Dartmouth to a 33-22 victory over Nichols.
The big games
The no-margin-for error race in the Bogan Division goes on. Two of the three first-place teams are home as Fitchburg hosts Westfield State and Maine Maritime hosts Coast Guard. Bridgewater must win a road game to keep its share of the lead. The Bears travel to Worcester State.
Plymouth State can clinch the top spot in the NEFC’s Boyd Division by MIT.
Curry will be trying to do something it has not had to do in the regular season in a few years, bounce back from a loss. The Colonels host Nichols.
Trinity figures to get a good test from Amherst as the Bantams try to stay undefeated.