Box Score MEDFORD – The Middlebury College football team earned its third-ever perfect season (9-0) and first since 1972 with a 31-24 victory at Tufts University in a NESCAC season finale at Ellis Oval / Zimman Field on Saturday.
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| Miles Shipp was among the Jumbos recognized in a pre-game ceremony on Seniors Day. |
The Panther defense intercepted four Tufts passes, including two by senior Kevin Hartley. Middlebury senior WR Maxim Bochman caught a pair of touchdown passes from junior QB Will Jernigan, who also ran for a score. Freshman Alex Maldjian rushed for 136 yards and a touchdown for the visitors. With the perfect season, the Panthers win the 2019 NESCAC title outright.
Trailing 24-7 late in the third, Tufts would make it interesting with a 56-yard touchdown reception by junior OJ Armstrong and a two-yard TD catch by graduate Frank Roche which helped close the gap to 31-24. However, with just 13 seconds remaining Middlebury's Zander Bailey recovered an onside kick to seal the victory.
Roche finished with eight catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns for the Jumbos, while senior quarterback Jacob Carroll passed for 367 yards and three scores. Carroll's 19 touchdown passes this fall are a new single-season mark at Tufts. Senior linebacker Greg Holt closed his outstanding career with a game-high 12 tackles.
The visiting Panthers scored first on a two-yard rush by Jernigan with 8:40 remaining in the first quarter. The Panther defense then stopped the Jumbos on a fourth and two play from the Middlebury 35, with junior LB Jack Pistorius making the tackle.
Tufts would tie the score at 7-7 thanks in large part to a defensive play. Stephen Timmins, one of 19 Jumbos recognized before the game on Seniors Day, intercepted a pass and returned it 29 yards to the Middlebury 16. Four plays later, Carroll hit Roche in the back right corner of the end zone from 16 yards out at 1:04 of the first.
The Panthers would answer with an eight-play, 75-yard scoring drive that took barely two minutes. Jernigan hit back-to-back passes of 24 and 10 yards to Bochman, with the latter giving the Panthers a 14-7 advantage early in the second quarter.
Freshman Finn Muldoon had the first of three Middlebury interceptions in the second quarter on the next Tufts drive, making a play in the end zone as the Jumbos went for a tying score. Three minutes later, Hartley would have his first pick of the day leading to a 22-yard field goal by senior Carter Massengill for a 17-7 Middlebury lead. Junior Pete Huggins had the third Middlebury interception at 4:14 of the period.
The Tufts defense made a pair of fourth-down stops late in the first half to keep the score at 17-7 heading into intermission.
The defenses continued to limit offensive output for the first 10 minutes of the second half, but the game's final 20 minutes were wild.
A 35-yard Jernigan to Bochman completion preceded a 13-yard connection between the two which gave the Panthers a 24-7 advantage at 4:44 of the third quarter. However, Tufts stayed in it when Armstrong broke away for the 56-yard touchdown pulling the Jumbos within 24-14 at 2:10 of the third.
The Panthers had a strong answer to that. A 42-yard run by Jernigan on a third and eight play from his own 22-yard line set up a three-yard rush by Maldjian that put Midd up 31-14 28 seconds into the fourth.
Tufts converted a third down and nine with a 56-yard pass play from Carroll to senior tight end Jack Donohue on their next possession. That led to a 27-yard field goal by junior Matt Alswanger which kept the Jumbos within 31-17 still early in the fourth quarter.
Following a fourth-down stop by the Panther D later in the fourth, a Middlebury fumble gave the ball back to Tufts. Sophomore defensive end Jovan Nenadovic made the recovery for Tufts. However, Hartley had his second interception of the day at the Panther 21-yard line to keep Middlebury a safe distance ahead.
The Panthers had to punt on their next possession, and a 27-yard pass from Carroll to Roche set Tufts up first and 10 on the Middlebury 5. Two plays later Roche caught a two-yard TD from Carroll and Tufts was within a score (31-24).
However, only 13 seconds remained and Bailey's recovery of the onside kick killed Tufts' hopes of a miracle comeback.
Jernigan completed 18 of 32 passes for 264 yards and the two scores while adding 74 yards rushing on 13 carries. Bochman caught five of those balls for 89 yards. Huggins led Middlebury with 10 tackles while Bailey also had five stops and 1.5 TFL's including a sack.
Roche, who broke the Tufts record for single-season receiving yards last week, finished the year with 989 yards and 10 touchdowns. Junior Brendan Dolan contributed six receptions for 91 yards today and Armstrong finished with four catches for 78 yards. Nenadovic also had two sacks for the Jumbo defense.
The teams combined for 926 yards of offense with 473 for Middlebury and 453 by the Jumbos.
Middlebury's 9-0 finish this fall joins their 8-0 teams from 1972 and 1936 as Panther teams with perfect records.
