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1997 FOOTBALL SEASON REVIEWThe 1997 football season at Wesleyan ranks among the finest in the team's long and illustrious 115-year history. Forging a 7-1 record, the Cardinals produced more wins than any previous Wesleyan team since the 1969 squad went undefeated (8-0) and tied for the Lambert Cup as the top small college team in the East. The 1997 Cardinals were almost the equal as they finished second in the final ECAC New England Division III poll, trailing only NCAA tournament participant Coast Guard in the rankings. On only five occasions before 1997 did a Wesleyan football team combine seven victories with one or fewer losses (1969, 8-0 ; 1948, 8-0 ; 1947, 7-0 ; 1946, 7-0 ; 1932, 7-1). As a team, Wesleyan ended two long dryspells against arch-rivals as Wesleyan thumped Little Three foe Williams College, 28-14, during Homecoming and Family Weekend festivities in Middletown that even a torrential downpour could not spoil and then upended in-state opponent Trinity College, 19-7, in the season finale in Hartford. Wesleyan had not beaten Trinity since 1986 while Williams had not fallen to Wesleyan since 1985. When Williams got by Amherst, 48-46, Wesleyan gained a share of the Little Three title for the first time since 1978. Amherst was the only team to knock off Wesleyan in 1997 as all three members of the Little Three posted impressive 7-1 records. In the area of team records, Wesleyan established two offensive marks as the 1,990 yards passing (248.8 yards a game) and 2,970 yards of total offense (371.3 yards a game) bettered the Wesleyan standards of 1,931 and 2,887, set in 1991 and 1968, respectively. In the final NCAA statistics for 1997, Wesleyan ranked 27th in the country among Division III teams for passing offense and first among New England Division III teams. Leading the aerial parade was QB Jake Fay '00, who was named New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Offensive Player of the Year. Three times during the season, Fay was the NESCAC's offensive player of the week, and also earned ECAC New England Division III honor-roll status once. After spraining his ankle late in the first half of Wesleyan's 51-33 opening-day win against Tufts University, Fay sat out the better part of five quarters before entering the game against Hamilton with Wesleyan trailing, 15-3. Fay rallied Wesleyan to two fourth-quarter TDs and a 16-15 triumph. His finest outing of the season came against Trinity when he completed 19 of 37 passes for a career-high 298 yards and a pair of TDs. He also ran for a score in that contest. The week before against Williams, despite playing in slop, Fay connected on 16 of 31 tosses for 237 yards and three TDs. Both those performances, as well as the 9-for-16 passing for 153 yards and a TD at Hamilton, were good for NESCAC honors. On the year, Fay completed 113 of 211 passes for a team-record 1,906 yards and 14 TDs. He was intercepted just four times. His passing efficiency rating of 147.5 ranked first in the NESCAC as well as among New England Division III passers and 17th in the nation. It also stands as the 11th highest single-season rating ever by a New England Division III quarterback. On the receiving end of 37 of Fay's aerials was all-NESCAC and second-team all-ECAC wide receiver Matt Perceval '00, whose 772 receiving yards were tops in the NESCAC as were his eight TD catches. Averaging 96.5 yards a game, Perceval ranked 25th nationally in Division III. Also nationally ranked in two other areas, Perceval, who is a two-time all-NESCAC choice as kick return specialist and an ECAC second-teamer in that role as well, averaged 25.1 yards from his 18 kickoff returns (22nd in the NCAA) and collected 173.1 all-purpose yards a game (also 22nd in NCAA Division III). He established a New England Division III record for kickoff return yards in a game when he raced for 209 yards on seven runbacks against Tufts, including an 85-yard TD romp. Joining Perceval and Fay on the all-NESCAC team was fullback John Pascucci '99, who paired with Tom Themistocles '99 to give Wesleyan a very capable running attack. Wesleyan was the only NESCAC team to have two backs ranked among the top 10 as Themistocles (110 rushes for 538 yards) was sixth and Pascucci (100 rushes for 480 yards) was seventh in the NESCAC. Pascucci and Themistocles each received ECAC weekly honor roll laurels during the year as Pascucci, who opened the year with three straight 100+-yard games, rushed 19 times for 144 yards and two TDs against Tufts while Themistocles had 34 carries for a career-high 152 yards and a TD against Williams. The final Cardinal to grace the all-NESCAC squad was punter Rob Stager '98, who booted for a career-best 38.4-yard average, which ranked 31st nationally, including a team-record 76-yarder against Tufts. His performance helped Wesleyan finish 12th among NCAA Division III colleges for net punting average (36.2 yards). For his career, Stager punted for a Wesleyan-record 178 times and a fine 35.8-yard average. He was the second-team all-ECAC choice in both 1997 and 1995. On the defensive side of the ball, Wesleyan consistently came up with the bend-but-don't-break performance as four of the team's seven wins came by a TD or less. Kevin Labbe '99, who stepped into a starting roll in the secondary late in the season, was lauded as both ECAC and NESCAC defensive player of the week when he collected eight tackles and intercepted two passes against Williams in the first start of his career at free safety. Outside linebacker Terry Sears '00 was an ECAC honor roll selection after collecting 12 tackles, a sack and forcing a turnover in the conquest at Hamilton. Graduating just six starters (three on each side of the ball) and the punter, Wesleyan will be in outstanding shape to extend the success enjoyed in 1997 into the 1998 season.
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