Bates College

LEWISTON, Maine -- Bates football erased a 14-point deficit and had a chance to win it in the final seconds, but a blocked field goal sealed a heart-breaking 22-21 loss Saturday against Tufts.

Sophomore Jack Gilmore (North Arlington, N.J.) directed the Bates offense for most of the afternoon, finishing with a long list of explosive plays: completions of 51, 40, 36, 28 and 20 yards, plus an 11-yard touchdown run. 

First-year Ryan Foley (Foxborough, Mass.) was Bates' workhorse on the ground, carrying the ball 23 times for 103 yards while piling up chunks of yardage on both scoring drives, including runs of 16, 9 and 8 yards mixed in with the game-tying three-yard touchdown. Sophomore Riley Provencher (Old Orchard Beach, Maine), junior Jeff Vidou (Cornish, N.H.), sophomore Cole Piaseczynski (Rowley, Mass.) and senior Ryan Gleason (Millbury, Mass.) each hauled in a 20-plus-yard catch from Gilmore at some point in the game

The Bates defense forced two takeaways, as interceptions by junior Tomas Diaz (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and senior Michael Spencer (Mansfield, Texas) led the defensive effort. Sophomore Liam Keaney (Swampscott, Mass.) turned in a monster performance, sacking the quarterback twice and notching a game-high eight total tackles, with seven solo stops. 

Gilmore led a 13-play drive that stalled on fourth-and-1 at the Tufts 1-yard line, but Diaz's interception two plays later set up Gilmore's 11-yard touchdown run, and senior Marcos Ruiz's (Haskell, N.J.) PAT cut it to 14-7. Spencer then picked off Tufts deep in Bates territory to send the game to the break still down just one score.

Bates opened the third quarter with an 8-play, 75-yard drive jump-started by a 51-yard Gilmore-to-Provencher strike and finished off by Foley with his touchdown run to tie the game at 14. After the Bates defense forced a punt, Gilmore and the offense struck again, going 76 yards in six plays and capping it with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Piaseczynski. Ruiz's PAT made it 21-14 Bates, the Bobcats' first lead of the game.

From there the game swung repeatedly. A Gilmore pass was intercepted deep in Tufts territory, but Bates' defense held, and the Bobcats traded field position with Tufts for much of the fourth quarter before Tufts finally broke through on a touchdown catch with 55 seconds left, then converted a two-point pass to go up 22-21. Gilmore wasn't finished, firing a 40-yard completion to Gleason and a 13-yard strike to Piaseczynski to get Bates into field-goal range, and Foley added a run to set up a potential game-winner. Ruiz's 33-yard attempt was blocked with no time remaining, sealing the result.

Bates finishes with a tough loss despite big performances from Gilmore, Foley, and a defense that came up with two takeaways. They hit the road for their next game at Williams Saturday at 1 p.m.