WILLIAMSTOWN – In the days before Saturday’s “Biggest Little Game in America,” Amherst College head coach E.J. Mills said the game was about much more than just football.

“Obviously, we wish we were in a better situation than we are,” Mills said. “But as much as anything, as I’ve always said, it’s about our seniors’ last game and it’s the last opportunity for these guys.”

Unfortunately for the seniors on the 2024 Mammoths, the last game went to their archrivals.

Williams got a pair of touchdowns from Owen Johansen and the Williams defense pitched a shutout in a 21-0 win for the Ephs, before a raucous crowd at Farley-Lamb Field.

"It's a huge win for the team. It's a huge win for the school. There's nothing like making the walk after this game, there's just nothing like it," Ephs senior running back Jon Oris said. "It's the greatest tradition in America."

Williams, now 5-4, came into the "Biggest Little Game in America" having dropped a heartbreaker at Wesleyan seven days earlier, when the Cardinals scored a game-winning touchdown in the final 10 seconds of regulation.

It was the first time since 2019 that Amherst finished 0-2 in the Little Three.

The shutout win was the first for a Williams team since it beat Bates 43-0 on Nov. 18, 2023. It is the first shutout in the Williams-Amherst series since the now-legendary 0-0 tie in 1995, and the first Williams shutout win over Amherst since the Ephs beat Amherst 37-0 back in 1991.

The victory extended Williams' home winning streak over Amherst to four games. The last time the Mammoths won in Williams was 2015, when the school was still the Lord Jeffs.

From the opening kickoff, it wasn't going be a typical Williams-Amherst game. Proof of that came on the first play from scrimmage.

Jack Dickinson threw an incomplete pass to Jack Kennedy on first down, with the ball hitting the turf in front of the Williams receiver. 

Dickinson, who hadn't started a game since the fourth contest in 2022, was running the show in place of Owen McHugh, who had started 17 consecutive games since arriving on campus as a freshman.

But after that first incomplete pass, Dickinson and the Williams offense got in gear. The senior quarterback completed two passes, one for 18 yards to Luke Bobo and one for four yards to Will Sheskey. The rest of the game-opening 10-play, 73-yard touchdown drive were on the ground.

Two big runs were by receiver Owen Jacobsen. Running out of the Wildcat, Jacobsen picked up a huge first down on third-and-2 at the Amherst 42. Four plays later, Jacobsen followed the caravan led by left tackle Joseph Ngombouowo and left guard Mike Tartaglia untouched into the end zone. The 12-yard touchdown run was followed by the first of three Ivan Shuran PAT kicks, and the Ephs were up 7-0.

Both teams were kind of stuck in the mud until early in the second quarter when Williams completely took the momentum away from the visitors.

After a 41-yard punt by Amherst's Mike Mitchell, Williams took over on its 20-yard line. Three runs by Oris, who did run for 75 yards on 20 carries, forced a Williams punt.

Leonardo Maiuolo, who came into the game averaging 40 yards per kick, boomed a deep rainbow. Amherst returner Sam Gerber muffed the kick and Williams' Austin Bongo fell on the football at the Amherst 15-yard line.

Three plays later, again out of the Wildcat, Johansen faked a handoff to Oris and went around the left side, eluding an Amherst tackler, before getting into the end zone for his second touchdown of the game. Shuran's kick made it 14-0.

“That didn’t help, for sure,” said Mills. “The opening drive too. Our kids played really hard but you’ve got to score. You can’t win when you don’t score, and unfortunately, we didn’t have quite enough.”

After the second Williams score, Amherst did very little with the football. The Mammoths had seven drives after that, getting into Williams territory twice. On the first one, Amherst had third-and-five on the Eph 22, but first-year quarterback Marek Hill was sacked by Eph linebacker Tim Landolfi, pushing the Mammoths out of field goal range.

The second drive was the one that opened the third quarter as Amherst moved from its 30 to the Williams 22. On third down, Eph first-year defensive lineman Will Gale knocked Jack Roberge back for a one-yard loss. Then, Cato Legaspi was hit at the line by Gale for no gain, and the Ephs took over.

For the game, the Williams defense recorded six tackles for loss and the Ephs sacked Hill four times. Scott had 1 1/2 sacks to lead the Eph defense.