After a win last week, Hamilton Football was unable to sustain that momentum, losing 56-14 to Wesleyan at Wesleyan’s Corwin Stadium at Andrus Field this past Saturday. Wesleyan University’s Matt Fitzsimons ’27 threw five touchdown passes in the second quarter alone, on his way to being named NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week and the New England Football Writers Association Week 6 Gold Helmet Award which is given to the top player in New England at the Division II/III level each week.
Saturday’s game got off to a slow start, with a scoreless first quarter. The Continentals encountered the first of their red zone struggles that would haunt them throughout the day, as #15 Luke Kurzum ’27 threw his first interception of the season while trying to convert on a 4th down. Later, back-to-back holding calls snuffed out another promising drive as Hamilton was unable to convert a 3rd and 30 on Wesleyan’s side of the field, ultimately attempting a field goal and missing. Wesleyan also failed to gain momentum early in the quarter but this was not to last. A drive that began in the first was punched in shortly after the teams swapped sides, making up the first seven of Wesleyan’s jaw-dropping 35 points in the second quarter. The continentals repeatedly failed to sustain long drives; Kurzum floated a second pass to the defense that was almost returned back for 6. Hamilton turned the ball over again after a fake punt failed to convert and had no answer for five rapid-fire Wesleyan touchdowns, ultimately retreating back to the locker room down 0-35 at the half.
Although the Continentals played marginally better in the second half, there’s no overcoming a deficit like that, especially during an unseasonably hot road game. Kurzum was wisely pulled from the game after an injury scare leaving QB #19 Conner Laverty ‘28 to put up a symbolic effort in the final quarter of the game. Wesleyan piled on two more touchdown drives in the second half, and an embarrassing end-zone fumble by the Continentals was easily recovered to place the cherry on top of a 42-point blowout.
Kurzum regressed catastrophically from his high-flying homecoming game last week, completing 50% of his passes for a hair under two hundred yards and ringing up a passer rating of 52.78. One thing has been made abundantly clear by this performance: Kurzum is both a blessing and a curse for Hamilton. When he’s running at full tilt, he is the backbone of the offense and the team as a whole. This, however, makes the team extremely brittle—if he has a bad day, there’s not much else to turn to for what has been an extremely pass-reliant Continental attack. Notably, the ground game was almost completely smothered as Tailback #1 Nate Wildman ‘27 put up only 21 yards on seven attempts. Wesleyan’s man coverage ran hot all day as Continental receivers struggled to open the distance.
The Hamilton defense struggled, likely in no small part due to exhaustion – Hamilton’s offense barely touched the field in the second quarter leaving a beleaguered defensive unit high and dry. Notably, the Continental blitz was almost completely ineffective in Saturday’s outing—Wesleyan QB Fitzsimmons wasn’t even touched during the first half and fared little different in the second.
It’s always hard to find words of encouragement after a loss like this, but this is definitely a loss that the Continentals are going to have to put behind them if they plan on staying competitive as the 2025 season nears its halfway point. The team has a home game versus Trinity College coming up and it’ll be important to establish the team for the second half of the season, particularly on defensive and running play.
Hamilton will look to get back to winning this weekend where they host Trinity, who has won three straight games in NESCAC play. This marks the end of a competitive stretch for the Continentals playing the runners-up of the NESCAC immediately after playing last season’s champions.
