The first leg of what is the 109^th rendition of the Little Three begins on Saturday as the Wesleyan football team hosts Amherst for a 1 PM start from Corwin Stadium at Andrus Field in Middletown. The two sides are on opposite ends of the spectrum, as the Cardinals are coming off a 35-30 home win over Bowdoin in Week 6 while the Mammoths lost to Tufts at home 34-14 and are winless in two straight games.
 
Trailing 7-0 for most of the first half last week, Wesleyan got back-to-back defensive touchdowns to kick start a run of 35 unanswered points heading into the fourth quarter. LB Jake Edwards '24 returned a fumble 59 yards for a score before LB Kade Doverspike '24 returned an interception 55 yards for another score to ignite the Cardinals who couldn't get much going on the offensive end against the Polar Bear defense.
 
Bowdoin then went on a furious fourth quarter rally, scoring 23 unanswered in a span of 12 minutes, but after a third failed onside kick, the Cardinals could ice away the home win over Bowdoin and exact a little revenge following last season's 28-26 loss to the Polar Bears in Brunswick. Wesleyan leaned on their opportunistic defense to lead the way to victory as the Cardinals were outgained 542-254 against Bowdoin, with the NESCAC's top-ranked passing offense throwing for 444 yards in defeat.
 
Edwards was named NESCAC Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career, as the senior co-captain recorded a season-high 11 tackles to go along with his 59-yard fumble return touchdown that sparked Wesleyan's 35-0 scoring run. Other key contributors in the win included DB Dylan Connors '26 finishing with a career-high 14 tackles (11 solo) while LB Ben Carbeau '25 finished with 10 tackles and 1.5 sacks and Declan Welch '26 had six tackles with 1.5 sacks.
 
Wesleyan remains the fourth-best scoring offense in the NESCAC, averaging 24.8 points per game, while the defense has taken a hit, sitting at ninth in the league in scoring, allowing 25.2 points per game. The Cardinals average 338.2 yards of offense per game (5^th NESCAC) and are sixth in yards allowed per game (337.2). Wesleyan is one of three teams in the league (Trinity, Bowdoin) to allow less than 100 rushing yards per game (91.5) while the Cardinals' passing attack is fourth-best in the NESCAC at 246.5 yards per game.
 
QB Niko Candido '25 has been excellent all season, throwing for 1476 yards with a 54.6 completion percentage and 14 TD with just 3 INT. Candido has benefitted from throwing to a pair of wideouts in WR Chase Wilson '25 and WR Thomas Elkhoury '24 that have ranked Top 10 in the NESCAC all season in catches and yards. Wilson comes in with 32 catches for 493 yards and 8 TD while Elkhoury has 35 catches for 492 yards and 3 TD. TB Ezra Jenifer '23 is averaging 4.3 yards per carry to lead the team while RB Tyler Flynn '26 has a team-leading 219 rushing yards on the season.
 
On defense, Edwards and Carbeau are tied for the team-lead with 44 tackles, both rank Top 10 in the NESCAC in tackles per game (7.3). Edwards has 4.5 tackles for loss to lead the team while Welch has 3.5 sacks to lead the Cardinals. CB Wesley Abraham '25 has been at the top of the league standings in pass breakups this season, coming into Week 7 with 10, while CB Sean Walker' 25 on the other side has seven pass breakups (4^th NESCAC).
 
Amherst is coming off a disappointing 34-14 loss at home to the Jumbos in a game where the Mammoths were limited to just nine first downs and 171 total yards of offense in defeat. This came following a 19-16 loss at home to Colby in Week 5, as the Mammoths again struggled to get much going offensively, gaining just 222 yards of total offense.
 
Through six weeks, Amherst has the lowest-scoring offense in the NESCAC, averaging just 11.8 points and 215.7 yards per game. Both averages are a distant 10^th in the NESCAC as the next-closest team, in terms of yards per game, is Hamilton at 268.7. The most points the Mammoths have scored in a game this season is 17, both of which came in Amherst wins (17-14 over Hamilton, 17-7 over Bates). Amherst is the worst rushing team in the NESCAC, averaging 59.7 yards and 2.1 yards per carry, while the passing offense is eighth-best at 156 yards per game.
 
On the defensive end, the Mammoths rank seventh in the NESCAC in scoring defense (23.7) while allowing the fourth-fewest yards per game (323.5). A big strength of this squad is the secondary unit, as the Mammoths allow the second-fewest passing yards per game (184) as Amherst joins Tufts as the lone two teams in the league to allow less than 200 passing yards per game. Where the Mammoths struggle on defense is the ground game, sporting the second-worst rush defense in the NESCAC, allowing 139.5 yards per game and 3.8 yards per carry.
 
TB Tariq Muhammad leads the team with 176 rushing yards this season while TB Louie Eckelkamp has 151. The Mammoths' starter at QB coming into the season (John Collier) suffered an injury in Week 4 so Amherst has ran with Jack Cox midway through the season and he has 501 yards on 51-for-100 passing with 3 TD and 0 INT. Mike Piazza also featured at QB last week against Tufts, rushing 13 times for 32 yards. WR Owen Gaydos is the leading receiver on the team with 30 catches for 242 yards.
 
This will be the 128^th all-time meeting between Wesleyan and Amherst, with the Mammoths holding the edge with a 73-45-9 record in the series history. Wesleyan is 27-35-3 at home when playing Amherst while the series has swung back-and-forth in recent seasons. Last season came down to overtime in Amherst the finished in a 13-7 win for the Cardinals. The previous meeting in 2021 was a four-overtime instant classic in a torrential downpour in that finished in a 16-14 win for Amherst. Incredibly, the last three meetings have all needed overtime to determine a winner as Wesleyan won 31-28 in double overtime in Amherst back in 2019.