CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- Maine Maritime totaled 497 yards of offense by dropped a 56-36 decision to MIT in a New England Football Conference game Saturday. The Engineers improved to 3-3 NEFC, 5-3 overall, while the Mariners dropped to 1-5, 1-7.
Peter Williams led the Engineers offense with 264 yards passing and five touchdowns. He was 15 of 18 and found five different receivers. Justin Wallace rushed for 150 yards on 26 carries, Brad Goldsberry caught five passes for 87 yards and two touchdowns and Eric Gan hauled in three catches for 71 yards and a pair of scores.
Billy Wehterbee rushed for 217 yards on 27 carries for Maine Maritime. Wetherbee surpassed Claude LeClair '85 for eighth on the all-time career rushing charts. He now sits with 2,428 yards and is 197 yards shy of tying Matt Rende '12 for seventh.
Michael Fahey carried 31 times for 170 yards and scored a career-high five touchdowns.
MIT took the opening kickoff and used its ground game to quickly score the first points of the contest. Wallace ran five times for 48 yards on the drive that took just 2:51 and put the Engineers on the board with his two-yard run. Maine Maritime coughed up the ball on its first drive, with freshman Kevin Kusch recovering for MIT on the MIT 46. Six plays later the Engineers were in the end zone again as Williams hit sophomore Samuel Inman from 13 yards out to make it 14-0.
MIT made it three for three on its next drive as the Engineers covered 50 yards in 2:13, with Wallace carrying it in from the 11 to make it 21-0 with four minutes left in the quarter. Maine Maritime got its triple-option attack rolling on its next possession, grinding out a 15-play, 84-yard drive that consumed 7:33 to put its first points on the board. Fahey did most of the damage, carrying seven times for 41 yards, including a five-yard scoring run. Fahey's two-point attempt was good, making it 21-8 with 7:22 left in the half.
A 45-yard kick return by sophomore Seve Esparrago put MIT in business on the Maine Maritime 30 on the next Engineer drive, and three plays later Williams hit junior Goldsberry from 15 yards out for the score. The Engineers added a one-yard plunge by Williams with 1:05 left in the half to increase their lead to 35-8.
Maine Maritime started the second half with another long scoring drive; this time going 93 yards in 12 plays, all on the ground. Fahey, who scored all of the Mariners touchdowns in the contest, finished it off with a one-yard run to make it 35-14 after a failed two-point attempt.
Sparked again by another long return by Esparrago, MIT answered with another three-play scoring drive as Williams hit sophomore Eric Gan from 27 yards out. The Engineers came right back with another score after sophomore Alex Noakes recovered another Mariner fumble, with Williams tossing a 26-yard scoring strike to Goldsberry to make it 49-14.
Maine Maritime came back with back-to-back touchdown drives. Fahey scored on a pair of one-yard runs to cap off drives of 71 and 75 yards to pull the Mariners back to 49-28 with 5:37 left. It was as close as Maine Maritime would get as Gan pulled in another long TD pass from Williams, this time from 38 yards out, just a minute later. Fahey completed the scoring with a five-yard run with 1:28 left.
Jake Laux recorded a game-high 14 tackles for MIT, while John Wenzel and Cameron Wagar tallied 11 stops each.
Frank True led the Mariners with 11 tackles, John Doyon had nine stops and Matt Clifford seven. Doyon and Michael Burgess (6 tackles) teamed up for Maine Maritime's lone sack of the game.
The Mariners wrap up the season Saturday hosting Curry at noon.