Chris George will remember Saturday evening, Nov. 9, 2019, forever.
The Colby College senior from North Kingstown played the football game of his life, one of those highlight films that every kid dreams of. Final game of the season. Final game of his career. A final quarter you can’t make up. All against a bitter archrival.
George, a 5-foot-9, 195-pound running back, rushed for 151 yards on 20 carries, caught two passes for 32 yards and scored four touchdowns as Colby rallied from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter and stunned Bowdoin, 47-34, under the lights at Bowdoin’s Whittier Field in Brunswick, Maine.
George’s heroics helped the Mules win the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin (CBB) championship for the second consecutive season. Colby defeated Bates, 23-20, on Oct. 26. Colby finished 2-7 overall, Bowdoin 0-9.
“His spirit really moved us. He willed us to win,” Colby coach Jack Cosgrove told me Monday from his office in Waterville, Maine. “We’re down 34-20, and it’s like ‘I’m gonna put this team on my back.’ I’ve seen it before in my 30 years at (the University of) Maine, but this is the first time from a Colby kid.”
George scored his first touchdown on a three-yard run at 11:59 of the second quarter that cut Bowdoin’s lead to 21-13. The score was 28-20 at the half and 34-20 after three quarters.
The fourth quarter belonged to Colby defense, which forced three turnovers; its offense, which converted the TOs to TDs, and George. Colby tied the score with two touchdowns in 31 seconds, the tying points with 12:22 remaining on George’s 26-yard run and Moises Celaya’s kick. George broke the tie with another 26-yard run with 5:30 left and settled the outcome with his third 26-yard TD run with 1:26 to play.
“Bowdoin was blitzing heavy, and we found some running plays they didn’t have answers for,” Cosgrove said.
George’s status was questionable thanks to a sprained ankle he suffered against Tufts a week earlier. He didn’t start at Bowdoin, but when Colby fell behind, he took the field because he is the team’s best blocking back in the passing game.
Cosgrove cited two plays to illustrate George’s overall contribution on this night. On a third-and-four at the Bowdoin 31 with Colby nursing a 40-34 lead, the Mules were penalized for a false start. On third-and-nine, George got hit after two yards but refused to go down. The pile of Bowdoin tacklers and Colby blockers moved another seven yards “right in front of their bench,” the coach said. First down. Two plays later George scored his fourth TD.
On the ensuing kickoff, George replaced an injured teammate and made a great tackle.
How bitter is this 131-game rivalry that dates to 1890? A Bowdoin player was ejected in the first quarter for unsportsmanlike conduct, and both benches emptied just before the second-half kickoff, incurring offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
Cosgrove has seen it all in his long coaching career.
“It was an unbelievable crazy game,” he said, “one in which our young men had to meet many challenges throughout the evening.”
Leading the charge was Chris George from North Kingstown, who scored more touchdowns in his final game than he had in his entire career (3) and who led his team to “a great win for our program.”
George and his fellow seniors can boast that they never lost to Bowdoin.
What a way to go out.
