Volume CXXXII, Number 3 September 27, 2002 f

Ephs swallowed by Polar Bears
SEAN WALKER
STAFF WRITER

Practice makes overtime victory over sixth-ranked Williiams College Ephs? Evidently so. (Evan Kohn, Bowdoin Orient)

I have no problem with Williams College. My "beef" is with their mascot. Has there ever been a worse name in the history of athletics than the Ephs? I decided that before I could rip the nation's sixth-ranked team for being dominated on their turf by Bowdoin's Men's Soccer team, I should at least explain what an "Eph" is.

An Eph, claims the Willaims web site, is "pronounced 'Eefs', and is short for Ephraim Williams, whose will and determination led to the founding of the college." Interesting. I wonder if they would be the Timmys or the Jeffs if that had been their founder's name?

Hell, throw a Lord in front of the Jeff and they could be Amherst, runners-up in my worst ever NESCAC mascot contest. For the record, Trinity comes in a distant third for trying to pass their male rooster off as a "Bantam" instead of the correct term of cock.

The worst part is that Williams didn't just settle for calling themselves the Ephs and using an old man for a mascot. No, they had to cleverly take the name of a popular student publication in 1907 called The Purple Cow. Brilliantly, the name Eph became attached to the purple cow, and now the Purple Cow Eph strikes fear into the heart of Williams' opponents for all eternity.

Until last Saturday, that is, when the Bowdoin Men's Soccer Team decided to enter the pasture and leave with a stunning 3-2 overtime win. Apparently, Williams defender Dylan Smith decided he wanted to be a Polar Bear for a day and headed the ball into his own net, giving Bowdoin the upset win.

For Head Coach Brian Ainscough, the win a step towards the future. "It feels like every year Williams is the team you need to beat to be successful," said Ainscough. The coach's assessment of Williams is dead on - for years, the Ephs have been at or near the top of the NESCAC standings come playoff time.

After the latest NCAA coach's poll, however, Williams, now ranked 17th nationally, has been surpassed by two NESCAC teams. Tufts, ranked seventh and your very own Polar Bears, coming in at 14th, are both ahead of the Ephs.

Sophomore scoring sensation Bobby Desilets, who scored the second goal of the game to give Bowdoin a 2-0 advantage, called the win the most exciting of his career. "It was unbelievable," Desilets said of his goal. "I've never scored in a game this big."

Desilets' goal, which followed a tally by Drew Russo '06, put the Polar Bears in a commanding position going into halftime. Of course, the Ephs are not a herd to count out, as they proved in the second half with goals by Alex Blake and Khari Stephenson to tie the score.
One would imagine that the young Polar Bears would have trouble recovering from squandering a two-goal advantage and having to enter into an overtime period with the older, more experienced Ephs.

This was not the case, however, according to Desilets, "Even though they scored the goals to tie it up, we still had confidence in ourselves and felt we still had a lot of momentum."

The team's overall confidence grew leaps and bounds a mere six minutes later when Smith's mishap gave Bowdoin the win. The mistake may be a sign of things to come for the Ephs. "We feel that Williams has seen their better days pass for now, but we feel our best days are yet to come," said Ainscough.

While the rest of the NESCAC season will prove or disprove Ainscough's prophecy, Bowdoin cannot afford to rest on its laurels. "I would say that the upcoming weekend will be the biggest of our season," said Desilets. "We'll have to forget about Williams and focus on two tough games against Amherst and Middlebury."

Of course, after slaughtering Williams' cows in a manner that would make Ronald McDonald proud, the Polar Bears are ready for anything. Amherst and Middlebury beware. After all, Polar Bears are the only species of animals that naturally view humans as prey.

Speaking of prey, the grass that the feared Ephs of Williams subsist on is also where many of Williams's players undoubtedly sat, shocked, as the Polar Bears of Bowdoin jumped onto their bus to enjoy their victory on the five-hour-long trip home.

Surely not many outside of the Bowdoin soccer community expected such an upset to occur last weekend. And I'm sure virtually no one would have bet on both the Men and Women's Soccer teams to beat Williams. After all, two upsets of this proportion happening concurrently is extremely rare, if not unheard of.

Then again, so is a purple cow.