McGrath airs it out for Trinity

ERIC McGRATH

So far this season, teams have been defending Trinity College quarterback Eric McGrath all wrong, sending the arrows in the playbook his way and forgetting about the receivers to whom the Lynn Classical product is throwing.

"Defenses are mandating that you throw the ball because they're blitzing on every play," said Trinity head coach Jeff Devanney. "If they're going to do that and they're going to play one-on-one coverage on the outside, then we're going to throw the ball."

In the Hartford school's first three games, the 6-foot-2-inch, 210-pound junior rang up a 137.28 passer rating, boosted mostly by seven touchdown passes and 598 yards. That passing production had the Bantams 3-0 going into yesterday's game against a fellow unbeaten, Tufts.

McGrath threw for 284 yards and three touchdowns last week in a win over Hamilton. Although the Bantams run a no-huddle, spread offense, they're as likely to run as they are to pass, with 79 running plays and 78 passes for the season. But they're more likely to eat up yards through the air, thanks to McGrath's arm. They have 26 first downs passing and 12 by way of the run.

"Eric's a very talented player," Devanney said. "In our offensive system, we put a lot of pressure on the quarterback to make a lot of plays and we're able to do that because of his talent. But it goes beyond his physical talent. Eric's got the great mental makeup as a quarterback, too. Things don't fluster him. He's a great competitor. He loves to play in the games and he's kind of got that coolness and confidence about him that things don't bother him."

He also has options. The Bantams have eight receivers, rotate three running backs, and use a couple of tight ends. On any given play, McGrath has a dozen options and he's used almost all of them this season, completing passes to nine different receivers.

"In our system, we don't want to have one go-to receiver," Devanney said. "We want you to not know where the ball's going. We have that right now. We can line up with four or five receivers on the field and we can throw it to all five of them."

The offense, Devanney said, is designed to make the opponent defend the whole field. That way, "Eric makes his reads and he can throw the ball all over the place."

Going into yesterday's game against Tufts, the Bantams were averaging 33 points a game. And as much as teams have been chasing McGrath, they've only been able to sack him three times, and one of those, according to Devanney, was a called run play.

"It helps if teams are going to blitz us like they've been blitzing us," the coach said. "It helps because we're getting big plays in the passing games."

Opponents of twins Kara and Marni Powers have the disadvantage of seeing double while playing doubles.

The former Manchester-Essex tennis standouts are seniors at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., where they still compete as a duo, as well as in singles competition.

Kara has been a rock in the No. 1 spot for Hamilton, winning all three of her matches going into this weekend's set at Lehigh. Marni was just as solid with a 2-1 mark, her only loss a 2-6, 6-7 decision Sept. 29 against Katie Campbell of William Smith. So far this fall, the twins are 2-1 in doubles competition. At Manchester-Essex, the pair teamed up for a 99-0 mark in doubles competition and earned All-Scholastic honors.

Marblehead field hockey standout Taylor Callahan will attend Fairfield University in Connecticut next season. A Northeastern Conference All-Star last season, Callahan is currently one of the top scorers for the Magicians, who were 7-2-2 after beating Peabody, 3-1, on Monday. Callahan could make an immediate impact with the Stags, who were 2-11 through last week. . . . Barrie Lindsay, former standout for the Waring School in Beverly, is fifth on the team in scoring for the women's soccer team at Wheaton College in Norton, with 13 points - 3 goals and seven assists - through 14 games. She assisted on all three goals in Wheaton's 3-2 win over Wellesley last week. . . . Tara Petitto of Wakefield is playing a bigger role for the Bentley women's soccer squad this season, as the Falcons hover around .500. After starting just six games last year, Petitto has started 13 of 14 games this season and is second on the team in scoring with four goals and two assists, or 10 points.

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.