Yale RB Spencer Alston came back to football from lacrosse
In another timeline, Spencer Alston might be a player trying to help carry his lacrosse team to Connecticut for the Final Four in the spring. The way things turned out here and now, Alston spent last weekend in Connecticut helping carry Yale’s football team to victory.
His three-touchdown day drew accolades and helped the Bulldogs top Columbia, staying in the heart of the Ivy League championship race heading into Saturday’s game at Brown (noon, ESPN+). He’s a Bulldog playing his first sport, the game he loves.
His first college commitment, though, was to Ohio State. He would’ve played lacrosse.
“I played on a very highly competitive team. We were getting a lot of recognition and attention,” said Alston, a junior, who grew up outside Washington. “A lot of the guys on my team committed. I was honestly one of the last guys to commit on my team.
“I just kept playing football because I enjoyed it. And then, you know, that kind of took off. And my heart has always been in football. I’ve been playing since I was 6.”
But as time went on, he realized he wanted to be a football player in college. And as a standout at South Lakes in Reston, Va., he had that chance. He heard from some big-name schools about a chance to be a preferred walk-on.
“The Ivies stuck out just because as you mature, you know sports will come to an end at some point,” Alston said. “I wanted the best of both worlds, academically, athletically, regardless of what I was playing.”
With Bulldogs senior Zane Dudek out the past two weeks with a leg injury, Alston has become Yale’s top running back. In often-heavy rain last weekend, he ran for the Bulldogs’ first (1 yard) and last (54 yards) touchdowns in a 37-30 win over Columbia. He finished with 116 rushing yards on 17 carries and also caught a 9-yard touchdown pass.
That made Alston the Ivy League’s offensive player of the week and earned him the Gold Helmet Award from the New England
Football Writers as New England’s outstanding performer of the week in Division I. (Western Connecticut’s Mack Driver took the honor for Division II/III players.)
“It’s just going in everyday, working, staying ready. Zane Dudek went down, so I knew I’d have to carry a lot of the load,” Alston said.
“Going to a rain game, coach (Tony Reno) told us obviously we’re gonna have to run the ball to win the game. And that’s what happened.”
Several listed starters didn’t play last week and a few others left during the game, but Yale’s two-deep list for Saturday is similar to last week’s, including every injured starter who sat out against Columbia.
The Bulldogs (4-3, 3-1) and Dartmouth are tied for
second in the Ivy League, a game behind Princeton, Yale’s opponent next weekend in New Jersey.
Junior receiver Allan Houston III of Greenwich — son of the former Knicks guard — and senior defensive tackle Anthony Mastroni of Monroe are among those on the twodeep chart for Brown (2-5, 1-3), whose past three games are a 56-42 loss to Princeton, a 49-45 win over Cornell and a 45-17 loss to Penn. Quarterback E.J. Perry leads the league with 2,290 passing yards.
“I don’t know what kind of game it will be, but we’ll be ready for whatever type of game it is,” Reno said, “and whatever that may bring on Saturday, we’ll be ready to go and attack it.”