Amherst College sophomore quarterback Nick Morales kept his team in the game, but a crucial blocked kick led to the end of the 21-game win streak for the football team 27-26 on Saturday at Middlebury.

Morales made his first career start and finished with 275 yards passing and a touchdown to go with an interception.

“For his first start he did a phenomenal job against a really good defense,” said Amherst coach E.J. Mills.

Amherst senior wide receivers Devin Boehm and Nick Widen did everything they could to help Morales in his first start. Boehm caught 11 passes for 141 yards and a score, while Widen caught 11 passes for 111 yards. The duo caught 22 of Morales’ 28 completions.

Sophomore running back Jack Hickey had 53 yards rushing on 16 carries with two touchdowns for Amherst.

On defense, Amherst played well against the run as has been the case all season. It held Middlebury to minus-15 rushing yards.

Middlebury took advantage of an inexperienced secondary. Panthers quarterback Jared Lebowitz found success with 261 yards and three touchdowns.

“It’s all connected. (Saturday) we had a lot of breakdowns. The secondary maybe gets blamed, but we lost contain so they have all day to throw the ball,” Mills said. “Defensively it was a combination of things, not just the secondary.”

Penalties and special teams played a crucial role in the loss. Amherst committed 60 yards of penalties compared to the 30 yards Middlebury had. On special teams, the return game for Middlebury was very strong, as it had 153 return yards, while Amherst had 29 yards.

“It’s not smart football, so when you combine a lot of things together, that adds up. That’s ultimately how you end up on the right side of the column is not executing in penalties and special teams,” said Mills.

Another area where Amherst struggled was on third down, converting just 25 percent of the time. Middlebury found more success on third down converting 45 percent.

“This is the first adversity we’ve had in a long time, so now we gotta see how we handle it, but I’m confident in our guys,” said Mills.

Amherst returns home against Colby on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Pratt Field.

Note — Senior quarterback Alex Berluti has a knee injury and the team is unsure when he will be back.