Hobart wins big in Wounded Warrior uniforms, 33-10

The Hobart Statesmen (2-2, 1-1) earned their second victory of the 2009 season with a dominating 33-10 performance against the Saint Lawrence University Saints (2-3, 1-1). The win was also Head Coach Mike Cragg's 100th at the helm of the Statesmen Football program.

Hobart scored consecutive rushing touchdowns on their initial three possessions to take a 20-3 lead into half-time. JR RB Andrew Marlier (14 carries for 50 yards) scored the first Hobart rushing TD of the day to cap a 61 yard drive. On the ensuing SLU possession the Statesmen defense blocked a Chris Dris punt and recovered the ball on the Saint 3 yard line. Marlier found pay dirt again to make it 13-0 only nine minutes into the first quarter. Although SLU would get on the board thanks to an impressive 45 yard field goal by Dris, Hobart would score again on the next drive on a SO RB Kyle Tritton (seven rushes for 25 yards) 1 yard touchdown run.

SO QB Doug Vella (13 completions on 23 attempts for 201 passing yards) scored the Statesmen's final two touchdowns, the first on a 22 yard pass to SO WR Garth Muratori (three catches for 31 yards) at 7:27 to go in the third quarter. Vella scored Hobart's final rushing touchdown on a designed QB draw with 13:22 in the fourth quarter to push the Statesmen lead to 33-3.

Hobart's defense kept the pressure on the Saints all day (including six sacks) and held SLU to 74 rushing yards on the day. Saint JR QB JP Kearney struggled against the Statesmen pass rush going 13 for 29 for 119 yards. Kearney was eventually pulled in favor of SO QB Andy Spadoni who was much more effective (seven for eight for 82 yards and one touchdown and an interception), albeit against the Statesmen's reserves.

Pretty much everything worked well for Hobart this Saturday save for the kicking game. JR PK Connor Callahan struggled on the day missing two PATs and a 30 yard field goal with 8:40 to play in the second quarter. Coach Cragg would later opt to go for it on a few fourth downs deep in Saints terriory rather than try more FG attempts.

It will be interesting to see if Callahan remains the starting PK or if he will get demoted again like he did last season after missing three fields in the Union game (which Hobart ended up losing 38-35).

If that happens Paul Overdorf will likely be the PK for the Statesmen next week at Union.