Centennial Cup Recap

The Hobart Statesmen traveled to the University of Rochester on Saturday looking to retain the Centennial Cup.

The Statesmen wasted little time capping an 11 play, 67 yard drive with an Andrew Marlier touchdown from nine yards out with 7:54 to play in the first quarter. Hobart’s lead was short lived however as the Yellow Jackets responded behind the capable arm of back-up quarterback Kapps Killingstad. Filling in for the injured Braezen Subick, Killingstad directed the Rochester offense on an 8 play, 65 yard drive. Kapps would cap off the drive with a 7 yard touchdown pass to Adam Barrett to tie the game with 3:30 to play in the first.

The second quarter would be all Hobart as the Statesmen scored 17 unanswered points. Both touchdowns were collected by Hobart SR WR Tyler Vincent on passes from Vella covering 9 and 10 yards respectively. Conor Callahan would convert both PATs and added a chip shot 27 yard field goal as time expired in the 2nd to post the Statesmen to a 24-7 half-time lead.

The second half was more of the same for Hobart who 60 yards on 11 plays but had to settle on another short Callahan field goal. The sophomore place kicker was true on the 22 yard attempt pushing the Statesmen’s lead to 27-7 with 11:37 to play in the 3rd quarter.

Rochester didn’t give up; however, and JR RB Clarence Onyiriuka took a 4th and 1 carry from the Hobart 33 yard line to the house. Following a White-Stellato PAT, the Yellow Jackets trailed 27-14 with 9:33 to play in the quarter.

The Yellow Jackets had a chance to make it a one-possession game midway through the fourth quarter, but SR cornerback Chris Szymanski intercepted Killingstad in the end zone to quell the threat.

The Statesmen would turn the take-away into a nine-play, 80-yard scoring drive. As Hobart followers have come to expect, offensive coordinator Kevin DeWall would dip into his bag of tricks twice on the drive. The first time Vincent caught a lateral and threw a 47-yard pass to sophomore WR Garth Muratori. The second time Vincent took a toss on a reverse with the option to run or pass. He decided to throw a 6-yard strike to Vella for a touchdown with 3:18 remaining. Callahan's extra point gave Hobart a 34-14 lead.

Rochester would score one last time in the game, but it was too little too late as Hobart would eventually cover the onside kick and run out the clock to win the game 34-20.

Killingstad would finish the day 24 for 42 passing for 314 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Barrett was Killingstad’s favorite target collecting 10 passes (including two passing TDs) for 149 yards receiving. Onyiriuka had 17 carries for 92 yards and a touchdown. Linebackers Ed Dauphin and Brendan Pidgeon once again lead the Yellow Jacket defense with 9 and 7 total tackles, respectively.

Hobart’s Andrew Marlier led the Statesmen rushing attack with a game-high 98 yards. Vella finished the game 14-of-26 for 201 yards and two passing touchdowns; but the star of this game was SR Tyler Vincent. He caught nine passes for 112 yards and two receiving touchdowns and was 2-of-2 passing for 55 yards and one passing touchdown. Vincent ended his remarkable career as a Statesmen sixth on the all-time lists for receptions and receiving touchdowns and ninth on the receiving yards list, respectively.

Perhaps as a literal "passing of the torch", from Vincent to SO WR Garth Muratori, the SO WR would nearly match Vincent’s output with a 6 reception 119 yd game.

Defensively, Muratori's classmate and ILB Reggie Robinson produced a game-high 10 tackles.

With the win the Statesmen ended their 2009 campaign on a four-game winning streak. Hobart retained the Centennial Cup and improved its record to 6-3 overall and 5-2 in the LL. Rochester drops to 4-6, 4-3 in the LL.