It's been a season of firsts for the Statesmen. After facing Geneva and Utica College in Weeks 2 and 3 for the first time in program history, the Statesmen hosted the Springfield College Pride today in Liberty League (LL) action.
Defense and field position was the name of the game to start. Hobart would pin the Pride deep and get a short field after a James Poggio punt was received at the Statesmen 41 yard line. The Hobart offense would only need five plays to set up SR RB Bobby Dougherty's ninth rushing touchdown (TD) of the season.
The Statesmen would find themselves pinned deep, at their own eight yard line, in the second quarter. SR QB Nick Strang lead the offense down the field, driving 92 yards in 12 plays setting up a two yard pass to SR WR Junior Woodard for a TD. Earlier in the game Woodard made a catch that tied him for third all time in Hobart history with Nico Karagosian '97 with 26 consecutive games with a reception.
After the second successful FY PK James Hull extra point and another defensive stop, the Statesmen took a 14-0 lead into the half.
Things started to go awry for Hobart in the third quarter as OC Kevin DeWall got away from (running plays on first down) what made the Statesmen so successful in the first half against a suspect Pride rushing defense. Springfield's Brian Staub would intercept an under thrown Strang pass setting up the Pride at the Hobart 32 yard line.
Six plays later Springfield SR RB Joel Altavesta found the end zone from seven yards out. Ricky Peacock's PAT was good and the Statesmen were only up 14-7 with less than 2 minutes to go in the third quarter.
Fortunately the Hobart defense would clamp down on the vaunted Springfield triple option attack and the Statesmen offense got back to the running game in the fourth quarter. Dougherty would rattle off scoring runs of 35 and five yards to finish the game with three TDs and 150 yards.
The Statesmen out gained the Pride 360 to 159 yards (a 100+ of which was allowed in the second half). Strang was nearly perfect in the first half going eight for nine with 89 yards a TD pass, but seemed off in the second (five for 14 with an interception and only 41 yards - going off "unofficial" stats).
Fortunately the defense continued to show up and made big plays, the last (and nastiest) big play of the game by JR OLB Devin Worthington's sniffing out and absolutely destroying Poggio on a Springfield attempt at a trick play, which ended up as an eight yard loss. Worthington leads the nation in TFL (tackles for a loss) for a reason, and today he added two more.
Defensively the Statesmen were lead by SR LB Andrew Klindera with 10 tackles and half a TFL. Hobart held the third best rushing offense (based on YPG) to a paltry one of 12 on third down.
With the win Hobart improves to 6-0, 3-0 in the LL. Springfield falls to 3-3, 1-2 in the LL. The Statesmen have a bye next weekend and will travel to rival RPI on Saturday, October 20.
More on this game and other thoughts (for my 200th blog post) later next week.
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