Hobart Overcomes Slow Start, Shuts Down RPI 35-13

This past Saturday something unusual happened. Hobart actually trailed in a game for the first time all season. The plucky RPI Engineers (3-4, 0-4) surprised the Statesmen when they first caused a SR RB Steven Webb fumble. RPI QB Jesse Maynard then stunned the secondary with a 48 yard pass to get the ball to the Hobart three yard line. Although it took them four downs to go the remaining three yards, the Engineers scored and were up 6-0.

The Statesmen tied the game when JR QB Patrick Conlan connected with JR TE Mike Berkowitz for a 7 yard TD pass with 1:27 to go in the first quarter. The Statesmen took the lead after FY PK Sean Kirsche PAT was good. From there it was more fits and starts for Hobart, who to be fair were missing some key players such as SR OL Alex Bush and JR FB Dominique Ellis. Conlan, who hadn't been sacked since Week 1, was hit four times by the Engineer defense.

The Statesmen rallied however and after runs of 13 and 43 yards by Webb late in the 2nd quarter, Hobart added a 10 yard Conlan to JR WR Elvin Souffrant score to take a 14-6 lead into the half. I imagine Head Coach Mike Cragg's halftime speech was anything other than a wake up call, and the Statesmen sure did.

Hobart would shutdown RPI's offense and rattle off 21 unanswered points to post a 35-6 lead before calling the dogs off. WEOS PBP man Ted Baker provided me with these stats about the Statesmen defense:

Yesterday [Hobart] had a season high seven defensive stops of three and out, or better. Five were three and outs, one was a single play drive ended by a forced fumble and recovery and one two play drive was ended by an INT.

Of the 11 TDs allowed by Hobart this year, seven have come against the backups in the fourth quarter with the Statesmen leading by 21 or more points:

at Dickinson - leading 30-0, TD w/ 2:18 left
Utica - leading 34-13, TD w/ 3:51 left
@USMMA - leading 24-0, TD w/ 3:33 left
WPI - leading 41-0, TD with 11:51 to play
@ Springfield - leading 42-7, TDs with 12:03 and 6:01 left
RPI - leading 35-6, TD w/ 8:36 left

Oh yeah, this one was interesting too - Hobart hasn't lost a FB game in the last 707 days. And while Webb, keeps racking up the yards and TDs (scored his 49th career TD Saturday), other Hobart rushers have carried 161 times for 753 yards (4.7 YPC) and scored eight TDs.

While I know some Hobart fans were probably frustrated by the slow start yesterday, the above shows this is still an elite team. The Statesmen dropped a spot in the D3football.com poll, from six to seven, but that was mostly due to then #7 UW-Whitewater beating #9 UW-Oshkosh. In fact, Hobart (6-0, 4-0) had one more point, for a total of 473, than in Week 7. With Saint Lawrence's 21-20 loss to Springfield, the Statesmen are the only undefeated Liberty League team. While there are some potential tie breakers that could happen, Hobart remains in control of their own destiny, which is really all you can ask for, especially with the playoffs starting in only a few more weeks.

Thanks for reading and more on the upcoming game vs. Union College later this week. Go 'Bart!