The Saint Lawrence University Saints looked to keep their turnaround 2013 season going with a victory over the seventh ranked Hobart College Statesmen Saturday at Boswell Field in Geneva, New York.
The Statesmen defense made an early statement when SR OLB Devin Worthington stripped SR QB Zane Fish and SR OLB Taylor Delperuto recovered at the Saint 9 yard line just over a minute into the contest.
Although given a short field, the Hobart drive stalled and FY PK Sean Kirsche was called in to kick a 24 yard field goal, which was good. The kick gave the Statesmen a 3-0 lead with 12:40 to go in the first quarter.
Another Saint Lawrence fumble, this one forced by FY DB Gabriel Smith and recovered by classmate FY DB Matt Cragg, gave Hobart a short field again. Five plays later, SR RB Steven Webb scored from 17 yards out and rewrote the Statesmen record books (more on that in a minute).
The Kirsche point after pushed Hobart's lead to 10-0 with 3:23 to go in the first. Although the Statesmen offense would continue to sputter, the Hobart special teams unit blocked a Saint Lawrence punt and SR CB Connor Garrett ran it back for a touchdown. JR QB Patrick Conlan would overcome an 0-8-1 start to connect on three passes, the final being a TD to JR WR Elvin Souffrant (who otherwise had a case of drops most of the game).
The Kirsche point after was good and Hobart had a commanding 24-0 lead with 7:16 to go in the first half. Although Fish would break the shutout on a pass to RB/TE Mitch Gallagher for 6 yards with 38 seconds remaining in the first half, the Statesmen would add two more TDs (another by Webb and a JR WR Troy Robinson score) in the second and win going away, 37-7.
Hobart was led by Conlan with 140 passing yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Webb would add 90 yards on 18 carries and score two touchdowns, the first being his 48th career rushing and 52nd career total touchdowns to go with raising his career point total to 312, all three marks being Hobart records (previously held by HOFer Rich Kowalski '76).
Saint Lawrence, which was held to only 29 rush yards, was led by Fish with 96 passing yards. Defensively the Saints were led by FY LB Alex Dietsch with eight tackles. Hobart was led by SO DE Mark Guarino-Hyde with a game high nine stops.
With the win Hobart improves to 8-0 overall and 6-0 in the Liberty League. Given a 31-21 loss by Rochester to WPI, the Statesmen claimed their third consecutive Liberty League title and the accompanying NCAA automatic qualifier. The loss dropped the Saints to 6-3 overall, 4-2 in the league.
The Statesmen will travel to Rochester next Saturday to play for the Centennial Cup (and more importantly a likely / potential number two seed in the NCAA brackets due out on November 17).
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