Saturday, October 29, 2016

Sweeney to Pfohl Saves Season, Hobart Outlasts WPI, 35-31

The Hobart College Statesmen continued their "Cardiac Kids" act by having to comeback twice with under two minutes left in the game against a gritty WPI Engineers squad. JR QB Shane Sweeney broke the Hobart season record for pass completions on a four yard pass to SR RB Brad Burns halfway through the fourth quarter in what was a defensive battle turned shoot out in the final game of this series.

SR WR Jack Pfohl would have a career day, catching 12 passes for 197 yards and two TDs. The second would be for 18 yards and ultimately was the game winner for Hobart (7-1, 4-1) with only 3 seconds remaining. The 12 receptions tied a Hobart record set by Dan Suozzi '05 back in 2003. I interviewed Pfohl for Sunday night's ITH podcast which you can listen to here. Speaking of podcasts, the D3football.com ATN show gives a shout out to Sweeney and the Statesmen around the 29 minute mark. You can tune into that show here.

With the win over WPI the Statesmen continue their collision course with undefeated and #16 Saint Lawrence (8-0, 5-0) for the Liberty League Championship next Saturday in Canton, NY. The Saints struggled somewhat but finally put away Union College (2-6, 1-4) by a score of 26-14. Both my ITH co-host Frank Rossi and Pat Coleman (managing editor / founder of D3football.com) plan to attend and cover the Hobart-Saint Lawrence game at both a regional and national level.

WPI (5-3, 2-3) out-gained Hobart by 520 to 426 yards but the Statesmen got the plays they needed late to win the game.

The Engineers broke an early stalemate after a 10 yard FY RB Sean McAllen run capped an 89 yard to give WPI a 7-0 lead with 1:15 remaining in the first quarter. Both teams committed turnovers early in the game but neither came up with points afterwards. The Statesmen would eventually bounce back and take a 14-7 lead into halftime after JR WR Brandon Shed scored on a six yard TD pass and SR OLB Marcus Jemison scooped and scored on a blocked punt in the second quarter.

In the third quarter Hobart saw their lead disappear after a FG and 55 yard TD strike gave WPI a 17-14 advantage. A very timely SR OLB Michael Harper interception would set up Pfohl's first TD catch of the game, a 25 yarder, to give the Statesmen a 21-17 lead with 14:53 remaining.

That's when things got "interesting" and WPI and Hobart would score two TDs each en route to an exciting finish. WPI SR WR Brandon Eccher hauled in two TD catches to help the Engineers while Shed and Pfohl scored their second TDs of the game.

Sweeney finished the game 26 for 36 with 346 passing yards and four TDs. Defensively Hobart FY & JR LBs Jedh Downey and Almamy Conde had eight tackles each. JR CB Tommy D'Antonio continued his All-American season with six solo stops, a forced fumble and INT.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

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