Statesmen Win in a Wet and Wild One, 10-9, Over RPI

The Hobart College Statesmen won one of the strangest games in the almost 30 years I've followed D3FB today, 10-9, over Liberty League rival RPI. 

You can read the HWS recap of the game here. 

The Statesmen (5-1. 1-1) didn't help themselves with turnovers (2) and penalties (8 for -67 yards), but they were good enough, especially on defense, to hold RPI (6-1, 2-1) to 145 total yards on 51 plays. The Hobart offense rushed for over 200 yards going into the 4th quarter, but then only managed 4 total yards on 14 plays in the final stanza.

If not for the 5 sacks, 2 INTs, 2 FRs and a PAT block by the Statesmen defense, Hobart probably would have lost the game. SO LB Bryan Aguilar was the hero intercepting RPI SR QB George Marinopoulos for the final time with under a minute to go. The embattled Engineers QB struggled all game, being held to only 2 passing yards in the 1st half and finishing with an 11-20 for 57 yard day. 

When five 5th year SRs are better than 20+ (Photo Credit: Jason White)

JR QB David Krewson was more accurate, going 7-8 passing, but he only netted 25 yards. This is probably the lowest passing yardage output by a Hobart starting QB since Scott Pinker '97 netted only 9 yards in a 2-0 win over Rochester back on 10/9/93 (yeah, I am that old and I remember that game and the weather that day was really, really bad - way worse than today's tbh). Hobart ran the ball 68 times due to the rain and today's game wasn't that different (56), but the second half....I'll elaborate more on that in a bit.

Ultimately it was the wildcat formation calls that gained the most yardage for the Statesmen, including SO RB Rayshawn Boswell's 49 yard TD run with 1:20 to go in the first quarter. Boswell finished the day with 18 carries for 149 yards on what's becoming an All-American season. SO RB Tim Denham, Jr. nearly eclipsed the 100-yard mark as well, adding 26 rushes for 94 yards.

The good news is at the end of the day, Hobart won and kept it's LL title and NCAA playoff hopes alive. The bad news is our offense is really, really one dimensional. While I doubt the coaching staff will be able to make significant changes based on current personnel, it's clear something's got to give if this team is going to take the next step. The offensive execution is still not there and it was never more apparent in the fourth quarter of today's game when passing the ball could (and should) have been an option but just wasn't.

Another week of practice awaits to help the team get better. SLU lost to Ithaca today, 17-0, in another rain drenched outing. The Saints won't be pushovers, but realistically, Hobart has two weeks to figure things out. 

The regular season hinges (as I predicted back in the preseason) on Week 9 at Union.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!