The Hobart College Statesmen will go on one of their longest road trips of the season when they head south to play the Keystone College Giants. The Giants are located in La Plume, PA, just a few miles northwest of Scranton in a very rural part of Lackawanna County.
Hobart (2-1) will basically have this game as a final tune up before the game of the season / year, Week 5 at home against #12 Ithaca (3-0), for homecoming. The Bombers were the last team to defeat Hobart at Boswell field, dating back to Week 11 of 2018.
Back to the Giants (0-3) - the Statesmen won last season's matchup, 58-14, behind over 500 yards of total offense. As we have seen first-hand, last year's results don't necessarily match this year's, so Hobart can't take this steadily improving new program too lightly.
Scouting the Giants
Looking at the stat sheet, one thing is pretty clear - Keystone is consistent. They have scored 21 points in Week 1 and 20 points in Weeks 2 and 3. They are led on offense by SR QB Tom Roach. He's averaged about 150 pass YPG and has thrown more INTs (5) than TDs (2). Roach has added two rushing TDs so far on the season.
The other rushing TDs came from SO RB Mujaheed Muhammad (2) and SR RB Kevin Lewis (1). JR WR Jorden Cook led the Giants with 4 receptions for 50 yards and 1 TD last year at Hobart. This season he's had team high 8 receptions for 121 yards.
On defense, JR DB Sean Pettway (pictured above) earned ECFC DPOTW honors, tying for the team lead in tackles (8 solo and 2.5 TFL). He had a 45-yard pick six to give the Giants a 20-7 lead before halftime. SR LB Carlos Perez leads the Keystone defense with 24 total tackles and 1.5 sacks.
On special teams, SR TE Zac Cost is the Keystone punter, averaging nearly 36 YPP. FGs and KOs are handled by SO PK Josue Hernandez. He averages nearly 50 YPKO and has missed his only FG attempt, which was between 30-39 yards. He's gone 7-9 on PAT attempts.
Keys to the (Keystone) Game:
1. Stick to the Statesmen Script: A game plan similar to the Fisher one would do well Saturday. The Giants defense allows nearly 265 rushing YPG. A steady dose of JR RB Tim Denham, Jr. with a high percentage passing game like the one SR QB David Krewson had in Week 3 will go a long way to securing a win. Defensively Hobart can play smart, aggressive football and likely pick up a few more turnovers like they did last weekend.
2. Rotation, rotation, rotation: It would be great to keep rotating in some of these newer, younger Statesmen players to develop their confidence with game experience. The newly retooled OL should get some useful reps also, but it's a good opportunity to try out other guys, should things go well for Hobart.
3. Enjoy the Road Trip: October starts the grind of conference play, in which every game will be a dogfight, starting with Ithaca next weekend. This is one of the longer trips the Statesmen will have this season (and it's the only one out of NYS), so it's a good opportunity for the team to bond and become a stronger group, especially when the adversity kicks in during the conference race.
Prediction:
I think Keystone will fare better than last season, but Hobart should be able to pull away in the second half. I'll take the Statesmen to win it, 42-21.
Will have more on last weekend's action in the next "CrunchTime" show on "In the (D3FB) Huddle tomorrow and cover off on Week 4 games this Friday on our Facebook and Twitter Live show.
Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!
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