Statesmen Settle on 9 Games

The recent news that Mount Ida College is closing per the Boston Globe gave some Statesmen fans hope that perhaps Hobart could schedule a 10th regular season game against a team needing to replace the open date due to the Mustangs' program ending.

Unfortunately, there were no takers to the Statesmen's calls and so 2018 will be the first time since the 2013 season that Hobart will play a nine game schedule. The 2014-17 seasons each had 10 games, but the contraction of the Liberty League (LL) in 2017 made it challenging to find a 10th opponent.

Earlier today the HWSAthletics.com instagram account posted the official nine-game schedule (and it's on the Football website now as well), which kicks off Hobart's 125th season on September 1st at 1 PM.

As previously predicted, the official 2018 regular season schedule is now confirmed as:

9/1/18 at Brockport 
9/8/18 vs. SUNY-Morrisville (home opener)
9/15/18 at Shenandoah (night game)
9/22/18 at Endicott
9/29/18 Bye week
10/6/18 vs. Union (LL opener)
10/13/18 vs. UofR (Centennial Cup game)
10/20/18 at RPI 
10/27/18 Bye week 
11/3/18 vs. Ithaca (Senior Day / Hall of Fame wkd)
11/10/18 at Saint Lawrence

The above has the Statesmen on the road three out of four weeks and no opponent for Homecoming weekend in the first half of the season. The second half starts with Liberty League play at home in October with back-to-back rivalry games. A tough, final stretch with the Ithaca game in Week 10 that hopefully has potential LL championship and NCAA playoff implications for both teams won't be easy.

The most positive element of this season's schedule is that it provides Hobart with an extra week of preparation before they have to play the two LL teams they lost to (Union and Ithaca) in 2017.

It was also brought to my attention that the Statesmen JV schedule will have three games. A link to that schedule can be found here. Interestingly enough, the JV team will have a game on the Sunday of Homecoming weekend, on 9/30 vs. Saint John Fisher.

I'll have more updates on the Class of 2022 as HC Kevin DeWall '00 has continued introducing these new players on Twitter throughout this week.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!