On a Saturday afternoon spoiled by rain and crummy weather, the Holy Cross Crusaders rained on the Georgetown football program’s opening-day parade. On the day that a new coach, a new quarterback and a new era were supposed to begin on the Hilltop, the Hoyas dropped their season opener at home by a score of 26-13.
The immediate start to the Coach Kevin Kelly Era fulfilled some of the hopes of Georgetown football supporters. The defense forced a punt on Holy Cross’ first drive, and when the Hoyas and Ben Hostetler started on offense, the new quarterback completed his first three passes of the year for 35 yards. All was looking bright, especially on defense. Senior defensive end and captain Alex Buzbee led the pursuit of Crusader quarterback Dominique Randolf, forcing him into mistakes and taking sacks. Unfortunately for Kelly’s crew, the Blue and Gray could not take advantage and ended the scoreless first quarter going three downs and out in two-straight offensive series.
“It’s purely execution,” said coach Kelly. “We might have had first game jitters. We were dropping the ball and Holy Cross was catching the ball. We’re going to feel sick watching the tape because we let some opportunities slip away.”
In the second quarter, multiple things—like the Hoyas grip on the game and even the pigskin itself—became a little bit slippery. From the outset of the period, Holy Cross marched methodically downfield completing shorter passes after the run was being stuffed. The longer ones were being broken up by the likes of cornerbacks Brian Tandy and Kevin Cherepski. One of those passes would eventually mean the end of the game for starting Holy Cross quarterback Randolf because he was trucked by Nnamdi Obiako as he threw to the end zone. That was the bad news. The good news was that the Hoyas committed pass interference on the play, setting up a two-yard touchdown dive into pay dirt by junior running back Terrance Gass.
About three minutes later, after another three-and-out series on offense by Georgetown, Brian Tandy found out what rain can do to a football. With Holy Cross inside their own 20, new quarterback Brian McSharry telegraphed a quick hitch, which Tandy pounced on. In perfect position to make the interception and return it for a touchdown, Tandy dropped the ball.
From there on the Hoya offense continued having trouble holding on to the ball. Hostetler and Co. only possessed the ball for 12:44 in the first half. And with nine flags amounting to 80 yards in penalties along the way, the Hoyas weren’t helping to make it a brighter day for themselves.
“There’s little things there [that need improving], just technique things,” Kelly said. “When it’s second and long, first and 15, it’s tough to make up that ground.”
The stonewall defense that was living up to its name for most of the second half seemed to wear down as their offense couldn’t do much to keep them on the sidelines. The pressure that was there at the beginning of the game dissipated, giving McSharry all the time he needed to complete some quick passes. The drive ended with a touchdown pass to Matt Fanning with just three seconds left in the half to make the score 13-0.
“We were on the field quite a bit,” said senior safety Derrick Franks who made seven tackles. “I felt we executed pretty well as far as play-calling goes. (But) we should have tackled a little more.”
The Hoya defense was also feeling the repercussions of having to play with one of their best linemen, senior Julius Griauzde, out because of a neck injury.
Amidst all the third down conversions by the Purple Hoya Eaters (Holy Cross hasn’t lost to the G-men since 1999) in the second half, and amidst all the penalties, there was some light shining through the clouds during the second half as Hostetler started to show a little bit of what this team can do on offense.
With about 10 minutes left in the third quarter the Hoyas were sparked by catches from junior receiver Brent Craft and a fourth down conversion reeled in by junior receiver Jasper Ihezie. Hostetler capitalized and ran a bootleg in from two yards out for the first Georgetown touchdown of the year. Then, as the clock was expiring on the Hoyas’ opportunity to christen the new era with a W, Hostetler floated his first touchdown pass of the year to junior tight end Charlie Curtis in the back corner of the end zone.
“We got in a rhythm,” Hostetler said. “The more you’re out there the more you start flowing. Everyone started to get more comfortable and calm down a little bit. We started moving the ball and we started having some fun I guess.”
While the opportunity to make a splash in his team’s first game slipped away, Coach Kelly is not panicking.
“The most improvement comes from your first game to your second,” Kelly said. “We got a game under our belt now, we have some film to look at and we’re going to make improvements down the road.”
Georgetown will get to test these improvements this Saturday when they host Stony Brook with a 1:00 p.m. kickoff.
