In a season marked by disappointing losses, the Georgetown football team suffered its most demoralizing defeat last Saturday afternoon at the hands of Marist.
GU out-gained its opponent for only the second time all season, racking up 485 yards of total offense behind impressive performances from senior quarterback Matt Bassuener and sophomore running back Charlie Houghton. Houghton, the 2006 Patriot League Rookie of the Year, rushed for a career-high 165 yards and three touchdowns, adding eight receptions for 76 yards.
Winning the statistics battle, however, doesn’t guarantee a check in the win column, a cliché the Hoyas (1-9) lived out last weekend in Poughkeepsie. Failure to convert on critical fourth downs and two missed field goals, the second with just 40 seconds remaining in regulation, proved to be the Blue and Gray’s downfall. Senior Eric Bjonerud’s 38-yarder would have given the Hoyas the lead and likely the win, but the kick sailed wide—a fitting lowlight to a game that seemed to be a microcosm of the disastrous season.
“I mean, all together the season’s been obviously pretty disappointing,” senior fullback and captain Kyle Van Fleet said. “Most of the disappointment has been that we’ve seen light during the games and we’ve seen we can be a pretty good team.”
Up next for Coach Kevin Kelly’s Hoyas is perennial Patriot League power Colgate. The 6-3 Raiders come into this Saturday’s match up with three straight wins, the last a 21-7 handling of Lehigh. For Georgetown’s seniors, the game will be their last. Van Fleet has been playing football since the age of six and has come a long way since the days of grasping for flags and halftime snacks.
“I’m sure two weeks after the season it’s going to be a totally different feeling,” he said. “It’s going to be pretty emotional.”
Senior linebacker and captain Stephen Smith echoed these sentiments.
“It hasn’t really clicked in yet, you know?” he said. “It’s definitely gonna be tough. I’ve been doing this since I was seven years old.”
Kickoff for Saturday’s Senior Day game is slated for 12:30 p.m., just thirty minutes after the basketball team tips off their season opener against William & Mary at the Verizon Center.
When asked about the curious timing of Saturday’s basketball game, a virtual guarentee of low turn-out, senior quarterback and captain Matt Bassuener smiled,
“It’s the way things go sometimes,” he said.
And a win over Colgate? According to Coach Kelly, “The motivation is the seniors.”
For the seniors themselves, a win would provide a happy ending to a disappointing season and, more significantly, a memorable close to a lifetime of football.
“You only get to do this so many times, and we’re reaching the end of ours,” Bassuener said. “This is the last time we get to play as Hoyas.”
