The Georgetown Hoyas (2-0, 1-0 Patriot League) will be taking their quest for a Patriot League title on the road for the next five weeks. But in their last home game until mid-October, the Hoyas gave fans a thriller, coming back in the last minutes to defeat conference rival Lafayette 14-13.
After falling behind 3-0 to the Leopards in the first quarter, Georgetown came back with 26 seconds left in the first half to seize the lead on a 19-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Isaiah Kempf to junior receiver Max Waizenegger.
After a Lafayette field goal and touchdown, Georgetown was behind late in the second half 13-7, but Waizenegger pulled in another touchdown, allowing senior kicker Brett Weiss to hammer home the extra point for the lead with around six minutes remaining.
Aside from Waizenegger’s big night, the Hoya defense sent a statement to the rest of the league, holding the Leopards off the board after taking their fourth quarter lead. Senior defensive end Andrew Schaetzke secured victory for the Hoyas, forcing a fumble before recording a sack to clinch victory. Schaetzke ended up with 10 tackles on the evening, including three for a loss and 1.5 sacks.
For head coach Kevin Kelly, the Schaetzke superlatives keep coming. He expanded his statement last season that the defensive end was the best defensive player in the Patriot League.
“He’s by far the best player in the league—he can absolutely dominate a football game,” Kelly said.
On Saturday, Georgetown faces Yale in New Haven, Conn., in a perennial battle that breeds stiff competition. The match-up marks the start of a five-game road trip that concludes with the local rivalry game against Howard on October 15. Kelly said he isn’t worried about the lengthy trip away from Multi-Sport Field and has his team focused on redeeming themselves against the Bulldogs.
“This is how we look at the road—the field’s still 100 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide,” Kelly said. “We just take it one game at a time and don’t look at it as four or five road games in a row.”
Last season, the Hoyas lost to Yale 40-35 in New Haven after a last-minute Bulldog drive to prevent a 3-0 start to the Hoyas’ 2010 campaign. Junior cornerback and New Haven native Jeremy Moore was a major catalyst for the Hoyas in his hometown, returning a kickoff for a touchdown in that game.
Moore’s return game has supplemented his lockdown secondary play, making an impact on both sides of the ball. He hopes to excel yet again in front of friends and family this weekend.
“I grew up watching games in the Yale Bowl since I was eight,” the junior said. “I passed by the Bowl every day on my way to school. I used to think to myself, ‘these players are big,’ and now I’m on the same field playing against them. It’s a surreal experience.”
As for stopping Yale, Kelly thinks the team has learned a great deal from last season and are preparing themselves for the stiff test ahead. The Lafayette win demonstrates a notable improvement from a season ago—the defense cut the Leopards’ total yards from last season in half.
“We made a lot of mental errors in the game last year,” Moore said. “We are older now and more in tune with our scheme.”
Strategy aside, the Hoyas are simply eager to redeem themselves against Yale, determined to extend their winning streak instead of reverting to last season’s disappointments.
“We are hungry,” Moore said. “These seniors have been through too much in the past couple of years for us not to capitalize on the talent that we having flying around on Saturdays.”
