Last week, the Georgetown football team (1-5, 0-1 Patriot League) fell 54-35 at Lehigh (2-5, 2-0 Patriot League) in Bethlehem, Pa. This Saturday, the Hoyas come home to Cooper Field to face off with Fordham (1-6, 0-2 Patriot League) in another conference matchup. The game is set for 2:00 pm.
Georgetown is coming off of a two-game road trip, and four games in a row away from Cooper, as their last home game against Harvard on Sept. 30 was played at RFK Stadium. Both teams are looking to snap five-game losing streaks. The Hoyas, however, are remaining positive despite recent struggles.
“We’re looking to be more consistent coming off of that [Lehigh] game and after you watch the game film and sit down, there are a lot of positives to build off of as we go into the Fordham game,” said Georgetown head coach Rob Sgarlata.
“We’re ready to stop losing. Throughout this five game skid, we’ve been getting better and better and the momentum should carry into this weekend for us to win,” said sophomore quarterback Gunther Johnson.
Georgetown scored at least 30 points in their last two games against Lehigh and Princeton and will look to continue their offensive production. Fordham has surrendered 41.3 points per game, potentially creating a perfect matchup for a hot Georgetown offense.
Johnson is confident that the offense will build upon this hot streak and find success this week.
“We were a lot more comfortable than we had been in the past,” he said. “The line blocked better than they had the entire year, and they made my job a lot easier… The simple missed assignments ended up being really costly, so I’ve got to focus on the simple things and do what I need to do.”
Fordham is averaging 19.6 points per game on the offensive, which stands in stark contrast to Lehigh’s average of 36. Despite this, the Rams do have some lethal offensive weapons. Senior running back Chase Edmonds has the third most rushing yards per game in the Patriot League with 65.8, and graduate quarterback Kevin Anderson has the third most passing yards per game with 245.3. Shutting down Edmonds, who holds the record for most Patriot League rushing yards in a game (359), will be an important part of the game plan if the Hoyas are able to win on Saturday.
“Every time that you play Fordham, [their offense] is explosive,” Sgarlata said. “It will be interesting to see if we can bottle [Edmonds] up and make them one dimensional, and put all the weight on the quarterback’s shoulders.”
“If the team can’t run on you, and we make their offense one-dimensional, it’s always easier to play defense,” senior defensive back Jelani Williamson said. “Fordham’s got a great running back and running game, so we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
The Hoyas are looking to improve their conference record and place in the Patriot League standings with a big away win on Saturday.
“If we go into the game hesitant, we will struggle. The mentality for this game is that we’ve got to leave it all on the field and do everything we can to win,” said Williamson.
