The Georgetown football team (1-7, 0-3 Patriot League) lost to Holy Cross (3-6, 2-2 Patriot League) at the Crusaders’ home field, 24-10, on Saturday afternoon. This is the seventh straight loss for the Hoyas after their win against Campbell (5-4, 4-2 Pioneer) to start the season.
The Blue & Gray started off the game strong with a 24-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Brad Hurst with 3:02 left to play in the first quarter. However, the offense struggled to generate any momentum for the rest of the half, failing to score in the second quarter. With only 181 total yards, all coming from passing, the Hoyas’ offense continues to be an issue this season. However, Coach Sgarlata remains optimistic despite the offensive woes.
“We believe in what we’ve been doing,” Sgarlata said. “It comes down to execution.”
The Crusaders fired back with a touchdown on a one yard run courtesy of senior running back Gabe Guild. They furthered their mount on offense with field goals of 29 and 31 yards by freshman kicker Jackson McLarty.
The Hoyas sparked a comeback bid in the third quarter, with a 14-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Gunther Johnson to senior wide receiver Tommy Jesson. Despite cutting the Crusader lead to just three points, the Georgetown defense was unable to stop a one yard scoring run by senior quarterback Peter Pujals and another field goal by McLarty in the fourth quarter that helped ice the game.
Even though decreasing the time of possession differential was a goal for the Hoyas coming into the game, implementing their strategy to receive such a result did not go smoothly. Holy Cross was in possession of the ball for 35 minutes, significantly more time than Georgetown’s 25 minutes with the ball.
“When you a play a team like Holy Cross especially with Peter Pujals, you don’t want to give them the ball for 40 minutes in a game,” Sgarlata said.
Georgetown’s defense was uneven throughout the game. There were various aspects in which it performed well such as pressuring Pujals, who finished with 25 completions on 38 attempts and no touchdown passes. The red zone defense showed promise, forcing the Crusaders to three field goal attempts under 31 yards. However, there was a lack of focus, as the Hoyas gave up two touchdowns off one-yard runs. Zeroing in on the defensive end and “paying attention to the little things,” in the words of Sgarlata, will be important for the Hoyas if they want to bounce back from this loss.
The Hoyas will play Lafayette (2-6, 2-1 Patriot League) on Saturday for Homecoming. Kickoff is schedule for 2:00 pm.
