A season filled with disappointment and frustration will come to an end this Saturday for the Georgetown football team when it travels to face Holy Cross (3-8, 1-4 Patriot League) in the Patriot League’s last week of regular season play. For the Hoyas (1-9, 0-5 Patriot League) the matchup is the last – and probably best – chance for the team to snap its eight-game losing streak, which began in September. But for a team that has struggled to take advantage of opportunities and stay competitive all season, positive results are far from guaranteed.
The last time Georgetown visited Holy Cross, in November 2011, the team was fighting to retain control of its destiny in the Patriot League championship race, ultimately grinding to a 19-6 win in the midst of a blinding snowstorm that deposited a foot and a half of snow. The win set up a championship matchup with Lehigh that the Hoyas would lose. Now, the teams meet on a combined 12-game losing streak, and Georgetown is fighting for its first conference win. But Saturday’s weather report for Worcester, with temperatures in the 30s and 40s and likely precipitation, threatens to draw at least some comparison between the two games. Coming off of a relatively successful performance against Bucknell, where the unit only allowed 17 points, all in the second quarter, Georgetown’s defense could be bolstered by precipitation and the resulting dependence on the rush for a Holy Cross offense disposed toward the pass.
“They spread you out, use more personnel groups, that kind of thing, to help with the pass rush,” Head Coach Kevin Kelly said. “I’m hoping that we can hold – that’s our job, to keep them out of the end zone, so that’s what I hope happens. And we might get … some snow and rain, so that might be a factor.”
Despite the season’s solidified character, this game holds significance for a football team that wants to avoid giving an extra nine months of life to its losing streak, and a group of seniors who compose a third of the roster and wants to end their football careers on a positive note.
“Number one, you want the seniors to go out with a win,” Kelly said. “[You want to] feel good about the last win of the season and it helps you in the offseason.”
The seniors’ final practices at MultiSport Facility were not passed without some recognition of what the end of the season will mean for a good deal of the team.
“They’re starting to really feel that this is actually the end of their football career. A lot of them have been playing a long time,” Kelly said. “Four years of college goes by very quickly. I’m sure they’re looking back to the good old days.”
If the Hoyas are able to move forward and build on their success from the last game, Holy Cross represents a prime target for a victory. Kelly felt that last week’s defensive performance was highly successful, and is satisfied with the way the team has been practicing.
“On defense, we played our best game, our best effort game. Offensively, we still sputtered, but the guys are practicing hard,” he said. “A coach was watching us last week and he said you wouldn’t know we were a 1-8 team the way we were practicing, so that’s a credit to our kids.”
But Georgetown has not displayed an ability to capitalize on previous success, and has put on widely varying performances throughout the season. Issues have plagued the team on both sides of the ball, and the Hoyas have not been able to consistently remove them from both sides for the duration of the game. Last week the team avoided some of the penalty problems that had been troubling it and was stout on defense. At the same time, Georgetown could only muster 22 yards of rushing on offense, an area that could define Saturday’s game if inclement weather does arrive. However, the offense has displayed ability on the ground at other points in the season. The presence of this run game and the defense’s ability to make stops will be critical factors in Georgetown’s performance against a team that has struggled to succeed against the same competition.
Kickoff is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at Fitton Field in Worcester, Mass.