FOOTBALL Georgetown Falters Against Towson in Final Matchup By ike Hume Hoya Staff Writer
Hoya File Photo Senior quarterback Sean Peterson played his last game as a Hoya on Saturday.
In its final game of the year, the Georgetown football team came closer than it had all season to a conference victory, but Towson returned two Hoya turnovers for touchdowns, and the Tigers prevailed with a 27-9 victory. The loss leaves Georgetown in last place and without a conference win in its inaugural season as a member of the Patriot League.
Georgetown out-gained Towson offensively with 384 yards, but Tiger senior defensive back Darnell Evans returned a first-quarter interception 51 yards for a touchdown and then tacked on a 70-yard fumble return in the third quarter to seal the win.
“I thought we played hard and with great effort,” Georgetown Head Coach Bob Benson said. “We felt good coming in, but you can’t turn the ball over and win – bottom line.”
Georgetown looked as though it would take an early lead, forcing the Tigers to go three and out on their first possession and then marching to the Towson 18-yard line. The Tigers held the Hoyas at the 18-yard line and then blocked the field goal attempt by law student kicker Marc Samuel to preserve the tie.
Towson then drove 81 yards on 12 plays for a touchdown by sophomore running back Matt Romeo for the early lead. Evans’ interception return put the Tigers up 13-0 after a failed PAT and another touchdown by Romeo on the Tigers’ next possession put Georgetown down 20 before it ever got on the board.
Georgetown senior fullback Aaron Brown closed out his Georgetown career with the team’s only touchdown, steaming over and past tacklers for an 18-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.
Filling in for injured senior Noah Read, Towson’s primary running back, Romeo torched the Hoyas for 100 yards in the first half alone and finished with a total of 163 yards and two touchdowns. This marks the seventh straight game that Georgetown has allowed an opposing running back to accumulate more than 100 yards in a game.
And for the seventh straight game the Hoyas failed to break 100 net rushing yards, finishing with 58 as the Tigers posted six sacks for combined losses of 37 yards. Brown led the Hoyas with 52 net rushing yards.
Georgetown relied heavily on its passing game, throwing the ball 47 times during the game. Senior quarterback Sean Peterson finished the day 20 for 30 passing, gaining 240 yards. Junior Dave Paulus filled in on the final few possessions and was 10-17 for 86 yards.
The 20 completions by Peterson left him just two short of the Georgetown school record of 191 completions in a season. While J.J. ont (COL ’00) retains the record set in 1998, he set that mark in 11 games, whereas Peterson played only 10 this season. Though the two are near each other in the single-season completions mark, Mont totaled 708 more passing yards that season than Peterson in the 2001 campaign.
After seeing three minutes of playing time the night before in the men’s basketball game against Marymount, junior wide receiver Trenton Hillier was the primary target for the Hoyas’ passes. Hillier caught 12 passes for 118 yards. The total left him one reception shy of his record for most receptions in a game set last season against Duquesne.
It was the final game for 17 senior Hoyas. This year’s class has seen the program through from its step up from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to the Patriot League.
“It’s come a long way,” said Georgetown fullback Brown said. “We had some great teams before us that got us to where we are.”
“This has been a great year despite the record,” Peterson said of the Hoyas’ mark of 3-7, their worst since 1989 when they went 2-8.
Despite the record, Benson feels that the season was not a disappointing one. “I’m not so sure it’s disappointing as it is frustrating. Disappointing was the game [a 38-35 overtime loss] against Marist. Frustrating were games like today,” Benson said.
2001 Football Team Page Schedule Roster
