Lafayette (5-5, 4-1 Patriot League) Head Coach Frank Tavani had the perfect treatment to dismantle a struggling Georgetown (2-8, 0-5) team, 45-14, and keep his squad on track for a league title: a little bootleg pass mixed with a whole lot of Hurt. Hurt’s power running distracted a young Hoya defense enough to free senior receiver Joe Ort, who finished with a school-record 274 yards receiving on the day.
“Teams like that will kill you when you play like we did,” Georgetown Head Coach Kevin Kelly said afterward. “We can learn from our mistakes.”
The hurting started early for Kelly’s Hoyas, who watched the Leopards march down the field and score on an eight-yard jaunt by Hurt on their first possession. Georgetown junior quarterback att Bassuener settled his troops on the following drive, and junior running back Erik Carter settled the score, rumbling from three yards out to tie it at seven.
The Hoyas’ momentum was short-lived, however, as sophomore wide receiver and speedster Shaun Adair fielded the following kickoff at the 10-yard line, began to run, and didn’t stop until he had crossed the goal line 90 yards later. The big play seemed to extinguish the Hoyas’ offensive firepower, as they quickly turned the ball over on downs.
Not to be outdone by his teammate, Hurt turned on the jets for a 15-yard score. The play was set up by a bootleg pass from senior quarterback Brad Maurer to a streaking Ort, and the two-play sequence proved to be an ominous foreshadowing of things to come. Hurt’s 15-yard thunder proved especially costly for the Hoyas, who lost senior safety Brian Tandy for the day when he sprained his ankle trying to wrestle Hurt to the turf.
Determined to avenge the loss of its senior leadership, Georgetown called on freshman running back Charlie Houghton. The Hoyas’ sideline was electrified when Houghton took a short screen pass from Bassuener at the 20-yard line, sidestepped two leaping Leopards, criss-crossed the field, and dove into the end zone to cut the Lafayette lead to seven with 14 minutes left in the first half.
“[Houghton] reminds me of Luke McCardle (COL ’04), who pretty much single-handedly won football games,” senior tight end Matt Cooper said. “Charlie is the best playmaker we have had since I’ve been here,”
The Hoyas seemed intent on playing the role of spoiler for the 4,942 in attendance at a balmy Fisher Field, but the Leopards’ offense proved too strong. Hurt scored his third touchdown of the day with a little over nine minutes left in the second quarter, and a 36-yard field goal by senior place kicker Rick Ziska on the subsequent Lafayette drive made the score 31-14 at the half.
Both teams emerged from the locker room sluggish, swapping punts over two series. It seemed as if Georgetown defenders Chris Paulus and Mike Greene were finally finding a way to contain Greene, but when Maurer faked the handoff and lofted a spiral to Ort on a crucial third and four, every Hoya fell for the charade, and Ort was off to the races. Senior safety Derek Franks managed to drag Ort down after a 28-yard gain, but he couldn’t keep the Leopards out of the end zone forever, as sophomore tailback Maurice White dashed 24 yards to expand the Lafayette lead to 38-14.
“I was hurting out there,” said Franks, who played valiantly despite a dislocated finger and a severely bruised shoulder. “I was sacrificing for my team.”
It seemed as though Franks and his mates could do nothing to stop the onslaught of the bigger, more physical Leopards. The Lafayette linebacking core continually hurt the Hoyas, with sophomore Chris Bacon lighting up Georgetown sophomore Kenny itchell on a kick return and sophomore Andy Romans slobber knocking freshman running back Erik Carter on a screen pass. The pounding eventually took its toll on the offense, when a Bassuener wobbler was picked off by senior defensive lineman Daniel Liseno after a vicious hit from a blitzing Romans.
The Hurt and Ort Show continued without commercial interruption following the turnover. The 6-foot-5 senior hauled in a 66-yard pass from Maurer that brought the Leopards within striking distance once again. Hurt did the rest, carrying the ball on four consecutive plays, the last a five-yard romp that ended his day and any hopes the Hoyas had for victory.
The loss cements Georgetown’s last-place position in the Patriot League and ensures that the 142nd meeting between Lafayette and Lehigh next week in Easton will be for the conference crown. While the Leopards look ahead for what could be their third consecutive league championship, only lonely Fordham (2-8, 0-5) stands between the Hoyas and the end of what has been a disappointing first year on the Hilltop for Kelly.
“Fordham lost today too,” Kelly said. “I am calling this the Pride Bowl, because that’s what’s on the line here – our pride.”
