Charles Nailen/The Hoya While the offense struggled, the Georgetown defense stepped up to lead the Hoyas to a 21-3 victory Saturday.
As the horn sounded at the end of the first half, the Hoyas, 0-2 for the season against two Patriot League teams, faced a 3-0 deficit against former Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference opponent Fairfield. Georgetown’s offense sputtered behind junior quarterback Morgan Booth and the running game amassed a mere 14 yards.
But in the second half, Georgetown, which had been outscored 48-0 in the second half this year, scored three unanswered touchdowns behind backup sophomore quarterback Drew Crawford and sophomore running back John Sims to pull out a 21-3 Homecoming victory, the Hoyas’ first win of the season.
“We needed this win,” Head Coach Bob Benson said. “Players, coaches, everybody.”
Crawford replaced Booth just before the end of the first half after Booth failed to ignite anything on offense, completing just seven of 14 passes and often overthrowing his receivers by several yards.
“When I came into the game I just wanted to keep it simple and play smart,” Crawford said of his debut at quarterback. “I just wanted to get the ball to number 24 [John Sims].”
While his statistics seem unimpressive (four of 10 passing for 79 yards and one interception), Crawford sparked the team with his play, including completing two 10-plus-yard passes to junior Luke cArdle, that set up the first of Sims’s two touchdown runs on the first Georgetown possession of the second half. Sims later broke several tackles en route to a 21-yard run late in the fourth quarter.
“We knew we had to execute better,” Sims said. “We knew we had to trust our system and establish the run.”
Sims rushed for a game-high 62 yards on 18 carries.
The 108 net rushing yards are the most for the Hoyas since last year’s game against Fordham. McArdle, who caught only one pass for six yards in the first half, ended the game with 38 yards receiving. Senior Melvin Jones led the Hoyas with 47 yards on two receptions, including a 31-yarder on 2nd and 25 from the Georgetown 14 yard line. Junior Walter Bowser added 42 yards receiving on five receptions.
Georgetown would never have had a chance to come back had its defense not turned in its best effort since 1999. The Hoya defense held the Stags to just 45 yards on the ground and just 205 total yards for the game and hit Fairfield nine times for a loss.
“We called a pretty aggressive game today,” junior linebacker William Skultety said.
“We just continue to improve. Today we put all three parts of the defense together – the backs, the line and the linebackers.”
Sophomore Maurice Banks picked off two Fairfield passes and returned one for a touchdown with 2:45 remaining to ice the game. Junior Andrew Clarke also intercepted a pass to set up the second Georgetown touchdown with 3:19 left in the fourth quarter.
The struggling Hoya offense was not helped by a string of injuries.
“We were very banged up in the offensive line,” Benson said. “I don’t even know who was out there.”
Georgetown’s injuries paled next to Fairfield’s loss of starting quarterback senior Mike Cerchio in the second quarter. While Cerchio and the Stags only managed 42 yards passing with him behind center, he proved quite elusive to the Hoyas’ pass rush and scrambled for 31 yards on seven tries before blitzing freshman cornerback Maurice Banks knocked the helmet from Cerchio’s head and Cerchio from the game with a jaw-shattering hit.
Paul Gorra took over at quarterback for the Stags and completed 10 passes for 118 yards on 22 attempts.
The Georgetown victory, before 1,749 spectators in the stands and more in the adjoining parking lot, is the first for the Hoyas on Harbin Field.
The Hoyas next face Florida International in Miami this Saturday.