The Georgetown football team exploded this weekend, as the Hoyas slammed the Iona Gaels 43-14 in its Saturday matchup.
Both teams struggled to find their game early, fumbling six times in the first half, four by the Gaels and seven times overall in the game.
The Hoyas hit their stride first, scoring on a 24-yard run from sophomore running back Jamarr Staples in the first quarter. Georgetown led 6-0 after an uncharacteristic failed extra point by law student Marc Samuel, but added 14 more points in the second quarter on rushing touchdowns from Staples and senior fullback Aaron Brown. Senior defensive back Mike Turnamian set up the Staples score with the first of his two interceptions on the day.
Iona tried to mount a comeback, scoring a touchdown early in the third quarter to make the score 20-7, and breaking an 18-quarter touchdown drought against Georgetown.
Georgetown quelled any rally by Iona, scoring on the next possession. After a kickoff return to midfield by Turnamian, the Hoyas capped the drive with a five-yard touchdown run by senior running back Anthony Tuozzo.
Georgetown added another seven points on a five-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Dave Paulus to Brown.
The Hoyas erased all doubt in the fourth quarter. Senior running back Alex Fonti got in on the scoring action with a ten-yard run with 11:28 left on the clock, and a botched Iona punt gave Georgetown two more points as the ball was kicked out of the endzone for a safety.
Iona scored late on an 81-yard touchdown pass against Georgetown’s second string defense.
Head Coach Bob Benson was pleased with his team’s performance.
“I think today we looked better than we have and I think that’s important,” Benson said. “As you head into November you want your team to look better. We had fewer penalties today, the defense played well, the running game went well, Dave Paulus played well, overall it went pretty well.”
The Hoyas established their running game early on in the game, something they have been unable to do for most of the season. Georgetown topped 200 yards rushing after only the first half. Staples led the way with 113 yards and two touchdowns, while Brown contributed 75 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. Tuozzo and Fonti contributed 72 and 51 yards, respectively. Both Staples and Benson praised the performance of the offensive line.
“They dominated,” Benson said. “It was a good game plan and they dealt with a lot of different blitzes.”
“The true credit goes to the guys up front,” Staples said. “You could see that by the fact that every running back that went in there did fairly well.”
After some early miscues the Hoyas held onto the ball, an aspect of the game that has plagued Georgetown this season. By maintaining possession the Hoyas were able to dictate the pace of the game and execute their game plan.
“A lot of people fail to realize that we’re a really good team. We’ve had a lot of turnovers on the year and that’s what has determined our success,” Staples said.
With the running game in high gear the Hoyas backed off of their passing game. Paulus only threw 11 times, but still managed to connect for 140 yards. Of those, 104 yards came via senior wide receiver Gharun Hester who broke the Georgetown’s all-time receiving yards record. Chris Murphy (COL ’92) previously held the record of 2,817 yards. Hester now has 2,917 career receiving yards with two games left to play in a Hoya football uniform.
The win improves Georgetown’s record to 4-5. Benson maintains that the Hoyas’ goal remains a .500 season. This will be no easy task as Georgetown meets up with an undefeated Davidson squad in the season finale.
“Let me make this very clear,” Benson said. “It’s a huge deal [to have a winning season]. This is a winning program and we haven’t had a losing season since 1993, which was our first year in division I-AA. So, I cannot emphasize enough how important this is.”
Staples shares Benson’s sentiment. “We established a winning tradition here and we want to keep it. We don’t want to be known as the class that lets it up,” he said.
Georgetown will take on St. Peter’s in the last home game of the 2000 season this saturday. Kick off is at 1 p.m.
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