GENEVA \u2014 A response is just what head coach Kevin DeWall needed out of his group after Ithaca College went up 7-0 in the first quarter of Saturday\u2019s college football game against rival Ithaca.<\/p>\n
Hobart was coming off its first win of the season and hit the road again on Saturday, but was down 7-0 after the Bombers\u2019 opening possession. The Statesmen offense couldn\u2019t get much rolling against the Bombers, but after Ithaca\u2019s score, Hobart\u2019s defense forced the Bombers into multiple three-and-outs and eventually the offense drove down the field to tie the score as the half wound down.<\/p>\n
However, after an injury to starting quarterback Aidan Conrath, the Statesmen offense couldn\u2019t replicate what it did in the second. A touchdown by Ithaca to start the second half was all the Bombers needed as they defeated the Statesmen, 13-7, in the renewal of the regional rivalry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love our fight, I love our resolve but we are not executing as well as we need to right now,\u201d DeWall said. \u201cThat first half, I think we almost doubled them up in time of possession. I thought our defense responded really well after that first drive. Offensively, I thought we did what we thought we were going to do: control possession. But we came out in the third quarter, had some changes due to injuries and I felt we were just a little flat, execution-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the drive before the Statesmen\u2019s touchdown, the offense was churning but faced fourth down and decided to go for it. A sneak by Conrath seemed enough and the Statesmen sideline celebrated. Once the officials spotted the ball, Ithaca\u2019s sideline began to celebrate and the Statesmen sideline erupted in protest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a really questionable call on a spot and that\u2019s a big seven-point swing,\u201d DeWall said.<\/p>\n
Ithaca got the ball back on the turnover on downs, but the Statesmen forced a three-and-out inside their own 10-yard line. With good field position at the Ithaca 41 with 2:56 remaining, the Statesmen put together a seven-play drive that ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass on a beautiful toss from Jeremy Weiss to Rochester native Johnny Harding with 28 seconds remaining in the half.<\/p>\n
After the frustrating turnover on downs, the Statesmen had responded with a defensive stand and a 41-yard drive to tie the game before half.<\/p>\n
It was a beautiful lofted pass from Weiss, but it meant that Conrath was on the sideline with the injury. For the second half, Conrath wore no pads and a massive ice sling over his right shoulder.<\/p>\n
As they did to start the first half, the Bombers (3-1, 2-0) scored on their first possession. A seven-play, 60-yard drive was capped by a 16-yard TD pass from Matthew Parker to wide receiver Nicholas Matos. The snap on the PAT went over the holder\u2019s head, leaving it a 13-7 game.<\/p>\n
Hobart\u2019s offense stayed with Wiess for the most part and mixed in Tru Styles on certain packages but was unable to string together big drives. Ithaca\u2019s running game kept churning and set the Bombers up for a 31-yard field goal attempt early in the fourth quarter, but the kick was missed wide left and the door remained open for the Statesmen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that this was a very winnable game,\u201d DeWall said. \u201cIt comes down to the execution piece, some of the decisions across the board. Obviously myself and the coaches have to own it, but our players have to own it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
With one last push into Bomber territory, the Statesmen faced a fourth and 4 at the Ithaca 16. They had been 4-for-4 on 4th down conversions up to that point. Weiss completed a short pass to sophomore wide receiver Luke Hansen, but he was tackled immediately a yard short of the first down. Ithaca was able to run out the clock from there and was not penalized for a late hit after the whistle on second down during victory formation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told the guys afterwards, \u2018I love the way we compete, we are just not executing,\u2019\u201d DeWall said. \u201cYou have to be able to execute to beat a good team on the road and ultimately that was our demise today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2014 A response is just what head coach Kevin DeWall needed out of his group after Ithaca…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":264630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[8019,13578,1428,13579,115235,1318,44842,15549,9338,1317,11145,1315,1316,61588,61587,61586,11143,50641,62,27063,50647,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-264629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-champion-seasons-in-american-football","10":"tag-college-football","11":"tag-college-football-conference-seasons","12":"tag-down-gridiron-football","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-gridiron-football","15":"tag-gridiron-football-variants","16":"tag-national-football-league","17":"tag-ncaa","18":"tag-ncaa-division-i-fbs-football-teams","19":"tag-ncaa-football","20":"tag-ncaafootball","21":"tag-nfl-seasons","22":"tag-nfl-teams","23":"tag-nfl-teams-seasons","24":"tag-seasons-in-american-football","25":"tag-seasons-in-american-sport","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-team-sports","28":"tag-touchdown","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}