Football falls to Hopkins, take on Blue Jays in Centennial Conference
Senior captain Kody Smith rushed for two touchdowns in a 49-35 loss to No. 10 John Hopkins University last Friday, Oct. 19.
By Sara Laughna, Staff Writer
Despite keeping the game close for the first three quarters, the Gettysburg College football team was unable to close out the game in a 49-35 loss to Centennial Conference power house Johns Hopkins. Hopkins, ranked 10th nationally, continued its reign atop the conference standings with its win last weekend. Gettysburg dropped to third place in the conference with a 4-2 league record.
Senior captain Kody Smith scored the first touchdown of the night with a 2-yard run into the end zone with 8:16 left in the first quarter. Hopkins responded just over six minutes later with a 1-yard rushing touchdownscored by Junior running back J.D. Abbott. Abbott had 107 yards rushing and two touchdowns in the game.
Hopkins pulled ahead of the Bullets at the start of the second quarter with a 5-yard rushing touchdown by Robbie Matey. Hopkins started the drive on the Gettysburg 39-yard line.
Gettysburg was able to tie it up on the next drive after starting on their own 25-yard line.
Smith completed a 37-yard pass to Matt Brophy to drive the ball up to the Johns Hopkins 39-yard line. The Bullets were able to get the ball to the 9-yard line after rush attempts by Smith and Senior Ted Delia. Smith made the final nine-yard rush into the end zone to tie up the game with 11:14 left in the second quarter.
The Bullets and Blue Jays continued in these back and forth scoring drives through the end of the third quarter.
The Bullets regained the lead with 14:37 left in the game to go ahead 35-28 after a 1-yard run into the end zone by Delia.
However, just as quickly as the Bullets were able to regain the lead, Hopkins was able to come back and tie the game again with a 63-yard rushing touchdown by Senior running back Jonathan Rigaud.
Gettysburg was unable to reach the end zone again during the game as Johns Hopkins went on to score two more touchdowns to close out the night.
Senior Larry DelViscio led the Bullet defense with 17 tackles. First-year Kodie McNamara added 16 stops and Junior Cody DiAmore recorded ten hits.
Gettysburg currently sits in the third place spot in the conference standings but the team is not out of the race yet. As Senior captain Chris Nolan stated, “Any team can beat anyone on any given day, so you never know what could happen.”
Gettysburg will return to Shirk Field this Saturday, Oct. 27, for a 1 p.m. matchup against Moravian.
