Football downed by defending champs

After winning the Centennial Conference for the sixth straight year, the Hopkins football team hosted the first round of the NCAA South Region playoffs. The Blue Jays picked up right where they left off in the regular season, facing off against the Randolph-Macon College Yellow Jackets.

The Jays controlled both the offense and the defense from the start of the game. After stopping the Yellow Jackets on their first drive, the Blue Jay offense set the tone with a 46 yard pass from senior quarterback Jonathan Germano to sophomore wide receiver Luke McFadden, finishing the drive with a four yard touchdown run by Germano.

The second Randolph-Macon possession was even shorter-lived than the first, with sophomore defensive back Michael Curry intercepting the pass from the Yellow Jackets quarterback Burke Estes. This set up another Hopkins touchdown drive, capped off by a two yard touchdown run by freshman wide receiver Dane Rogerson.

With a defensive stop and touchdown drive, the Blue Jays seized all control as well as a 21 point lead. This lead proved to be plenty for Hopkins as they cruised to a 42-21 victory.

Senior defensive back and Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Year Jack Toner had eight tackles and an interception in the game. In order to get the win, Toner said the Jays “came out and executed the gameplan.”

With the decisive victory, Hopkins set many school records. Germano set the school playoff record with 418 passing yards, McFadden had a career day with 11 receptions for 222 yards, giving him the school playoff record for receiving yards.

In total, the Blue Jays had 500 yards on offense, the third most in a playoff game in school history. The win was coach Jim Margraff’s 200th career victory, putting him at sixth among active coaches.

After the convincing victory against Randolph-Macon, Hopkins faced what was arguably their first true competition of the season. The Jays met the defending national champions, the University of Mount Union Purple Raiders, in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Purple Raiders were the first to strike, scoring on their first drive, but that sparked a run by Hopkins. The Blue Jays went 65 yards on their first drive for a touchdown on a two-yard pass from Germano to junior wide receiver Brett Caggiano. The Blue Jay defense then executed their game plan to perfection, keeping the Purple Raiders from another score while Hopkins managed a touchdown on three of their four first half possessions.

At the end of the half, however, Mount Union put together a 12-play, 63-yard drive to close the gap to 21-14, which also gave them momentum going into the second half.

After the first half was all Hopkins, the second half was all Raiders. Hopkins got a first down on the first play of the second half, but after that the Raiders defense held the Hopkins offense silent. On Mount Union’s first drive of the second half, they marched down the field and scored a touchdown to tie the game at 21.

At that point the game became a defensive battle. The two teams combined for seven straight punts and neither team had a drive of more than six plays.

That pattern was finally broken when the weather began to work against the Jays, as they were forced to punt into the wind from their own 15-yard line. The punt was caught in the wind and ended up only travelling 15 yards before going out of bounds and giving Mount Union great field position.

The Raiders took advantage right away and scored on a 30-yard touchdown pass on the first play after the botched punt. Hopkins tried to battle back, making it into Mount Union territory twice, but they were not able to capitalize, and eventually were defeated 28-21.

The Blue Jays knew the Purple Raiders had a potent offense. “They were going to get yards and scores so [the defense] knew we had to keep coming,” senior safety Jack Toner said.

Hopkins did just that, but in the end it was not enough, and the Blue Jay season came to another bittersweet end, as they tied the school record with 11 wins, but still could not advance past the second round of the NCAA tournament.