Football suffers a minus to Ursinus

By: Katie Moody

Posted: 10/18/07

Despite an exciting end to the game against Dickinson, the Hopkins football team (2-5) struggled against Ursinus (5-1) last Saturday, Oct. 13 when they fell to the Bears 17-10. Ursinus celebrated its third straight win over the Jays at Homewood Field when they came from behind in the fourth quarter.

Ursinus was behind 10-7 after the first three quarters but changed pace of the game when the Bears defense sacked sophomore quarterback Mike Murray on a fourth-and-two with only 34 yards to the end zone.

Junior offensive lineman Kevin Beishline thinks "part of it was because we got off to a lsow offense."

Due to the the change of momentum, it took only nine plays for Ursinus to tie the game up.

Junior Ursinus quarterback Nicholas Dye replaced starting quarterback Matt McHugh, and marched his team down the field into scoring position. After two carries from sophomore running back Aaron Harper totaling 18 yards and hitting sophomore wide receiver Shea Wisler for another 22 yards in the air, the Bears were first-and-goal on the Jays eight-yard line. The Hopkins defense stepped it up a bit, and kept Ursinus out of the end zone, but Erich Wolf booted the pigskin 22 yards right down the middle of the pipes to tie it up 10-10 with 9:19 left on the game clock.

Hopkins took the field after the kick and Murray put in a great effort on the possession. He took the Jays from their own 40-yard line down into Ursinus's 28-yard line, but the ball was turned over on downs with 3:52 left in the game. Dye and company didn't waste any time; it took them only six plays to reach the end zone. He started with a 17-yard completion to Harper, ran for 14 himself, and then tossed another 22 to Harper. At third-and-six, from the Hopkins 11-yard line, Dye fired it to the end zone to sophomore wide receiver Jesse Ordonio, for what would be the game-winner with only 1:54 left in the game.

The Jays started at their own 35-yard line with just under 1:50 to play and Murray once again moved the team down to the Ursinus 30-yard line with less than 20 seconds left on the clock. However his attempt on third-and-four was intercepted by junior defensive back DeVohn Butler and the Bears took a knee to capture the win.

Despite the loss Hopkins put up some impressive numbers throughout the entire game. The Hopkins defense spent a lot of their time causing fumbles and keeping McHugh and company out of the end zone. In the first half, the score was 7-0 favoring Ursinus, and McHugh was heading for a touchdown to make the score 14-0, but the Hopkins defense caused a fumble out of bounds at the one-yard line, preventing him from scoring. This fumble came back to bite the Bears where it counted as Hopkins took possession of the second half and steam-rolled down the field for 63 yards in just nine plays.

Murray hit sophomore running back Andrew Kase on a screen pass that resulted in a 16-yard touchdown only three minutes into the third quarter to tie the game at 7-7. Ursinus then did their best to answer Hopkins's scoring by returning the ball to the 25-yard line off the kick-off, but Wolf missed a 20-yard field goal attempt that would have put the Bears ahead by three.

Hopkins made the game interesting after senior cornerback Dan Requena came up with an interception deep in Hopkins territory and returned the ball to the Hopkins 34-yard line. Looking at fourth-and-three from their own 41-yard line, senior safety Zach Rosswog plowed through the line for six yards on a fake punt and Murray followed by firing it to senior wide receiver Corey Sattler for 40 yards down the middle. This gave the Jays a first-and-10 at the Ursinus 13-yard line. The drive faded slightly, but freshman place kicker Alex Lachman kicked a 32-yard field goal to give Hopkins a 10-7 lead in the final seconds of the third quarter. That three-point lead would remain the same until Wolf's field goal tied it just under six minutes into the fourth quarter.

"Hopkins football has a history of winning close games. This year, we still have close games, but the wins have turned to the other side," Beishline said.

In addition to the smart defensive playing by Hopkins, Requena has been named the Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week for his effort in the game. Requena joins his teammate, A.J. Albert, in this honor, who won it last week.

Requena is now the second straight Hopkins player to earn the award. He had three tackles and two interceptions in the game against the Bears. He is also the first Hopkins player to have two interceptions in one game since October of last year. With the two tackles that Requena had against Ursinus, he ranks eighth on the team with a career-high 31 and has a team-high three interceptions, as well as three pass breakups this season.

On the offensive side of the ball, Murray was 20-of-38 for 181 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Sattler had the most yards and receptions from Murray with 84 and five, respectively. Kase was slightly off on the rushing the ball. He failed to rush for 100-yards, as he has for the past three game, but he put up more than respectable numbers with 39 yards in 14 rushes, as well as having three receptions for 31 yards and a touchdown.

The team is off this week and will next play at Juniata (0-6) on Saturday, Oct. 27 in hopes of improving their record to 3-5. The game will be the first between the two teams in 78 years.