Students at Hopkins often look down their noses at most of our varsity teams simply because they are not supported by the glitz and glamour of a big-time college athletics program. You will never get to see 100,000 screaming fans cheering on Blue Jay Football in a BCS Bowl game on New Year's Day. Yet, Hopkins football gave fans and supporters a small-scale taste of big time college football at Homewood Field on Saturday, Nov. 22 as the Jays competed against Catholic University in the ECAC Southeast Bowl.
Amidst cold and windy wintry weather, both teams would stay close throughout the game. But in the battle of the birds (Cardinals vs. Jays), Hopkins would fall just short of victory, losing 18-17. Despite the loss, junior running back Andrew Kase would break the school's career rushing record.
Both teams earned a spot in the bowl game based on identical 8-2 regular season records. Despite Hopkins being just 40 miles away from Catholic, the two teams had not faced each other since Sept. 8, 1990 (coincidentally, this was current head coach Jim Margraff's first game at the helm.) But Hopkins was well aware of Catholic's high powered offense, which averaged 32.8 points per game during its 10 regular season contests.
"We actually played them in a scrimmage so we knew how good their quarterback and wide receivers were," sophomore Mike Todisco said. "We watched a lot of film and tried to imitate them in practice to prepare us."
The Jays were also dealing with the loss of starting quarterback Hewitt Tomlin, going with Tyler Porco. Porco had been injured early in the season, but felt that he was ready to come in and take control of the offense.
"It was a lot of fun being able to come out and start in the last game of the year after spending a good portion of the season being injured," Porco said. "It took a couple weeks of practice to really get back into the flow of the offense, but our coaches do a great job of making sure everyone is prepared to play whether they are starting or not."
The Jays got the ball to start the game and wasted no time in handing the ball off to junior captain and star running back Kase for a seven-yard carry, giving him 2,773 career yards, passing the previous record of 2,769.
"Its definitely a good feeling," Kase said. "It's definitely a testament to the offensive line and the whole team in general. I've been able to stay healthy, and we have a lot of players from my year who have been starting on the offensive line since freshman year. I give a lot of credit to them."
After failing to convert on fourth down, Ricca wasted no time in launching a long pass down the middle, which landed in the hands of Miles Sabrick, who took it into the end zone for a 70-yard score. Hopkins and Catholic would exchange possessions until midway till the second quarter. Catholic, pinned inside their own 20 after a career long 71-yard punt by sophomore Max Islinger, stormed the length of the field to the Jay six yard line. But a strong defensive stand forced the Cardinals to settle for a field goal, bringing the score to 10-0.
Hopkins would not score in the first half, and it was obvious that the offense was affected by the wintry weather. Adjustments were needed to get the offense going, and Margraff turned to his running back.
Weather like that obviously affects the way an offense plays, especially one like ours, where we try to spread the ball around in the passing game. But we have the luxury of having a running back like Kase to help carry us in bad weather games," Porco said.
On Catholic's first possession of the half, junior Ryan Rasner and Todisco sacked Ricca, knocking the ball loose. Junior James Medaglio recovered the ball on Catholic's 32-yard line. Kase rushed three times to advance the ball, and sophomore place-kicker Alex Lachman nailed a 43-yard field goal to put the Jays on the scoreboard. The Cardinals and Jays would trade possessions until late in the third quarter, when the Jays would start a 14 play, 60-yard drive culminating with a seven-yard run by Kase to tie the score at 10 after the Lachman extra point.
Catholic would be forced to punt after its next possession, and Hopkins would achieve three first downs on the ensuing possession. But Porco would fumble after a hard hit by Catholic safety Nick Olivero, and the Cardinals would take possession and storm all the way down to the Jay's one-yard line. Within three feet of taking a 17-10 lead in the final quarter, Ricca was hit hard by senior Tom O'Neill in the end-zone and fumbled. The ball was recovered by Todisco (who had an interception earlier in the game), who ran it back the length of the field - 100 yards - for the score. The extra point made the score 17-10 Hopkins.
"Basically I didn't look back and ran as fast as I could," Todisco said of his length of the field dash.
The Cardinals and Jays would trade their next two possessions, and the Cardinals would start their key possession with great field position, on the Jay 48. Ricca would complete passes of 13, 14 and 20 yards to get Catholic down to the one-yard line, where tailback Stevie Hendley would run in to put the Cardinals within one. But instead of trying to tie the game with an extra point, Catholic coach Dave Dunn decided to go for the win with a two-point conversion attempt. Going for a pass, Ricca connected on a tough throw to Andrew Buis, putting Catholic ahead by one, 18-17.
"Honestly, when they scored I thought they would for go for two," Todisco said. "Just the type of offense they run and how much faith they have in their quarterback, and on the road they probably wanted to end the game without going to overtime, so we kind of saw it coming."
But the game was all but over. Sophomore Tucker Michels would fumble on the ensuing kickoff return, handing the ball back over to Catholic. With too much time left on the clock for the Cardinals to kneel the ball, they were forced to try to run down the clock conservatively. Yet two plays into their possession, freshman Tyler Brown knocked the ball loose and recovered it to give Blue Jays one last chance with 75 seconds left in regulation.
Porco completed three passes to junior Sean Hennesssey and one to freshman Sam Wernick, leading the Jays to the Catholic 35-yard line. But a long pass attempt to the end zone was intercepted inside the goal line, sealing the victory for the Cardinals.
Kase would finish the season with 1,635 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns, both school single-season records. Porco was 12-26 for 116 yards, and fellow freshman Kale Sweeney had 10 tackles, two tackles for losses and one sack. Todisco added seven tackles and an interception to go along with fumble recovery for a touchdown. The Jays finished the season with a record of 8-3, and the graduating seniors had a four year record of 25-17.
"It's a great season in itself if you play past 10 games," Kase noted. "That in itself is a victory, especially turning around from 4-6 and going 8-3, and we've got a lot of guys coming back. We've just got to start working hard for next season."
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