GENEVA, N.Y.--The 23rd-ranked Hobart football team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 33-15 victory over Lycoming on a snow-covered Boswell Field today. The Statesmen gained 424 yards of total offense, the most the Warriors allowed this season.
Offensively, senior quarterback
Rich Doyle threw for 206 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 10 yards and another TD. Junior wideout
Zach Schulz caught a game-high seven passes for 76 yards and a touchdown. On the ground, sophomore
Andrew Marlier gained 96 yards and a TD on 24 carries.
On the defensive side of the ball, senior free safety
Lance Boyington made three of Hobart's four interceptions. He leads the team with eight interceptions, one shy of the Hobart season record. Senior defensive tackle
Ryan Aruck and senior linebacker
Justin Hager both recorded a game-high nine tackles. Hager also accounted for the other Statesmen interception.
Lycoming junior quarterback Colin Dwyer threw for 190 yards and a touchdown, but was picked off four times. Junior tailback Josh Kleinfelter came into the contest averaging more than 100 yards per game, but was held to just 49 yards rushing on 19 carries.
Sophomore linebacker Pat Mcafee paced the Warriors' defense with nine tackles.
After a scoreless first quarter that saw both teams struggle to move the ball, Lycoming (7-4) broke through late in the first quarter. Senior defensive back Nick Reese returned his second interception of Doyle 55 yards to the Hobart 5. Three plays later, Dwyer called his own number on a 1-yard dive. The extra point gave the Warriors a 7-0 lead 6:05 before the half.
The Statesmen (9-1) answered with a 10-play, 70-yard drive that Doyle capped with a 10-yard toss to Schulz. The extra point tied the game 1:58 before the intermission. The Hobart defense forced Lycoming to go three and out, giving the offense another shot with 59 seconds left.
Doyle directed the Statesmen on another scoring drive, completing four of six passes, the last to
Tyler Vincent for 10 yards and a TD 26 ticks before the break. The extra point gave Hobart a 14-7 halftime lead.
The Statesmen got three points out of the third quarter's first possession thanks to
Conor Callahan's 27-yard field goal. The Hobart defense again forced a three and out setting the offense up for a 10-play, 49 yard drive that culminated in Marlier's 1-yard dive and a 23-7 lead.
Callahan opened the fourth quarter scoring with a 26-yard field goal at the 12:52 mark and Doyle ran in from 3 yards out with 2:24 remaining to boost Hobart's lead to 33-7.
Dwyer's 33-yard scoring strike to junior wideout Brad Shellenberger and a two-point conversion with just six seconds left completed the day's scoring.
Hobart advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time since 2000. The Statesmen will travel to Alliance, Ohio, to face top-ranked Mount Union at noon on Nov. 29.