By Michael Kelley ’14 and Ben Brown ’14
Photos by Jack Fedak IV/ The Lafayette and Kate Cherney ’15/ The Lafayette
There is something spooky about the Saturday before Halloween for the Lafayette football team.
For the second straight year on this Saturday, Lafayette had seven turnovers in conference losses. Last season, it was a 39-13 thumping from Bucknell. This year, it was a 20-17 loss to Georgetown. And this most recent loss is much more painful.
Prior to the game, Lafayette (5-3, 2-1) was in a three-way tie for first place in Patriot League standings with Colgate (5-3, 3-0) and Lehigh (8-0, 2-0). But after this loss, and a Colgate win earlier today, Lafayette finds itself in a must-win situation next Saturday when they travel to Hamilton, NY to play Colgate.
In an unusual turn of events, head coach Frank Tavani was the only Lafayette representative present for the post-game press conference.
“First off, [it’s] my decision not to bring any players to this, I apologize,” Tavani said. “But it’s a team loss. I represent the team. And I take full responsibility for one of the most awful displays of execution that I’ve been involved with—so obviously I did not do a very good job coaching.”
Time and again, Lafayette had their chances. But almost on cue by the end of the game, a turnover would derail their hopes.
Georgetown drove 61 yards in nine plays to score the go-ahead touchdown, a two-yard rush by running back Nick Campanella ‘14 with 5:09 left. It was a steal of momentum from just minutes earlier, when it seemed the Leopards had a clear-cut path to victory.
Lafayette finally broke through offensively early in the fourth quarter when quarterback Andrew Shoop ‘13 threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to fullback Greg Kessel ‘14 off of a flea flicker.
On the ensuing drive, cornerback Kyni Scott ‘13 intercepted a pass from freshman quarterback Kyle Nolan and returned it 59 yards into Georgetown territory. With the crowd on their feet sensing a victory-sealing score, wide receiver Rodney Gould ‘13 sat them back down, fumbling and returning the ball to the Hoyas, who went on to score the game-winning touchdown.
After an exchange of punts, Lafayette had one last-ditch attempt to get into field goal range and tie the game with 48 seconds left. To the crowd’s chagrin, and for the third time that game, Shoop’s pass was intercepted. Another turnover.
This is Lafayette’s third-straight loss to Georgetown.
Perhaps it was a warning sign when Jared Roberts ‘15 fumbled the opening kickoff.
“I guess that was just an indication of what was to come,” Tavanisaid.
Despite four first half turnovers, Lafayette somehow had the lead entering the locker room at halftime.
After allowing two Georgetown field goals and getting one of their own, Shoop found wide receiver Mark Ross ‘14 for a six-yard touchdown pass in the back corner of the end zone. Apart from that, Ross had a quiet night, catching only three passes for 30 yards to abandon his streak of 100-yard receiving games at four.
“He’s an excellent receiver. Obviously, every snap, we knew where he was,” Georgetown coach Kevin Kelly said. “That was an emphasis this past week. To beat Lafayette, you’ve got to contain him and that was the game plan.”
The only score of the third quarter came when Georgetown capped off a 10-play, 73-yard drive with a five-yard touchdown pass to halfback Jo’El Kimpela ‘16.
It was not just turnovers that painted the ugly scene this evening. Lafayette also had 10 penalties, a season high.
With three games left in the season and championship hopes still alive, it may be time for Lafayette to spend some time reflecting on how to solve their on-field issues.
“The sun may not come up with the storm coming, but we’ll get up and it’ll hurt even worse when they have to look at that film and see the self-inflicted damage that we did and the pre-snap penalties again,” Tavani said. “I mean it’s just uncanny.”
