POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.– Marist hosted the Georgetown Hoyas for their season opener on Saturday. Marist quickly fell behind and went into the locker room trailing Georgetown 11-0 at the half. Despite a small comeback in the second half, Marist fell to Georgetown with the final score of 39-14.
With an interception by Georgetown’s Blaise Brown giving them great field position early in the first quarter, the Hoyas had an advantage early on. They settled for a field goal, however, as the Red Foxes held them to 3-0 Georgetown with 5:54 left in the first quarter.
Redshirt Sophomore quarterback Jacob Hallenbeck threw five consecutive incomplete passes in the first quarter–two of them being intercepted—and finished the half with eight completions for 43 yards on 17 attempts and two interceptions. Running backs Areg Nazarian and Darryn Jordan combined for 38 yards on nine carries.
Georgetown’s Gunther Johnson was 14-21 with 159 yards and one touchdown at the half.
“This quarterback that we saw today did not play against us last year, and he’s a dual-threat kid,” Marist Head Coach Jim Parady said. “He made some good throws. We hit him a bunch. He took a lot of hits. He impressed me today.”
Georgetown’s running backs Jay Tolliver, Carl Thomas and Herman Moultrie the third combined for 40 rushing yards on 19 carries.
“In the first half, I thought that our defense kept us in the game, only being down 11-0 at halftime. It was truly because of our defense,” said Parady. “Offensively we struggled, and we turned the ball over a couple times and we put the defense in short fields and they continually came up with big plays.”
Marist had five penalties in the first half, which cost them 40 yards.
“We did not play a great half of football. We had penalties, but we were still right in the game. As many things as we struggled with in the first half we were still in it”, said Coach Parady.
With 9:51 left in the third quarter, Hallenbeck was sacked and fumbled the football. Georgetown’s Duval Paul recovered the fumble from the injured Hallenbeck and scored to make it 18-0 Hoyas. Sophomore Mike Husni took over at quarterback following the injury.
Hallenbeck was on the sideline in a sling in the second half.
“[Hallenbeck] will see the doctor tomorrow when we come in for treatment, and then he will be getting x-rays probably on Tuesday,” said Parady.
Coach Parady talked about the frustration of the lack of offense when the defense and special teams were clicking, “It’s hard because you want all three to go. Our feeling is that if one side is struggling then the other side has to pick it up and create opportunities for the other side.”
Off the bench, Husni found tight end Jon Kanda at the end of the third quarter for a seven-yard touchdown pass. Georgetown quickly responded with a touchdown drive that covered 68 yards across seven plays, putting a Marist victory surely out of reach. Husni finished with 9 completions for 73 yards and a touchdown across 16 attempts.
With an off week next week, Parady said the team will be working on “Identifying what we do well and trying to take advantage of that.”
Marist will travel to play Bryant on Saturday, September 15.
