This past weekend we traveled to upstate New York to play Marist College. Our players performed well and we earned our first victory of the season. Coach Luke Thompson, our defensive coordinator, arranged our Friday run-thru at the United States Military Academy. It was a great experience for our players and staff to see and hear about the history of Trophy Point and to tour West Point. A special thanks to Captain Nichols and Lieutenants Kime and Nesbit who conducted the tour.

Following our practice at Michie Stadium, we traveled to our hotel for our normal Friday routine. Friday team dinner is one of my favorite events. It is a great time for our players and coaches to relax and share a great meal and the always present ice cream bar. At dinner, we were honored to have Dennis Murphy, the founder of the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation join us (here is a picture of Dennis with our players Friday night). In living by our mission of being “Men for Others,” we worked with Dennis and Friends of Jaclyn to adopt two inspirational young men last spring. Both Jackson and Elijah have become valuable members of our team. A short video of our adoption ceremony can be found here. It was great for our team to hear Dennis’ message and it is important for our players to understand how fortunate they are to have their health and the opportunity to attend Georgetown and represent the Blue and Gray on the field.

On a rainy Saturday night, our defense put together a dominant performance. The defense limited Marist to eight first downs and 140 yards of total offense. Marist had 13 possessions in the game, and our defense forced 10 punts and had three interceptions. The takeaways were earned by defensive back Ettian Scott, linebacker Nick Alfieri and defensive end Phil Novacki, who returned the final interception 48 yards for a touchdown to make the score 20-0.  Nick Alfieri had a tremendous game with 14 total tackles and an interception. Alec May continued to play well with eight total tackles, two sacks and two tackles for a loss. Ettian was targeted multiple times and was up to the task. He did not give up a completion and had an interception in the end zone. It was great to see our players and staff put together a dominant performance following our Dayton game.

On the offensive side of the ball, it was definitely a tale of two halves. In the first half, we had eight possessions, with five of those possessions ending in punts and one ending with an unsuccessful fourth down attempt. We scored one field goal as a result of an interception that was returned to Marist’s six yard line. Our last drive of the half was 13 plays and started at our 29 yard line. We drove to Marist’s 11-yard line, where Harry Darmstadter hit his second field goal of the night. Despite our last sustained drive, we knew we had to make more of our opportunities in the first half to do better than our 6-0 lead at halftime.

The offense took up the challenge and we put together our best half of offensive football this season. Kyle Nolan did a great job of managing the second half. He engineered two drives of 12 and 11 plays for touchdowns during the second half. In addition to throwing to six different receivers on the night, Nolan also sealed the victory with a 10-yard touchdown run. These scores, coupled with Novacki’s interception return, completed the scoring for game.

We are already one practice into preparation for our game with Brown. I am very excited for this week. Saturday night is the 50th Anniversary of modern-day football at Georgetown. Information for this event can be found here.  We would love to have you join the event. Also, on Thursday night, Janne Kouri will have his annual fundraiser in Washington, D.C. for Next Step Foundation. He is the motivation behind our motto of “SISU”, and personifies courage in the face of adversity.

As always, thanks to Bruce Simmons and Robbin Robinson for the Gridiron Club tailgate.  It is always great to play in New York and the Blue and Gray were well represented Saturday night.