WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Geneva College football team's offense could never get on track on Thursday night on a snowy field at W&J, and despite a strong effort from the Golden Tornado defense, Geneva dropped a 20-6 decision. W&J improved to 2-0, while Geneva fell to 0-2.
The schedule in the early season was not particularly kind to the Golden Tornadoes, who have started with two of the toughest defenses in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) in Westminster and W&J, and the offensive struggles from last week carried over to this week.
Geneva took the opening kickoff and marched into W&J territory, but a fourth-and-four attempt just inside midfield came up a yard short. The Golden Tornado defense stiffened, though, and forced a W&J punt. Geneva punted on its next possession, though, and W&J put together a 61-yard touchdown drive in which the Presidents converted a third-and-ten and a fourth-and-four on its march for the opening score. Geneva did manage to block the extra point.
The Golden Tornadoes took its next possession and moved the ball out near midfield, but a fumble ended the promising drive and gave the ball back to the Presidents. It was at about this time a snowstorm moved in, covering the field with snow. The Geneva defense held again, though, and the Golden Tornadoes caught a break when W&J's punter caught the snap with his knee of the ground, giving Geneva the ball back just inside President territory. The Golden Tornado offense couldn't take advantage, though, going three-and-out and punting the ball back.
Once again, the Geneva defense forced a punt, and on the ensuing drive the Golden Tornado offense put together its only scoring drive of the game. Geneva marched 59 yards on 15 plays, and junior
Amos Luptak (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) plunged into the endzone on fourth-and-goal from the one with just :48 seconds remaining in the half. Geneva's extra point went wide, though, keeping the score tied at 6-6.
The defense's biggest mistake came on the next drive. With W&J out of timeouts, the Presidents ran twice for 10 and 13 yards, moving the ball into Geneva territory at the Golden Tornado 39-yard line. W&J spike the ball with four seconds left to give the Presidents one shot at the endzone, and W&J connected on a back-breaking Hail Mary to All-PAC wide receiver Andrew Wolf as the halftime horn sounded. That score enabled W&J to take a 13-6 lead into the break and wipe out all the momentum from the Geneva scoring drive just moments earlier.
The Geneva defense rebounded early in the third quarter, with the cold and snowy conditions not making it ideal for big offensive production. The Golden Tornado defense forced punts on W&J's first two possessions of the second half, but the Geneva ground attack could not find much sustained success against a stout W&J defense. The Presidents scored the only points of the second half on a 17-yard run from Joey Koroly with 3:43 remaining in the third quarter, extending the W&J lead to 20-6.
Geneva's last hope ended when Luptak, while converting a third-down run, lost the ball on a hard hit with just over eight minutes remaining, and W&J recovered to snuff out any chance the Golden Tornadoes had to mount a comeback. The Presidents closed out the victory, 20-6.
Luptak led the rushing attack with 115 rushing yards on 28 carries, scoring Geneva's lone touchdown. The Golden Tornadoes finished with 181 yards on the ground and 205 yards of total offense. W&J finished with just 289 yards, as the Geneva defense kept the high-powered Presidents' offense, which scored 66 points last week against Waynesburg, largely in check.
Senior
Gary Weaver (Tyrone, Pa./Tyrone) and junior
Dakota Allen (Plant City, Fla./Newsome) led the defense with 10 tackles apiece, including three tackles-for-loss for Weaver and one for Allen. Sophomore
Nicolas Ottaviani (Beaver Falls, Pa./Riverside) added seven stops. Weaver also added a sack, along with senior
Kendrick Wells (New Stanton, Pa./Hempfield), as the Golden Tornado defense finished with eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
Geneva is back on the road next week when the Golden Tornadoes travel to Carnegie Mellon on Friday night for a 6:00 p.m. start time.
Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 145 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. Geneva has one of the top 100 undergraduate engineering programs in the nation, according to
U.S. News and World Report. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world. Geneva was founded and is governed by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) and is a founding member of both the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and IACE (International Association for Christian Education).
