The Quill/Chelsea Barner
By Nick Forbes Asst. sports editor
It was a long day for the Susquehanna football team on Sept. 10, as the team found itself on the receiving end of a 41-7 drubbing at home at the hands of the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays.
Susquehanna’s defense was able to hold the Blue Jays to seven points in the first quarter, but after that the floodgates opened for the Johns Hopkins offense. After Johns Hopkins senior quarterback Jonathan Germano found the end zone on a seven-yard scamper on their opening drive of the game, the Blue Jays started the second quarter by scoring early, notching a 21-yard field goal seven seconds into the quarter.
Five minutes later, Johns Hopkins cashed in again, this time on a 1-yard toss from Germano to senior wide receiver Quinn Donaldson. Germano made sure to get everyone involved in the offense, spreading the ball around to 11 different receivers throughout the game. The Blue Jays scored another touchdown before the half ended to make the score 24-0 at the break.
Susquehanna’s offense was another story, struggling to get things going during the game.
Junior quarterback Matt Thies threw for 180 yards in the game without finding the end zone through the air.
Thies was also picked off in the third quarter. On the ground, the River Hawks were held to 96 yards rushing, with junior running back Cameron Ott leading the team in rushing with 35 yards. Ott also tallied 76 yards receiving.
“Johns Hopkins has so many different looks on defense,” Thies said. “We had to change up the gameplan multiple times to combat those looks.”
With the game getting away from the River Hawks in the fourth quarter, Susquehanna Head Coach Tom Perkovich made the call to bring in freshman quarterback Bobby Grigas, who finished the game 6-11 for 62 yards.
In the second half, Johns Hopkins picked right back up where it left off, finding the end zone on a 9-yard strike from Germano to senior wide receiver Bradley Munday with four minutes expired in the third quarter. The rest of the quarter remained scoreless.
The Blue Jays scored twice more in the game before the clock hit zero. The first came on a 10-yard run from sophomore quarterback Zack Baker and the second on a field goal by senior kicker Nick Campbell with 4:02 remaining in the game.
Just when it looked like the River Hawks might be shut out, Thies, who came back in after Grigas hurt his head on a scramble, led Susquehanna down the field and punched it in with a 4-yard run in the final minute of the game to give the River Hawks their lone score of the contest.
“Our team focus just needs to shift to executing,” Thies said. “We missed a ton of opportunities to make big plays during that game.”
It was another tough loss for the River Hawks, who fell to rival Lycoming a week prior. Susquehanna failed to pull off a Centennial Conference upset in week two.
Starting the season 0-2 is not what the Hawks had in mind, but Perkovich has his team focused on the upcoming eight weeks.
In addition to the action in the game, Susquehanna also honored the members of the 1991 football team, which advanced to the national semifinals, during halftime as part of the homecoming weekend celebrations.
Up next for Susquehanna is a road trip to Dickinson on Saturday, Sept. 17 to face off against the Red Devils in their second Centennial Conference showdown.
Dickinson started the season 0-2 as well, suffering two blowout losses to Randolph- Macon and Juniata.
