CORTLAND, N.Y.— The Hobart College football team ended the 2019 season with a 30-10 win over SUNY Cortland in the New York State Bowl this afternoon. First-year
Rayshawn Boswell was named the game's MVP after posting 231 all purpose yards, including a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
The Statesmen (9-2) never trailed in the contest, jumping out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter and carrying a 10-7 edge into halftime. Hobart outscored their hosts 20-3 in the second half to break the game open. The Statesmen compiled 359 yards of offense while holding the Red Dragons to 284.
Senior linebacker
David McCarthy ended Cortland's first possession of the game with his first interception of the season and fourth of his career. Seven plays later, junior
Kyle Hackett kicked a 29-yard field goal to give Hobart the early lead. It was his 12th field goal of the year, breaking the season record set by Shawn Fazio in 1979.
On the next play from scrimmage, junior free safety
Cal Sullivan intercepted the Red Dragons, but the turnover was negated by a facemask penalty. Cortland was able to regroup and drive into field goal rage, but the 32-yard kick was wide right.
Hobart punted on its next possession and again the Red Dragons moved into field goal range. This time the 35-yard kick was wide left. The Statesmen responded with an eight-play, 80-yard drive that was capped off by a 5-yard touchdown pass from senior
Ryan Hofmann to junior wide receiver
Mike Giacobbe, an incredible, one-handed snare that saw him somehow get a foot down inbounds.
Cortland nearly got on the board early in the second quarter, but senior cornerback
Jayson Prince quelled the threat with an interception in the end zone. The Red Dragons finally broke through with 3:01 to go in the half on a 22-yard pass play from Brett Segala to Ricky Chenard. Cortland got the ball back with 1:05 left thanks to an interception by Stone Murray. The Red Dragons had a chance to tie, attempting a 54-yard field goal. The kick had plenty of leg, but was wide left again.
Segala was 17-of-32 passing for 163 yards and a TD. Angel Foster was his top target with five catches for 61 yards.
Cortland (8-3) outgained Hobart by 50 yards in the first half (197-147), but trailed because it came up empty on all three of its trips into the red zone.
The Statesmen offense got the ball to start the second half and needed seven plays to go 80 yards for a touchdown. Hofmann hit senior
Ray Conley on a 4-yard slant to cap the drive. Boswell had the big gain of the drive, pulling in a 44-yard reception on a flea flicker. The extra point was no good, leaving Hobart a 16-7 lead.
With about five minutes remaining in the third quarter, Cortland scored its only points of the second half on Nick Mongelli's 24-yard field goal, closing the gap to 16-10.
The ensuing kickoff was directed at Boswell, who entered the game leading the nation in kickoff return average. He fielded the ball on a bounce at the 5-yard line cut left to the far sideline and broke free for his second kickoff return for a touchdown in as many games. He's the first Statesman with two kickoff returns for touchdowns in a season since Carson Johnson had two in 1996. Boswell finished the season with a Hobart record 36.9 yards per kick return average.
The Statesmen sealed the victory with a nine-play, 51-yard scoring drive. Hofmann threw his third TD of the game, hitting Conley on an 8-yard strike with under a minute to go.
Hofmann was 24-of-36 passing for 254 yards. He raised his season passing total to 2,241 yards, fifth on Hobart's season list. It's just the ninth time a Statesman has thrown for 2,000 yards in a season. For his career, Hofmann moved up to No. 5 in passing yards, finishing with 4,080. With 41 career passing TDs, he is just the fourth Hobart signal caller with 40-plus TDs.
Conley caught a game-high seven passes for 51 yards.
Defensively, sophomore linebacker
Bryan Aguilar made a game-high 12 tackles for Hobart. McCarthy had seven stops to go with his pick. Junior linebacker
Emmett Forde made six tackles, including a sack.
Forde led the team with 81 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and seven sacks. His tackles for loss total is fifth on Hobart's single season list.
