Donaldson, Blue Jays power past Ursinus

The Hopkins football team gained the number eight seed in both the AFCA and d3football.com polls with a 42-14 drubbing of Ursinus this past Saturday. The win was their 19th straight regular season victory and 17th straight in the Centennial Conference. The Jays are now on the precipice of a sixth consecutive conference championship. The win also gave head coach Jim Margaff his 175th career victory, making him the winningest college football coach in Maryland state history, surpassing Morgan State University legend Eddie Hurt, who won 174 games with the Bears from 1929-59. Hurt sent more than 30 players to the NFL in that span. Ursinus came into the game with a strong resumé, sporting a 6-1 record on the season, five conference victories and averaging nearly 350 yards and 32 points a game. However, it soon became clear that these Bears would be outclassed. The Blue Jays turned a pair of Ursinus mistakes on special teams into touchdowns and added a 55-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Braden Anderson to sophomore wide receiver Quinn Donaldson for good measure, jumping out to a 21-0 lead before the game was 12 minutes old. The two other scores were tallied by sophomore running back Stuart Walters, with eight and 14-yard scampers, the first coming on a muffed snap by Ursinus punter Eric Boyer and the second when Jays sophomore punter Matt Auran’s kick hit a Bears defensive player in the leg, allowing sophomore Jesse Poore to recover the loose ball. Ursinus broke through on its next possession when they took over at the Hopkins 31 yard line with running back Corey Kelly scoring from five yards out to cut the deficit to 14. The score would remain 21-7 until midway through the third quarter, when Anderson orchestrated a seven-play, 86-yard drive to put the Jays back up by three touchdowns. Anderson started the drive with a 30-yard toss to sophomore Bradley Munday, adding 25-yard throws to Donaldson and Munday again to set up sophomore Dionisio Roman’s one-yard touchdown run. Anderson would close out the scoring for Hopkins with fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Munday and Donaldson. On fourth and 10 on the 23 yard line with just over 13 minutes remaining, Munday made a miraculous diving catch at the pylon to reel in Anderson’s pass for the score. A few minutes later, Ursinus managed to score on a five-yard pass, making the score 35-14. Anderson answered again, this time slinging a 63-yard pass downfield to Donaldson. Defensively, Hopkins was able to control the line of scrimmage and thus the game. The Jays defense limited Ursinus to just 51 rushing yards on 40 carries, a meager 1.28 yards per carry, while sacking quarterback Kevin Monahan four times. Junior Keith Corliss had a team-high nine tackles, but the tone was set by senior Michael Rocca who had a career-high eight tackles, one sack, one fumble recovery and one pass breakup. Rocca was named the Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week for his performance, the first such honor of his career. Rocca credited his performance to his coaches and teammates. “Week in and week out, our coaches put us in the best situations to make plays and our goals is to do our jobs within the scheme to the best of our ability each play. When 11 guys are doing that, we can be special.” Anderson finished 13 of 21 for 265 yards and three touchdowns passes, giving him 16 over his last five games against just one interception. He also led the team with 68 rushing yards on eight carries. Donaldson hauled in five catches for 142 yards and two scores, while Munday snared four passes for 77 yards and a touchdown of his own. Walters rushed for 52 yards on 13 carries, while scoring the Jay’s other two touchdowns. The Blue Jays have won five consecutive conference titles and can clinch at least a share of their sixth with a victory in either of their last two games of the season. The Jays will travel to Franklin & Marshall (5-3, 4-3 Centennial) on Saturday, Nov. 8 before taking on McDaniel (1-7, 0-7 Centennial) on Homewood Field in the regular season finale on Nov. 15. A win against F & M coupled with a Muhlenberg loss against Ursinus would give Hopkins the outright conference championship. With this in mind, Rocca stressed that the Blue Jays take everything one step at a time. “It may be a bit cliché, but our goal is to focus on one game at a time,” he said. “We aim to get better as a team each and every day we are out there to always be improving. Our goal is to win the conference championship, and we have to bring the effort every day to accomplish that goal.”