LANDON FOOTBALL 21 GEORGETOWN PREP 24

The WaPo #12 little Hoyas lined up in their very fancy stadium with expectations of winning and pressure to do so—it was their Homecoming game. The visiting Bears faced the challenge of competing against a bigger “Bulldog”¹ , 6-1 record and having beaten two common opponents. 

Typing the lede grieved me greatly for the score is measured by effort, tenacity, and grit (see “virtute et non vi” translations), the Bears exceeded their opponents in all of those measures!!! 

The game started by following the Homecoming script with the little Hoyas driving 61 yards to score on their opening drive. When the Bears got the ball, they encountered a very stout Bulldog D- the white jerseys possessed the leather spheroid for three downs and punted. The visiting D, with assistance from one of many GP penalties, forced a punt. Landon earned 2 first downs and 20 yards before punting.  

The home team’s possession was 16 downs long, covered 69 yards, rolled the scoreboard from Q1 to Q2 and resulted in a TD. GP 14 Landon 0 with 2:17 until halftime. 

 The Bears found their offensive mojo and moved the ball 76 yards in 6 plays. NATHAN FURGESON completed 3 passes (to CHASE ROBERTSON 8 yards; to SEAN MURRAY 34 yards and to CADEN SOUTHWORTH 17 yards and a TD @ 0:55– PAT: TILLER SMITH snap to SEAN’shold and CHASE’s kick made it BEARS 7 little HOYAS 14

Drawing to a –7 margin with less than a minute to go, many Bear fans might have said “I’ll take that.” The football gods did not agree with that. First, GP earned another penalty (~13 over 48 minutes) and allowed Chase to kick 15 yards beyond his normal inception point. The home team only had to sit on the ball for less than a minute, but FATE struck. On the first play, the GP pass receiver was tackled, and the ball was stripped by AHMED ZAID, and recovered BY NATHAN

With 0:43 to the midpoint of the game clock, Nathan to Chase, a GP defensive pass interference, pass to TROY ULISNEY resulted in a TD, PAT good BEARS 14 little HOYAS 14 @0:02

HALFTIME

The Bears were first with the ball in Q3 and gained 20 yards, only to turn possession to GP on a failed 4th down. The Bulldogs flipped the ball back to their guests with an pass STRIPPED BY AZ and recovered by SEAN. Landon then had a 48 yard goal for a go-ahead TD and they executed well. Runs, passes and two GP penalties resulted in a NATHAN to DP POPE 11 yard TD, PAT GOOD BEARS 21 GP 14

Georgetown Prep responded with an all-on-the-ground drive to even the score with 0:15 left 21-21. Landon’s last effort in Q3 was 3-and-out.

To start off the last stanza, a spectacular GP TD was erased by another penalty flag. But that adversity did not deter the home team from driving the ball 20 yards to set up a 22 yard field goal @5:41. HOYAS 24 BEARS 21

A valiant effort by Nathan, Caden, UBIE ZAID and ANTHONY PANETTI saw the clock inexplicably run from 0:02 to 0:00. 

FINAL SCORE BEARS 21 BULLDOGS 24

KUDOS to the Bear lineman

O: BARRETT HOFFMAN, TILLER SMITH, JACK LAPHAM, LUCAS KNIGHT, COOPER GLEASON, and likely others missed.

D: TILLER, BARRETT, JACK LAPHAM, QUINN Mcintyre, OLIVER LAFUENTE, and likely others

Notice—most of these guys played two ways against a GP roster that permitted one-way specialists.

BEAT BULLIS!!! Away 10.27 7pm in front of a large electronic mirror.