Football Dominates Against Georgetown, 34-3

WASHINGTON, D.C.—No Hempel, no Stanton, no problem in the nation’s capital.

Four touchdowns from senior running back Andrew Casten pushed the Harvard football team past Georgetown, 34-3, without injured starting quarterback Conner Hempel and starting running back Paul Stanton.

In the Crimson’s (3-0, 1-0 Ivy) first-ever matchup against Georgetown (2-4, 0-1 Patriot), Harvard got on the scoreboard early and never let up. The visiting team led, 13-3, after one and added touchdowns in the second, third, and fourth quarters at the Hoyas’ Multi-Sport Field.

Casten finished the game with 139 yards on 19 carries.

“The thing about Andrew is you try to pigeonhole him as the big back or he’s this or that—he’s just a good back,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “He’s a complete back, and he’s improved about as much as anybody at any position. He’s legit. He’s really legit.”

The senior’s strong day came after he ran for 153 yards and three scores in the Crimson’s season-opening 41-18 win over Holy Cross. Stanton was in the lineup last week but did not make the trip to D.C.

Hempel was held out for a second week after suffering a back injury against Holy Cross. In his stead, junior quarterback Scott Hosch was 20-for-25 through the air in the win.

“The kid has done about as well as you can possibly expect considering that 14 days ago he was our third quarterback and was taking almost no reps,” Murphy said. “He’s a very cerebral kid, he’s got a high football IQ, and he’s very poised.”

Murphy added that he expects to see Stanton back in the lineup next week against Cornell but was not sure if Hempel would be ready to play.

Hosch’s 27-yard touchdown toss to sophomore wideout Joseph Foster put Harvard up, 34-3, in the fourth quarter and ended any hopes of a Hoya comeback.

Hosch’s 20 completions were spread to a variety of targets, especially after Murphy emptied his bench in the fourth quarter.

Senior Seitu Smith II and junior Andrew Fischer each brought down a team-high four catches while junior tight end Ben Braunecker had three catches for 53 yards.

Sophomore tight end Anthony Firkser had two long receptions, but fumbled the ball on the second one after gaining 39 yards.

The Hoyas scooped up the ball and ran it back to their 40. Yet they could not convert the field position into points as Harvard’s defense held, which it did often on Saturday.

Georgetown managed to accrue only 227 yards and was stopped on multiple fourth-down attempts throughout the game. Its lone field goal came on its first drive when two big passes set up a 36-yard attempt.

“In a perfect world, we’d like to get more three-and-outs, and we’d like to dominate field position a little more with our defense,” Murphy said, “But the bottom line is we gave up no touchdowns, so that’s a great day.”

That field goal was sandwiched by Casten’s first two touchdowns. His first came less than three minutes into the game on a two-yard push. A 22-yard scamper gave him his second eight minutes later.

Casten completed the hat trick with 55 seconds left in the first half on a six-yard run up the middle as the Crimson’s offensive line opened up another big hole for him.

“Those guys make my job easy,” said Casten of the offensive line. “They were mashing people all day.”

The senior’s fourth score came late in the third quarter from three yards out. Each of Harvard’s scoring drives took less than four minutes as the Crimson used pace to overpower a Georgetown defense that had not given up more than 23 points in a game this season before Saturday.

Harvard continued moving the ball in the fourth quarter after junior quarterback Jimmy Meyer and sophomore running back Blade Brady came in, possessing the ball for most of the fourth period.

With the victory, the Crimson increased its non-conference winning streak to 10 games dating back to 2011.

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacob.feldman@thecrimson.com.Follow him on Twitter @jacobfeldman4.