Homecoming!
Big weekend for any school – high school or college. Always a fun time as alums come back to visit with old friends and relive their glory days. The waistlines expand, hair either goes away or grays, stories get more colorful, tales get taller (get it – “tall tales.”). Hangovers hurt a little more etc….etc.
Usually the date is later in the fall. Personally I have never seen a Homecoming date in September – but what do I know?!? But, for whoever (whomever?) is in charge here at Moravian they felt an early date is the best – probable interfered with their vacation days.
Well, the trees won’t be a colorful and there won’t be need for a blanket or a flask in your pocket. OK the flask is still permissible!
I am looking forward to seeing some of the troops from the past. Always nice to visit with the guys you have spent so much time and shared so many experiences with. It is going to be a nice weekend on the Bethlehem campus.
Ursinus will be our opponent for this weekend. They enter the game with a 3-0 record following a back and forth game with Juniata last weekend. This is the first time in many years where they have started off with three straight victories.
The Bears are a very solid team with one of the better QB’s in the Centennial Conference – sophomore Thomas Garlic. He is a big (6-4, 195) strong armed thrower – completing 60.6% of his passes with four TD’s and a pair of interceptions..
Their top runner is sophomore Stacey Gardner (70 ATT. 406 YDS and 3 TD) and he has a 57 yard scoring run to his credit. The QB does a good job of spreading the ball around to his receivers and he has hit junior running back Asa Manley with 11 passes and senior WR Carmen Fortino with 7 (he has a 20.1 yard per catch with 2 TD’s)
Averaging 35 points per game the Ursinus offense as been pretty steady but their defense has been very opportunistic. They have created eight turnovers over their first three games while giving up just one per game. The Bears’ +5 margin leads the Centennial.
These turnovers have been very instrumental in each of their wins. Stopping a drive inside the 10 at the end of the Juniata game with an interception by Danny Freeman. In the Gettysburg game Tyler Gordon had an interception to stop a potential scoring drive early in the game.
So, as always we are preparing for a physical game. Defensively we will stress our fundamentals such as tackling and having hard pursuit to the ball. Nothing new for the Hounds, but we cannot take anything for granted – need to emphasize it and practice it so that it happens in the game.
I really felt our practices were spirited and we got a lot done. Since I spend so much time really impressed with how some of our younger guys (whoops – they are all really young guys out there this year – hell do we even have a senior?) ran around.
Offensively our offensive line will take on a heavy load as we continue to improve up front. Our young group (Tackles Zach Cregar, Jason Barish and Tyler Maxsim, Guards PJ Weierbach and Matt Shields, Center Brett Poling) has to counter the Ursinus front seven that has been up and down this season.
The Moravian future is bright since all of those guys are sophomores except for PJ who is a freshman. They continue to improve each week with Chris Leavenworth working with them – we all know he won’t put up with any shenanigans out there.
We have been pretty effective over the season, but the stress this week will be on consistency and maintaining ball possession. So these big guys will shoulder much of the load.
Every game is important and this will be another test for our young bunch as we continue to grow as a team. They really are a great bunch of guys who show so much promise. I keep reiterating that the future is bright – it really is.
Wasn’t there a song in the 80’s – My future is so bright I wear sunglasses at night?
Well I was kinda close. You millennials and whatever is next have no idea about good music.
Oh yeah shot up to Northampton and the Hungarian Hall Thursday nite…..the dart league (A-League) kicked off – or shot off guess. Captain Saturn on a new team. Looking for a new championship ring. Old crew looks great.
Andy Onkotz still running a tight ship in the old hometown hangout – need some more members. Cannot go wrong for 15 dollars a year!
OK many people ask Hungarian Hall??? Well much of Northampton’s heritage (Moravian guys – there’s that work “Heritage” again) is from Eastern Europe – Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic or Slovenia), Russia, Germany, Poland, Austria and of course Hungary.
The home church right behind the Hungarian Hall – well of course “Our Lady of Hungary Roman Catholic Church!”
GO KONKRETE KIDS!
GO HOUNDS!