Beaver Falls, PA - If you were to ask Rocco Colavecchia what position he plays for the Geneva College football team he probably couldn′t answer the question. Playing as many as three different positions on the Golden Tornadoes′ offense, Colavecchia led Geneva to a 23-7 victory over Grove City to improve to 2-5 overall and 2-3 in the Presidents′ Athletic Conference. Meanwhile, the Wolverines dropped to 0-6 on the season.
Geneva′s defense forced six Grove City turnovers and finally was able to take advantage of those miscues to escape with the victory. Colavecchia finished his night with a team best 178 rushing yards including a pair of rushing touchdowns to pace an offense that posted 373 yards of total offense.
The Golden Tornadoes opened the scoring with a Bryan Visingardi 23 yard field goal that came on the heels of the first of two interceptions from Jon Bushmire and the first of six Wolverine turnovers. Grove City answered back when Blaine Miller capped an eight play, 66 yard drive with a 22 yard touchdown run late in the first quarter.
Vince Larson pulled in a 13 yard pass from Zack Hayward early in the second quarter but the extra point was missed and Geneva took a 9-7 lead into the half. Grove City got inside the Geneva five yard line twice in the second quarter only to be held off the scoreboard with a pair of missed field goals.
Neither team scored in the third quarter and Geneva was finally able to ice the game away with a pair of scores in the fourth. Colavecchia struck on TD runs of 13 and 75 yards to put the game away and salvage a fitting end to the 83rd meeting between Geneva and Grove City.
Geneva has won three of the last five meetings between the schools which each team winning on its home field in each of the last five years. On this night, it was the Geneva defense that stepped up in a big way. One week after watching Waynesburg put up 47 points, the Golden Tornadoes held Grove City to a touchdown while posting a season best six takeaways. Tucker Nuetzel and Dillon Goodell each posted ten tackles while Bushmire had two interceptions and a forced fumble. Jon Baldwin also picked up an interception in the end zone to turn Grove City away from the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.
Neither team could do much through the air as Geneva posted 105 yards of passing to Grove City′s 144. AJ Delmonico led the receiving core with four catches for 29 yards. On the Ground, Blaine Miller finished the night with 123 yards on 21 carries in a losing cause for the Wolverines.
Geneva, still with hopes of finishing the 2011 season at .500, will get a test at Washington & Jefferson next Saturday before returning home two weeks from tonight to face Thiel College in the 2011 home finale.
Geneva College is a comprehensive Christian college of the arts, sciences and professional studies. Founded in the tradition of the Reformed Christian faith, Geneva prepares students to serve Christ in all areas of society: work, family and the church. Geneva College′s philosophy of education is based on the Foundational Concepts of Christian Higher Education. Geneva is a founding member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU).
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