Offensive Battle Turns Defensive In Loss to Salisbury

Van Zanic

Director of Sports Information

(724) 847-6886

vgzanic@geneva.edu

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 6, 2007

OFFENSIVE MATCH-UP TURNS DEFENSIVE IN

LOSS TO SALISBURY

Beaver Falls, PA – Salisbury University entered Saturday’s contest on College Hill with a 5-0 record and with an offense averaging 43 points per game. Geneva’s defense, tops in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, held the Sea Gulls 23 points below their average, but the Golden Tornadoes still dropped a 20-7 decision to the 13^th ranked team in NCAA Division III. The loss dropped Geneva’s overall record to 4-2 and kept head coach Geno DeMarco sitting on 99 career victories.

Salisbury offense did show flashes of brilliance with 267 yards of rushing offense, including a team best from quarterback Robbie Curley. It was Curley’s 53 yard touchdown in the third quarter that put Salisbury up for good.

The Sea Gulls opened the scoring when Valdose Morris scampered in from 12 yards out with just over five minutes remaining in the first quarter. Geneva answered that score with a Matt Curry eight yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. Both teams had field goals blocked in the final two minutes of the second quarter so the teams broke for halftime with a 7-7 score.

Geneva took the second half kickoff and drove to the Salisbury seven yard-line before a sack and a David Girardi interception stopped the drive. Three plays later, Curley took off on his 53 yard touchdown to give Salisbury a lead it would never relinquish. Salisbury closed out the scoring after blocking an Andy Stopchick punt them the offense up at the Geneva four yard line. Two plays later, Curley scored for the second time of the night on a two-yard run to close out the scoring.

Bobby Bondi, who spent some of the night on the sidelines with injuries, played his most consistent game of the season. Bondi passed for 186 yards on 23-33 with no interceptions. However, the running game of Geneva was only able to muster 46 net yards, which was the difference in the outcome.

On defense, Brad Roman led the way with 13 total tackles, while Brian Wilson chipped in with seven tackles, including three tackles for loss, a sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery.

Geneva will enjoy its only bye week of the season next Saturday before traveling to Thomas More College on October 20^th. The Golden Tornadoes will close out the regular season with three straight road games beginning with a match-up against Saint Vincent College at Reeves Field on October 27^th.