By Andrew Knoblauch
“At the end of the day, it’s about making plays, and frankly, we didn’t make many plays at all,” a defeated head coach, Dave Cohen, said following a 17-0 loss to the Delaware Blue Hens. The Pride, who have had a bad case of the injury bug amongst them since the pre-game of their season opener when starting quarterback Bryan Savage went down, struggled again with many key players on the sideline.
Unfortunately, as the rain dampened Family Weekend at James M. Shuart Stadium, the defensive pressure of Delaware stood out, while Hofstra’s inability to make plays was just as noticeable.
Delaware’s defense had five sacks on true freshman Steve Probst, in his first collegiate start, pushing back Hofstra’s offense for a total of thirty yards.
A slowed rushing attack allowed the Deleware offense to focus on the passing game. Leading rusher Brock Jackolski was held to 22 yards on only 8 carries.
Probst finished the contest 11 of 28 for 71 yards. With injuries to Ottis Lewis and Cory Christopher, the Pride relied on Evertte Benjamin on the ground, who rushed for 71 yards. The Pride managed only 179 yards on 66 offensive plays. Delaware’s defense also forced Probst to throw two interceptions.
The Blue Hens used deception on offense to slow the pressure of Hofstra’s defense.
When asked if he was shocked that the starting tight end was taking regular snaps for Delaware, Cohen responded by saying, “No, it had been in the papers that it would be Aaron Love or Agnone the tight end, who [had a] scholarship to Pitt as a quarterback.”
Agnone and Love combined to go 8 for 11 for 77 yards. It was all Delaware needed. The Pride were once again were led on defense by Luke Bonus, who recorded a game high 14 tackles. Fellow linebacker Said Gaida had 11 stops.
The ‘Wildcat’ offense, which Delaware used throughout the game, has been catching on in every level of football. The “wildcat” offense is a variation of the offense used by the Miami Dolphins in their dismantling of the New England Patriots, and it seems since then, more and more teams are flipping the pages in the playbook to see what they can dream up.
Coach Cohen spoke about the effectiveness of that offense by saying, “I think it is a great way for teams to move the ball. Especially when the passing game is sub-par. It’s a good way of masking weaknesses.”
Following the game, Pride receiver Aaron Weaver refused to use injuries as an excuse for the offensive struggles. “You learn how to deal with it, to cope with it. We have faith in all our players, so regardless of who is in there, we are going to keep pushing,” Weaver said. “We don’t sit there and cry about it, we have to move on.”
Freshman Steve Probst looked no further than himself at the post game press conference. “My first game? I thought I played very poor,” the Long Island native said. “Today,” Probst said, “I really didn’t step up to help this team win.” But again, Probst agreed with his head coach. The lack of play-making ultimately cost the Pride the football game.
“When the defense holds them to seventeen points, and you can’t execute. You won’t win games in this conference,” says Probst.
The Pride will hit the road again on Saturday, November 1st against the University of New Hampshire.
The Wildcats are ranked 10th in the nation, and defeated Towson on Saturday for the program’s 500th win. The game will be at noon at Cowell Stadium.