BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian University football team hits the road for the first time in 2024 with a trip to Hobart (N.Y.) College for non-conference contest on Saturday, September 21. Kickoff is slated for 1:00 p.m. at Boswell Field at David J. Urick Stadium in Geneva, New York.
THE COACHES: Jeff Long (Muhlenberg '14) is entering his second season as Moravian's head coach. Last fall in his debut campaign, Long led the Greyhounds to a 5-7 overall record and a 3-3 slate in the inaugural Landmark Conference season. He coached eight Landmark All-Conference selections including five First Team honorees. Long has spent the last six seasons with the Blue Streaks including the last three years as defensive coordinator. He began his time at John Carroll as the defensive line coach and has also been a secondary coach and linebackers coach. Prior to coaching at John Carroll, Long spent two seasons as a defensive line coach at Wilkes University, and he also worked as a scouting intern for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015.
Hobart coach Kevin DeWall (Hobart '00) is in his seventh year as head coach at his alma mater with a record of 39-16, and he is in his tenth season as a collegiate head coach with a mark of 52-33.
THE SERIES: Saturday's meeting will be the first meeting between the schools on the football gridiron.
GREYHOUNDS IN THE LANDMARK CONFERENCE: The Greyhounds will compete in the Landmark Conference this fall for the second straight season. The Hounds were selected third in the preseason coaches poll. The Landmark Conference has announced it will be adding an eighth team in 2025 with Western Connecticut State University becoming an associate member.
LANDMARK CONFERENCE WEEKLY HONORS: Moravian freshman linebacker Malachi McNeil-Harrison was named as the Landmark Conference Football Defensive Athlete of the Week for his performance last week. McNeil-Harrison made eight tackles with three quarterback sacks, a forced fumble on one of his sacks and a pass break-up to go with an interception in the end zone on the final play of the game to help the Greyhounds rally from a 13-0 halftime deficit to an 18-13 non-conference victory over Utica (N.Y.) University.
2024 CAPTAINS: The Hounds have named graduate student wide receiver Jordan Bingham, senior quarterback Jared Jenkins, senior offensive lineman Reins Leedy, senior defensive lineman Jeremy McGuigan and junior running back Isiah Rico as captains for the 2024 season.
THE QUARTERBACKS: Senior Jared Jenkins has completed 42-of-63 passes for 488 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, and Jenkins has run the ball 18 times while being sacked seven times. Freshman Declan McCarthy is 1-for-2 for 12 yards, and he has 48 yards on seven rushing attempts.
THE BACKFIELD: Junior Isiah Rico leads the rushing attack with 59 yards on 21 attempts while graduate student Joey Richmond has added 46 yards on 11 carries. Junior Camron Tinajero has 23 yards and a touchdown on two attempts.
THE OFFENSIVE LINE: Moravian has four returning starters on the offensive line in seniors Reins Leedy, Brandon Guffy and Paul DeFalco and sophomore Mason Ludlow, and the quartet is joined by freshman Jake Englehart. Senior Dalton Kucher also has starting experience while junior Drew Brizan saw action a year ago.
THE WIDE RECEIVERS: The Greyhounds have 11 players that have caught a pass in 2024 led by graduate student Jordan Bingham, who has 15 receptions for 132 yards. Senior Diego Del Castillo has nine catches for 172 yards and two touchdowns while sophomore Nick Coffaro has five catches for 27 yards. Senior Bryan Monge has added four receptions for 46 yards while sophomore Avery Koser has three catches for 58 yards. Sophomore tight end Jackson Lake has caught two passes for 14 yards while junior running back Isiah Rico has one reception for 20 yards and graduate student running back Joey Richmond has one catch for 15 yards and a touchdown. Freshman Jacob Sutton added one reception for eight yards while Josh Ludlow has one catch for five yards and junior wide receiver Ryan Frinzi has added one reception for three yards.
DEFENSIVE FRONT: Senior Jeremy McGuigan leads the defensive linemen with nine tackles and a blocked kick versus Utica (N.Y.) University while junior Nathan Carr has five tackles with one for loss. Graduate student Ian Brunner has posted three tackles with a forced fumble and a blocked kick versus Utica while junior EJ Harvey also has three stops. Freshman Ryan Burns and sophomore Logan Arteaga have both recorded two stops while senior Drew Bailey, freshman Matthew Martinez and freshman Hunter Johnson each have one tackle.
THE LINEBACKER CORPS: Senior Chad Newhard leads linebackers and the Moravian defense with 16 tackles including one for loss while junior Clay Basile has contributed 14 tackles with two for loss. Freshman Malachi McNeil-Harrison has made 13 stops on the year with three tackles for loss, three sacks, two passes defended, a forced fumble and an interception on the final play versus Utica. Junior Ethan O'Neill has recorded nine tackles while junior Jashon Teller has made eight stops. Senior Chris Cacace has seven tackles and a pass break-up while graduate student Declan Coors has three tackles with a tackle for loss. Senior Jeremiah Espinosa and freshman Sahmad Bailey both have one stop.
THE DEFENSIVE BACKFIELD: Sophomore Aidan Lane leads the defensive backs with 13 tackles including one for loss and two pass break-ups while sophomore Antonio Bowen has contributed eight stops to go along with an interception and a fumble recovery. Senior Isaiah Johnson has added seven tackles and a pass break-up while junior Shea Endean has six stops and four pass break-ups. Junior Dorian Gray has recorded four tackles with a pass break-up, and sophomore Anderson Louis Jeune also has four tackles with a pass breakup. Sophomore Elijah Fajardo has made two stops.
KICKING GAME: Freshman Ryan Child is 1-for-3 on extra-points of the season. Freshman Jack Corrigan has punted nine times this fall for an average of 44.1 yards with a long of 71 yards on his second career attempt. Corrigan has three touchbacks, one fair caught and one punt inside the 20-yard line, and he has kicked off five times for an average of 57.8 yards and one touchback.
SPECIAL TEAMS: Freshman wide receiver Josh Ludlow has six kickoff returns for 132 yards while freshman wide receiver Jacob Sutton has one kickoff return for 29 yards. Senior wide receiver Will Castel has three punt returns for six yards while graduate student wide receiver Jordan Bingham has added one tackle on special teams.
MILESTONE WATCH: The Greyhounds have a pair of student-athletes closing in on milestones for their careers. Graduate student wide receiver Jordan Bingham needs 38 receiving yards to become the 23rd player in program history to reach 1,000 career receiving yards. Bingham also has 84 career receptions in 11 games and needs 16 catches to become the 12th player in program history with 100 career receptions. Senior quarterback Jared Jenkins is ranked ninth in program history with 3,817 passing yards, and he needs 183 yards passing to become the eighth player in to reach 4,000 yards. Jenkins is also seventh all-time in completions with 327, tenth in program history with 517 pass attempts and tied for seventh in school history with 34 touchdown passes. Freshman punter Jack Corrigan booted the fourth-longest punt in school history on his second attempt versus Muhlenberg College in the opener with the ball traveling 71 yards.
SCOUTING HOBART COLLEGE: The Statesman are coming off 14-7 overtime loss to No. 8 Randolph-Macon (Va.) College last Saturday. Hobart is led on the field by senior quarterback Johnny Colombi, who is 30-for-53 for 289 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and he has 70 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. Colombi's top targets have been freshman wide receiver Johnny Harding, who has eight receptions for 78 yards, sophomore running back E.J. Taylor, who has caught six passes for 33 yards, and freshman wide receiver Tristan Reynolds, who has five receptions 34 yards. Taylor leads the Statesman' rushing attack with 199 yards on 35 carries while junior Kieran Cotter has added 34 yards on 11 attempts. Harding has returned two punts this season. Junior Vicente Lyon has punted 11 times for an average of 36.6 yards with a long of 53 yards with two touchbacks, three fair caught and one inside the 20-yard line while senior Tobias Wefering is 1-for-3 on field goal attempts with a long of 26 yards and 1-for-1 on extra points, and he has kicked off five times for an average of 51.4 yards. Senior linebacker Jaimen Bliss leads the Hobart defense with 14 tackles including two and a half tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry while junior linebacker Mike McGhee and senior linebacker Anthony Romano both had 12 tackles with McGhee adding one and a half tackles for loss, a sack, an interception and a pass breakup and Romano contributing two tackles for loss and a half a sack. Freshman defensive lineman Billy Broski has made 11 tackles with two for loss and a forced fumble while senior defensive lineman Dylan Williams-Molitor has ten stops with one and a half for loss.
THE LAST TIME THEY MET: Saturday's contest is the first between the two programs.
BALANCED & EXPERIENCED 'HOUNDS: Of the 105 players on the Moravian roster, 51 are freshmen, 18 are sophomores and 15 are juniors. There are 16 seniors and four graduate students on this season's squad, and the Greyhounds return 45 letterwinners and 13 starters from 2023.
OVERTIME 'HOUNDS: Moravian has played a total of 12 overtime games since the NCAA instituted the rule for the 1996 season and is 9-3 all-time in the extra-session including a pair of overtimes wins in 2021. Five of those 12 overtime games have been against Juniata College with the Greyhounds going 4-1 in those games. Moravian's contest in Huntingdon in 2008 marked the first time in the Greyhounds' have needed more than one overtime session in a game. The 2021 season marked the fourth year that Moravian has played at least two overtimes games in one season, the other years were 2008 when the Hounds played two overtime contests, 1999 when the Greyhounds played three overtime games and 1997 when Moravian played two overtime contests.
THE LANDMARK CONFERENCE STATISTICAL RANKINGS: The Greyhounds rank fifth in the Landmark Conference in total offense at 335.0 yards per game after week two, and the Hounds are third in passing offense at 250.0 yards per contest. Moravian's defense is fourth in the conference at 359.5 yards per game, and the squad is second in passing defense at 218.0 yards per outing. The Blue & Grey lead the Landmark Conference in net punting at 36.7 yards per punt, red zone defense at 57.1 percent and fewest penalty yards per game at 46.5. Senior quarterback Jared Jenkins is fourth in the Landmark Conference in passing yards per game at 244.0, and he is third in passing efficiency with a 144.0 rating. Graduate student wide receiver Jordan Bingham is first in receptions per game at 7.5 and sixth in reception yards per game at 66.0 while senior wide receiver Diego Del Castillo is third in receiving yards at 86.0 and tied for fifth in receptions per contest at 4.5. Freshman wide receiver Josh Ludlow is fifth in the Landmark Conference in kickoff return average at 22.0 yards per return on five attempts while senior wide receiver Will Castel is fourth in punt return average at 2.0 yards per return with three returns. Freshman punter Jack Corrigan leads the Landmark Conference in punting with an average of 44.1 yards per punt. Senior linebacker Chad Newhard is tied for fifth at 8.0 tackles per game while junior linebacker Clay Basile tenth at 7.0 tackles per outing. Sophomore defensive back Aidan Lane is tied for 11th with 6.5 stops per contest while freshman linebacker Malachi McNeil-Harrison leads the conference at 1.5 sacks per game, and he is tied for fifth in tackles for loss at 1.5 per outing. Junior defensive back Shea Endean is tied for the conference lead in passes defended with 2.0 per contest while Lane and McNeil-Harrison are tied for fifth at 1.0 passes defended per outing. McNeil-Harrison and sophomore defensive back Antonio Bowen are tied for third in interceptions per game at 0.5.
