GEORGETOWN — What else can Joe Esposito do?
His offensive exploits are already well-chronicled. The returning All-Scholastic had them on display again yesterday for Georgetown against non-league opponent Marblehead, this despite wearing a bull's-eye.
But the senior was a terror on the other side of the ball as well, which ended up being a much more important factor in a 28-14 victory over the Magicians.
Georgetown remains unbeaten with the win (3-0), while its Northeastern Conference foe drops to 2-2.
He rolled up 262 yards in total offense, had a hand in all four touchdowns and all but 10 of Georgetown's yards; Esposito also was the team leader in tackles with 11. Four of the stops went for negative yardage.
"Even last year, I would have loved to have used him even more on defense," said head Coach Matt Bouchard. "This year we needed him, and playing safety sometimes he ends up free depending on (the opposition). You put Joe in a situation where he has a little bit of freedom and he can make some plays."
The defensive effort helped stabilize a playing field where Georgetown's offense was either wildly successful (eight plays of 10 yards or more, four for touchdowns) or depressingly ineffective. The Royals had three turnovers with one returned 91 yards for a Magician touchdown, and despite four drives starting inside the Marblehead 30, it led to only one score.
Royal special teams also suffered as a blocked punt gave Marblehead the ball at the 1 late in the third quarter, scoring a play later to cut the gap to 21-14.
But Georgetown remained sturdy behind Esposito, defensive back David Kenneally (five tackles, three for lost yardage), linebacker Andrew Sinkewicz (six tackles), Mike Ruh (forced fumble) and tackle Eric Gesualdi (fumble recovery). Despite running 67 offensive plays and holding a six-minute advantage in time of possession, Marblehead was held to a paltry 5 of 14 on third-down conversions and an even more stingy 1 of 6 on fourth-down attempts.
"One of the big things you look for when evaluating a team is how they respond when times get tough," Bouchard said. "With three drives inside the 10 that we didn't convert ... it was a little surprising, but we have a veteran group that's had to deal with some tough situations."
That gave the Royals enough breathing room to succeed behind Esposito, who scored on runs of 49, 70 and 19 yards, adding a 14-yard pass to junior Tyran Harrigan for the eventual winning points. The senior also had four perfect point-after kicks, giving him 65 points in only three games.
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