Robbie Castleberry had a productive night but only played about a 1/3 of the game before leaving about halfway through the second quarter .  He had 8 carries for 38 yards and 3 receptions for 41 yards.

Troy Yudin had 12 receptions for 159 yards.  He was 0 for 1 passing.

James Wheeler had 1 reception for 13 yards and took over for Castleberry as the running back and had 47 yards on 5 carries.

Taylor Embree had 2 catches for 35 yards.  Michael Viro had 2 for 19 yards and Griffin Cannon had 1 reception for -1 yard.   There was one other catch but I could not identify the recipient from the webcast.

Here are the details.  Hart, starting at the 20, tried a little trickery at the first play: a pitch to Yudin and then a throw down field which was incomplete.  Hart ended up going 3 and out.

St. Bonnie, started at the SB 36 and went on an 11-play drive with Lee scoring on a 3-yard run at 5:38.  St. Bonnie 7-0.

Hart started the second series at the 20.  Lyon ran for 5 on the first play.  On the second play he was hit almost immediately after taking the snap and coughed up the ball (per the Signal; impossible to tell from the webcast).  Starting at the 20, St. Bonnie scored in 3 plays with Lee getting his second TD on a 1-yard run.  St. Bonnie 14-0 at 3:48 in the first quarter.

Hart started at the 20 again and began moving well, scoring on an 11-play, 80-yard drive, helped along by a 15-yard penalty for a late hit on Lyon .  Robbie Castleberry, starting at running back in place of the injured Delano Howell, scored on a 1-yard run.  St. Bonnie 14-7 at 10:58 in the second.

St. Bonnie started at the 20, managed to get out to the 32 but a sack backed them up forcing a punt.

Hart got a nice return by Wheeler but a holding penalty put the ball at the 27.  Hart once again moved smartly down the field, scoring on a 7-play drive.  The TD was on a 15-yard pass to Yudin.  14-14 at 5:17 in the second quarter.  Unfortunately, Castleberry, suffering from the flu, left the game during this series and did not return.

St. Bonnie started again at the 20 and went on a 14-play drive, culminating in about a 1-inch run by QB Evans for the TD.  Hart was assessed a personal foul after the play so the ball was moved half the distance for the extra point.  St. Bonnie elected to go for two but Evans’ pass was intercepted in the end zone.  20-14 at :22 in the half.  Hart took a knee to end the half.

In the first half, Lyon was 9 of 11 for 100 yards and 1 TD.   He had 8 straight completions at one point.  He also rushed for 7 yards on two carries (I don’t know how to account for the knee at the end of the half and the fumble which could add two more carries and some negative yards).

Castleberry had all of his carries, receptions and a TD in the first half.  Hart had a total of 186 yards from scrimmage in the half.

Lee, the St. Bonnie RB had 92 yards on 17 carries and 2 TDs.  Evans, the SB QB, was 6 of 11 for 77 yards.  He also was sacked once for a 6-yard loss and had a TD.   Other players accounted for 3 yards.  St. Bonnie had 166 yards from scrimmage.

The second half started very well for Hart.  St. Bonnie went three and out.  Hart started at the 24 and scored on an 11-play drive.  The TD came on a 4^th down, 3-yard pass to Yudin.  Hart 21-20 at 6:02.

Hart’s only lead was very short-lived.  On the ensuing kickoff, St. B got a huge 68-yard return by Michael Williams down to the Hart 22 and scored 2 plays later on a 13-yard pass to Diaz.  The two-point conversion failed again.  St. Bonnie 26-21 at 4:56.

Hart again started at the 20 and moved very quickly down to the St. B 20 before a sack (the first one of the game) put the ball back to the 31.  Hart eventually tried a 46-yard field goal which was short.

St. B started at the 20 and got out to the 50.  A sack forced a punt from the 45.

Hart started at the 6.  On the first play, Wheeler took a pitch and ran for 15 yards but was stripped of the ball at the end of the run and St. B recovered at the 18 and scored two plays later on a 3-yard run by Lee.  33-21 at 10:21 in the fourth.

Hart, starting at the 9, went on a 9-play drive and got down to the St. B 20 but gave the ball up on downs.  During the series, SB was assessed 15 yards for pass interference and another 15 yards for a late hit on Lyon .  The Seraphs also sacked Lyon twice for -12 yards (Maddox’s 2^nd and 3^rd sacks of the night).  Wheeler went out with a neck injury early in the series and was replaced by Sarkissian.  It was pretty obvious to St.B that Sarkissian, a linebacker with no ball carrying or receiving experience, was not going to run with the ball or go out for a pass.

St. B. took over on the 25, got out to the 46 but then was forced to punt with about 3½ minutes left in the game.

Hart started at the 20 but the SB defenders really teed off at this point, knowing that Hart was without 2 starting receivers and the running back and that there was no possibility of a run.  Maddox got his fourth sack.  Hart got a first down on another late hit on Lyon .  Lyon threw an interception very long down the field and there was another penalty against St. B but I’m not quite sure what it was for (another late hit or excessive celebration?).

St. Bonnie started at the 12 and went 3 and out.

Hart started at the SB 46 and in 9 plays got down to the SB 10 before turning the ball over on downs.  This series included two more sacks (Williams and Maddox) and another personal foul for a late hit on Lyon .  SB took a knee and it was over.

Lyon was 13 of 25 for 177 yards, a TD and an INT in the second half.  Wheeler had 47 yards rushing on 5 carries and a fumble.  Lyon had 10 carries (6 sacks) and -25 yards.  Hart had net 199 yards in the second half.

St. Bonnie: Lee had 71 yards on 13 carries and a TD and Evans was 3 of 5 for 17 yards, a TD and was sacked once for -5 and ran once for 1.  Diaz had a 10-yard run .  St. Bonaventure had net 94 yards in the second half.

Comments: Despite the loss, this in many respects was a much better game for Hart.  First, Lyon had a good night with almost 300 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT.   Last year against the same team, he was 19 of 39 for 220 yards, 2 TDs more importantly 3 INTs. 

Lyon was very, very impressive from the third series (mid-first quarter) through the first part of the fourth quarter, going 18 for 22, 223 yards and 2 TDs, no interceptions and only one sack during that stretch. 

Things changed markedly after that when both Castleberry and Wheeler were out of the game.  With Hart in a scoring hole and no running game whatsoever, the sacks and incompletes sky-rocketed.

Hart, taking into account that St. Bonaventure is a terrifically talented team, was done in by three plays and a boatload of injuries.  The three plays: the first quarter fumble at the 20, the huge SB kickoff return in the third quarter, and the fourth quarter fumble at the 18.  St. Bonnie scored all  three times on these Hart faux pas on drives of 20, 23 and 18 yards.  Overall, Hart generally did a good job defensively, forcing 5 St. Bonnie punts, 4 in the second half.  Mistakes killed ‘em.

I thought the play-calling was considerably improved over last week.  It was especially noticeable on Hart’s third series (when the Indians were already down 14-0).  In that first scoring drive, Lyon and Castleberry both ran the ball and Lyon completed passes to Castleberry, Yudin, Wheeler and Cannon.  That’s about as diverse as its going to get and kept the St. Bonnie defense off balance.

The impact of the injuries can hardly be overstated.  First, Hart lost Howell last week.  That put Castleberry out there as a second string RB but also took him out as a first string slot.  When he left the game, Hart was without a first string DB and a first string slot.  When Wheeler went to running back, Hart lost another first string slot.  When Wheeler was knocked out of the game, Hart lost another first string DB and a  first string slot. 

Without Howell, Castleberry or Wheeler, the St. Bonnie defense could simply double up on Yudin, single cover the other three receivers and still have 6 guys go after the QB.  With no running game and the starting slots both gone, the sacks where inevitable.  About the only negative I can throw out under those circumstances is that Lyon threw to Yudin too often after Wheeler went out.  He threw 13 passes after that point and it appears that 11 of those 13 were direct toward Yudin (kind of hard to tell about 2 of them from the webcast).  Two other passes were completed to Vero and Embree, apparently the only ones that went their way.  Finally, the loss of Steve Burton was a major factor.  He’s a three-year starter on the defensive line.  Virtually all of Lee’s yards were between the tackles.  With Burton ’s quickness, one would think he might have nabbed Lee a few times and kept the St. Bonnie offense a little more in check.  In any event, holding a powerhouse team like St. Bonnie to about 250 yards from scrimmage reflects very well on the Hart defense, even with Burton , Castleberry and Howell missing from the mix.

Next week it’s Westlake .  If Hart gets the fumblitis in check and at least. one of the three running backs return, the Indians will be very formidable.