‘A cool team’ with heart

Published 8:45 pm Monday, November 19, 2018

The 2018 season for Hampden-Sydney College’s (H-SC) football team unfortunately ended with the low point of the year, but it was a campaign which featured great memories of epic wins as well.

The Tigers finished with an overall record of 4-5, including a 4-3 mark in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC).

“I’ve had a bunch of years,” said H-SC Head Coach Marty Favret, who just completed his 19th season with the Tigers. “It was a cool team, and when you start out 1-3, there’s a lot of chance to kind of maybe just mail it in, and our guys certainly didn’t do that. And we had two epic wins. Beating Guilford (College) with a 47-yard field goal at the horn and then going on the road and dramatically knocking off (Washington and Lee University) — those’ll be the things I’ll remember. And hey, we’re second place in the league. That’s not too bad, but it’s certainly not where we want to be.”

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He cited those epic wins as the year’s high point and the low point as the 48-35 home loss to Randolph-Macon College in the Nov. 10 season finale with the ODAC title and playoff berth on the line. He said it was “disappointing, because I really felt that it was a game we could win.”

Favret noted he will “miss a great quarterback” in senior Alec Cobb. “He was really special.”

Looking to 2019, the coach said, “We do have every single starter back on offense except the quarterback, and we have a guy who’s ready. Clay Vick’s been groomed for the position. He’s (going to be) a senior, he’s a good player, and he’ll have some toys with him, with Major (Morgan) coming back and Kaleb (Smith) and the whole offensive line. So I’m looking forward to the challenge. Defensively, we have Griffin Davis back; he’s got an outside shot of being Player of the Year in our conference, so good times ahead. We’ve got a real strong freshmen and sophomore class …”