By Tiffany Williams –
Holy Cross staggered into Fenway Park looking like a program headed for winter hibernation, dragging a battered 2-9 record and the dead weight of a season full of bruises. Georgetown showed up at 6-5 dreaming of finally exorcising a decade of purple nightmares. Instead, the Hoyas walked out of the old ballpark looking like they had been fed into a wood chipper. Holy Cross didn’t just win. The Crusaders detonated Georgetown 42-7 and extended their chokehold on the rivalry to 26-11, stretching their personal win streak to ten straight and reminding the Hoyas that hope is dangerous and usually punished.
The carnage started early. At 10:08 of the first quarter, Holy Cross rolled into a No Huddle-Shotgun look and Dominic Campanile fired a short right strike to Alijah Cason at the 8-yard line. Cason strolled untouched into the end zone for a 9-yard score, and Luis Palenzuela knocked through the extra point with Ethan Moss holding and John Owens snapping. Georgetown 0, Holy Cross 7. For a team that has lived on frustration all season, Holy Cross found instant oxygen. Georgetown found its first hint of doom.
Midway through the second quarter, the roof caved in. With 6:26 left, Georgetown’s Josh Leff lined up to punt, but Dominic Campanile knifed in and blew the kick to pieces. Sam Boyer corralled the loose ball at the Georgetown 1-yard line and dragged it in for a touchdown, another dagger delivered by the Crusader special teams. Palenzuela drilled the kick. Georgetown 0, Holy Cross 14. One bad protection, one blown punt, and Fenway Park already felt like a green cathedral of misery for the Hoyas.
The third quarter was when Georgetown broke. At 7:55, Dez Thomas II tried to rescue his offense but instead gift-wrapped catastrophe. Eli Thompson jumped a throw at the Holy Cross 6-yard line and tore down the field for a 94-yard interception return, the kind of play that turns a football field into a funeral procession. Palenzuela’s PAT was good. Georgetown 0, Holy Cross 21. Thompson wasn’t done tormenting Georgetown, and neither was Holy Cross.
Only then did Georgetown finally show a pulse. With 4:30 left in the third, Jack Johnson hit Savion Hart on a short right pass that Hart turned into a 17-yard touchdown. Thomas Anderson hit the extra point. Georgetown 7, Holy Cross 21. A flicker of life, but nothing more. Hart was doing everything he could, but the scoreboard already felt like a locked vault.
Holy Cross slammed the door in the fourth. With 5:01 left, Max Mosey sliced Georgetown apart on a No Huddle-Shotgun rush left and turned the corner for a 46-yard touchdown. The burst was clean, violent, and final. Palenzuela converted again. Georgetown 7, Holy Cross 28, and the Hoyas were drowning under purple waves.
Barely 17 seconds later, the dagger twisted. Jack Johnson, trying to salvage anything, fired a pass from a No Huddle-Shotgun formation that sailed straight into the arms of Cam Jones at the Georgetown 23. Jones returned it the full 23 yards for a touchdown. Palenzuela stayed perfect. Georgetown 7, Holy Cross 35. At that moment, the scoreboard wasn’t a measurement. It was a warning label.
Two minutes later, Holy Cross delivered the knockout that bordered on cruelty. With 2:13 remaining, Sam Slade burst through the middle on a No Huddle-Shotgun run and ripped off an 88-yard touchdown, the kind of breakaway that turns defenders into bystanders. Palenzuela tacked on the extra point. Georgetown 7, Holy Cross 42. Fenway erupted. Georgetown imploded. Holy Cross strutted.
Campanile’s passing numbers weren’t pretty—7 of 15 for 54 yards, averaging 3.6 yards per attempt with one touchdown and no interceptions—but he didn’t need to be a surgeon when his teammates were carving up Georgetown from every angle. He even blocked a punt. Holy Cross didn’t need finesse. It needed ruthlessness, and it delivered.
On the ground, the Crusaders mauled Georgetown. Slade racked up an absurd 88 yards on his lone carry. Jayden Clerveaux churned out 65 yards on 16 carries, grinding down the Hoyas snap after snap. Mosey added 48 yards on 3 attempts, inflated by his 46-yard score. Nyeoti Punni chipped in 40 yards on 11 carries, Joseph Williams gave them another 17 yards, and even Moss found 11 on his only rush. Campanile, under pressure all day, finished with –16 on 4 carries, but the damage done by everyone else left no room for complaint. The Crusaders ran 42 times for 251 yards, averaging 6.0 yards per carry and punching home two touchdowns. Georgetown had no answer and less resistance.
Receiving offered no flashy statistics, but it didn’t have to. Mosey led with 5 catches for 37 yards, Cason had his touchdown grab for 9 yards, and Slade added 8 more. Holy Cross totaled just 54 yards through the air, but efficiency wasn’t the point. The scoreboard told a different story—a story written with turnovers, special teams explosions, and defensive bloodletting.
The real carnage came from the Holy Cross secondary. Thompson hauled in two interceptions for 98 yards and a touchdown, an individual demolition that might haunt Georgetown film sessions for years. Jones added his own 23-yard pick-six, and Chisom Onwuzurigbo scooped up an interception for –1 yards. Four picks, 120 return yards, two touchdowns. Onwuzurigbo also snagged a fumble recovery to put a bow on the turnover festival. Holy Cross didn’t just win the turnover battle; it flipped Georgetown upside down and shook the ball loose.
Georgetown’s offense never recovered from the avalanche. They finished with more first downs than Holy Cross (18 to 10), and even out-gained the Crusaders through the air with 162 passing yards on 16 completions. Hart gave them 68 rushing yards, Jayden Sumpter added 26, and Johnson scrambled for 21. But Thomas II finished with –10 rushing yards and the Hoyas’ ground game sputtered to 100 yards total at a meager 2.7 per carry. Seven players caught passes, but the distribution didn’t matter when the interceptions kept coming.
Special teams offered no rescue mission. Anderson made his lone PAT. Mahasin managed solid kick-return numbers—53 yards on 3 tries—but nothing broke open. The Hoyas had no punt returns. They had no spark. They had no miracle. They only had turnovers and missed chances.
Holy Cross, on the other hand, committed 16 penalties for 194 yards, an eye-watering tally that would doom a lesser team. Not this one. Not on this night. Georgetown’s 49 penalty yards couldn’t compensate for five turnovers, a blocked punt touchdown, two pick-sixes, and a ground game that looked like it had been fed into a thresher.
In the end, the story wasn’t just that Holy Cross won. It was how they won—by overwhelming Georgetown in every phase that mattered. By turning Fenway Park into their personal revival tent. By dragging a 2-9 season into a place where ghosts live and refusing to let it die without fireworks.
Holy Cross walked in staggering. They walked out stomping. Georgetown came in believing the streak might finally end. Instead, the Hoyas learned that some nightmares don’t fade. They tighten. They sharpen. They wait.
Holy Cross 42, Georgetown 7. Ten straight. Rivalry still owned. Seasons forgotten. Statements delivered. Fenway cracked like a bat on ball, and the echo was loud enough for everyone to hear.