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Harbridge reaches milestone in Flash loss

LORETTO – Another game, another record setting performance by the St. Francis University football team’s senior running back Kyle Harbridge.

Unfortunately for the Red Flash, they lost a closely contested Northeast Conference battle with the Wagner Seahawks, 10-7, Saturday afternoon at DeGol Field.

“All that [breaking individual records] is irrelevant to me and my team,” Harbridge said. “Every time we step out on the field, we want to win the game.”

Harbridge, who finished with a team-high 98 rushing yards on 21 carries, became the first player in the program’s history to rush for 4,000 career rushing yards. And he, obviously, has one more game to add to that total.

After three and outs for both teams to start the game, the Red Flash took it 65 yards on five plays on their second possession of the ball game. Harbridge would jet 43 yards for the score and break his own personal record of rushing yards for a single-season.

During the Seahawks’ following possession, they would put together an eight-play, 66-yard drive that ended with a 26-yard field goal by David Lopez. Wagner would put together a very nice 18-play 88- yard drive. Senior running back, Dominique Williams, rushed for 31 of those yards. That long drive ended with a 1-yard touchdown pass from Chris Andrews to Tyree Watkins. After an extra point by Lopez, the Seahawks led 10-7.

From that point on, both the Seahawks and the Red Flash defensive unit were stout after. Neither team even threatened the rest of the half. And for the game, Wagner’s defense limited the Red Flash to just six first downs, 70 yards rushing and just 144 total yards. The hosts limited Wagner to 16 first downs, 63 passing yards and 301 total yards of offense.

Brandon Small, who led St. Francis with 14 tackles, including one for loss, spoke about his and the defense as a whole.

“It wasn’t just about my performance,” Small said. “The whole defense had the mentality to leave it all out there. I just had it in my mind that I wanted to be the guy to make plays.

St. Francis, which fell to 4-6 overall and 2-3 in the NEC, wrap up its season next week at home against Robert Morris.

Harbridge talked about his team’s expectations for next’s week’s game that is meaningless in terms of having any playoff implications after this week’s loss.

“We have one game left,” Harbridge said. “We can either pack it in or fight to the end. We have to use this loss as fuel to motivate us. We have to continue to build for our underclassmen and for next year.”

The Seahawks upped their marks to 3-8 overall and 2-4 in conference play.

SFU coach Chris Villarrial was unavailable for comment.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Wagner3 7 0 0-10

St. Francis7 0 0 0- 7

First quarter

StF-Harbridge 43 run (Geesey kick), 9:13.

Wag-FG Lopez 26, 5:04.

Second quarter

Wag-Watkins 1 pass from Andrews (Lopez kick), 6:32.

A-1,214.

TEAM STATISTICSWSF

First downs166

Rushes-yards57-23828-70

Passing6374

Comp-Att-Int10-13-09-15-0

Return Yards1437

Punts-Avg.7-44.610-44.0

Fumbles-Lost2-10-0

Penalties-Yards5-406-49

Time of Possession36:0323:57

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Wagner-Andrews 24-127, D.Williams 25-95, Firestone 1-18, McKinnon 5-2, Team 2-(-4). St. Francis-Harbridge 21-98, Drayer 1-0, Dickson 2-0, Ward 4-(-28).

PASSING: Wagner-Andrews 10-12-0-63, Berg 0-1-0-0. St. Francis-Ward 7-13-0-49, C.Thompson 2-2-0-25.

RECEIVING: Wagner-Watkins 4-17, Greene 2-27, Carrington 1-7, Morgan 1-5, D.Williams 1-5, Gills 1-2. St. Francis-Laduke 2-28, Domonkos 2-16, Dickson 2-(-1), Harbridge 1-13, Bowman 1-12, T.Smith 1-6.

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