Red Flash football: Season for the ages
Trending
Team can stake claim
as best in school history
By Pat Farabaugh
For the Mirror
LORETTO -- The Saint Francis University football program won its second Northeast Conference title in school history on Nov. 19, securing the NEC's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs.
The Red Flash dropped their opening-round playoff game at Delaware on Nov. 26. The team finished the 2022 season 9-3 overall and 7-0 in the NEC.
Over the last several weeks, many people have asked me if this is the best football team in our school's history.
It is.
With all due respect to former Saint Francis head coach Art Martynuska's pair of 7-1 teams in 1971 and ’74, as well as Frank Pergolizzi's 8-2-1 squad in 1992 and current head coach Chris Villarrial's 7-5 NEC champs in 2016, I believe the 2022 team tops the list.
This year's team didn't just win all its NEC games this fall -- it rolled over conference opponents like a PennDot snow plow barreling down Cresson Mountain.
SFU outscored its seven NEC foes, 287-91. The team averaged 41 points in conference games and lit up the scoreboard for 50-plus points three times, including 51 against rival Duquesne in Loretto last month.
In the school's two financial-guarantee games against Akron and Richmond to open the season, the Flash took the Zips -- an FBS program -- to overtime and trailed the Spiders by just three late in the fourth quarter before a pick-6.
Following the loss at Richmond, the Flash reeled off nine straight wins -- seven NEC victories and non-conference wins at Norfolk State (45-26) and Georgetown (38-24).
There are currently a combined 261 FBS and FCS Division I football programs. As of the end of November, SFU was one of just 14 Division I schools that recorded winning streaks of nine or more games in 2022.
The last time a Saint Francis squad won nine games was during the presidency of William Howard Taft, when head coach and Franciscan priest Joe Savage's 1912 club team went 10-3.
SFU's offense -- led by NEC offensive player of the year Cole Doyle (quarterback) and NEC offensive rookie of the year Makai Jackson (wide receiver) -- ranks 14th in FCS after averaging 35.9 points through 12 games.
In total offense, the team ranks 25th among FCS schools (428.8 yards per game).
The Flash defense -- led by the league's defensive player of the year Donnell Brown (defensive lineman) -- is also among the best in the nation.
SFU ranks 21st in FCS in total defense after allowing opponents just 333 yards per game. The school ranks 25th in FCS in scoring defense (21.5 points per game).
The Northeast Conference began sponsoring football in 1996. In the league's first 14 seasons (1996-2009), SFU won a total of 12 NEC games.
Since Villarrial became head coach in 2010, the program has won 40 NEC games in 12 seasons (SFU's 2020 season was canceled because of the pandemic).
Villarrial -- the 2022 NEC coach of the year -- has built a program in Loretto that not only ranks first in the conference and among the best in FCS, but one that also now stands as the gold standard in the school's history.
Pat Farabaugh is a professor of communications at Saint Francis and serves as the football team's play-by-play announcer. He served as sports information director at the school from 1999-2005.