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New Britain, CT – Mobile junior quarterback
Chris Andrews (Queens, NY/St. Joseph's/Valley Forge Military Academy) ran for a game-high 84 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns and the Wagner defense recorded three interceptions while holding high-powered running back Rob Holloman to 54 yards rushing, in recording a 20-10 win at Central Connecticut.
With the victory, the Seahawks improve to 4-3 overall on the season and are 2-0 in Northeast Conference (NEC) play for the first time since 2010. The Blue Devils, under first-year head coach and Staten Island native Pete Rossomondo, fall to 2-6 on the year and are 0-3 in league play.
The Green & White are next in action on Saturday, November 1 when the Seahawks host Sacred Heart in a Homecoming Day clash that will kick off at 3:30 pm and be carried live on
ESPN 3. Sacred Heart entered today with an overall record of 6-1 and were atop the NEC standings at 2-0. Brandishing a Top 25 ranking for the first time in school history (No. 22 Coaches Poll/No. 23
Sports Network Poll, the Pioneers dropped a 30-27 decision at Saint Francis U. After falling behind by a 27-10 count in this one, the Pioneers stormed back to tie the game at 27-27, before the Red Flash won it on a late field goal.
Seahawk junior running back
Otis Wright (Fort Lauderdale, FL/Dillard) added 77 yards rushing on 18 carries today vs. CCSU while sophomore
Lloyd Smith (Willingboro, NJ/Valley Forge Military Academy) was the Seahawks' leading receiver with four catches for 61 yards.
Defensively, the Seahawks were paced by a trio of playmakers who recorded eight tackles apiece in senior linebacker
Max Wassel (Totowa, NJ/Passaic Valley), junior linebacker Stefon Font-Toomer (Bethlehem, PA/Liberty) and fifth-year senior safety
Daniel Mack (Miami, FL/Dade Christian/Wake Forest).
Hollomon, CCSU's all-time leading rusher with 3,430 yards entering the day, came into the contest averaging 124.9 yards rushing per game. This afternoon, the Seahawk defense held the speedy 5-8, 170-pound Philadelphia, PA native to 54 yards on 22 carries.
Wagner made a big defensive play early which led to the first points of the game. With CCSU facing a second-and-10 from its own 42 on the Blue Devils' initial possession, senior defensive end
John Aubel (Islip, NY/Nassau CC/Buffalo) hit CCSU QB Nick SanGiacomo as the junior was releasing the ball, and senior linebacker
Greg Hilliard (Brockton, MA/Suffield Academy/UMass) plucked the ball out of the air and returned it 23 yards to the Blue Devil 21.
Hilliard's first career INT led to a 23-yard field goal by senior
Bryan Maley (Eagle River, Alaska/Chugiak) which gave the Seahawks an early 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter. Another Wagner interception led to the Seahawks' first touchdown of the game, when fifth-year senior cornerback
Jarrett Dieudonne (Fort Lauderdale, FL/Dillard) picked off a SanGiacomo pass and returned it 43 yards.
This was the first of two interceptions on the day for Dieudonne and set up an eight-play, 53-yard drive that was highlighted by an 18-yard Andrews to Smith completion. This connection set up a three-yard Andrews touchdown run, with 9:40 left in the opening half, which staked the Seahawks to a 10-0 lead.
CCSU struck back quickly, however, on the second play of its next possession when SanGiacomo hit wide receiver Tyrell Homes on the near sideline and the senior outsprinted everyone en route to a 69-yard touchdown, making it a 10-7 game with 8:55 remaining in the half.
That's the way the score remained through halftime and into the early part of the third quarter before a huge Wagner special teams play set up the Seahawks' next touchdown. After CCSU was penalized for holding on the opening kickoff the second half, CCSU was backed up to its own 12. With CCSU facing fourth-and-one from its own 21, freshman defensive lineman Jordon Baskerville (West Point, NY/Milford Academy) knifed through to block Groth's punt with Font-Toomer recovering at the Blue Devil five. On third-and-goal from the three, Andrews scampered into the end zone for his second TD on the afternoon, making it a two-score game at 17-7 with 11:52 remaining in the third quarter.
Dieudonne's second interception of the game on CCSU's ensuing drive squelched a Blue Devil threat when a heavily-pressured San Giacomo lofted a 2
nd-and-10 pass from the Seahawk 34 that the Purdue transfer picked off at the five.
With 3:59 to go in the third quarter, Groth again made it a one-score game by drilling a 31-yard field goal to draw the Devils to within 17-10. Wagner then answered with an eight-play, 57-yard march that bridged the third and fourth quarters, resulting in Maley's second 23-yard field goal of the game, making it a two-score game again at 20-10 with 14:13 left to play.
The Wagner defense continued its solid play the rest of the way in preserving the win. CCSU redshirt freshman QB Quinn Fleeting came on in place of SanGiacomo, who was shaken up, and completed 3-of-6 passes for 47 yards but was unable to lead the Blue Devils to any scores.
The Seahawks took over at its own 36 with 6:34 to play after Fleeting misfired on fourth-and-one. In impressive fashion, Wagner ran the ball 11 consecutive times, recording three first downs, while taking 5:23 off the clock and forcing CCSU to call its final two timeouts. By the time the Blue Devils took over on downs at their own 25, there was just 1:11 left to play and the Seahawk defense salted it away from there.
SanGiacomo finished 11-of-20 passing for 187 yards and a touchdown, but was harassed into throwing those three interceptions. Holmes, with the benefit his 69-yard score, wound up with 165 receiving yards on seven catches. Like Wagner, CCSU was led defensively by three players who recorded eight tackles apiece in David Campbell, Chris Abner and Shacor Privott.
For the game, Wagner out-rushed CCSU 175-97, while the Blue Devils held a 234-96 edge in the passing department. All told, CCSU wound up with a 331-271 edge in yards but Wagner's 3-1 edge in the turnover department was too much for the Blue Devils to overcome.
NOTESDieudonne Now Tied for Sixth All-Time in Career INTsWith his two interceptions vs. CCSU this afternoon, Dieudonne now has five for the season and 12 for his career, a figured ties him for sixth place on the Seahawk all-time career list.
Seahawks Take 14-13 Lead in All-Time Series with CCSUWith the 20-10 victory at CCSU, the Seahawks now lead the all-time series vs. the Blue Devils, 14-13. It also marked Wagner's second straight win at CCSU. On September 22, 2012, an 0-3 Seahawk team posted a 31-13 win under the lights at Arute Field, a victory that would jump-start a nine-game winning streak that carried Wagner to its first-ever NEC Championship, to the second round of the NCAA Division I FCS Playoffs, a season record of 9-4, and rankings of No. 21 and No. 22 in the Final FCS
Sports Network and Coaches Polls, respectively. Today's win also avenges a 52-17 loss that the Seahawks absorbed on Grymes Hill last season on November 2, 2013.
PersonnelDefensively, Wagner opened the CCSU game with a five-linebacker, two down lineman defensive set. The starting linebackers were fifth-year senior
Greg Hilliard, junior
Najee Harris, senior
Anthony Emmanuele on the outside, along with senior
Max Wassel and Stefon Font-Toomer at the inside linebacker spots. Wagner's two starting defensive linemen were seniors
John Aubel and
Patrick Gibbons. Junior
Bruce Brittingham made his first start of the season at free safety.
Offensively, the Seahawks opened the game with sophomore
Matthias McKinnon at running back. The Seahawks opened the game in a four receiver look with sophomoreRB
Brandon Peoples in the slot, along with wide receivers
Isaiah Gills and
Andre Yevchinecz, who gained his first start of the season. The starting tight end was junior
Ryan Owens. Senior
Brett Buzzard was back in the starting lineup, at right tackle, after missing three games with a leg injury.
True freshman quarterback
Colin McGovern saw his career action on the opening series of the game, replacing
Chris Andrews for one play, which was a handoff. Senior QB
Brian Gehring (Tigard, OR/Tigard/Laney JC), who had started all six of Wagner's previous games, was unavailable after suffering a left wrist injury during the Seahawks wild 46-39 double-overtime win at Saint Francis U on October 11.
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