Nov. 12, 2005

Stats

Staten Island, NY - Sophomore place kicker Piotr Czech (Keyport, NJ / Keyport) kicked a 31-yard field goal with 1:21 remaining to lift host Wagner College past St. Francis (PA) University 23-21 earlier this afternoon at Wagner Stadium. The Seahawks end their 2005 season at 6-5; 3-4 NEC, while the Red Flash slip to 3-7; 3-4 NEC. For Wagner it marked the 24th time in Head Coach Walt Hameline's 25 years that the Wagner program finished at .500 or better.

For Wagner, senior QB John Sciarra (La Canada, CA / St. Francis HS / UCLA) threw for 297 yards on 19 of 39 with two touchdowns and was a perfect 4-4 on the final drive setting up Czech's game winner.

Wagner led 20-7 at the start of the fourth quarter before St. Francis stormed back to take a 21-20 lead with 4:21 left in the game. First, RB Todd Harris scored from 14 yards out at 13:43 in the fourth to atone for a portion of his game high 190 yards on 25 carries. Then WR Michael Caputo hauled in a 42 pass from Nate Coughlin that put the Red Flash ahead. Coughlin would finish 9-13 for 110 yards after taking over for the injured Anthony Doria in the third quarter.

St. Francis scored first in the game take a 7-0 lead on a 22-yard TD pass from Doria to Antoine Rivera with 1:03 remaining in the first quarter. After an interception by sophomore Al Phillips (Hialeah, FL / American) at the St. Francis 31 yard line, Wagner got on the board with a 24-yard Czech field goal at 2:29 in the second.

Two plays into the ensuing Red Flash drive, Phillips forced a fumble that was recovered by the Seahawks setting up a 27-yard TD pass to junior Chris Turner (Syracuse, NY / Henninger) at the 1:22 mark giving Wagner a 10-7 lead heading into the locker room. Turner caught eight passes for 108 yards on the afternoon.

The Seahawks would extend the lead to 17-7 after they took the opening drive of the third quarter into the endzone. Senior WR Shaun Grover (Cheshire, CT / Cheshire) finished off the drive with a 16-yard TD reception from Sciarra. Grover would finish with six catches for 100 yards ending the year with a season record of 78 receptions for 1,031 yards, breaking a previous yardage mark held by Rich Kotite in 1964.

After knocking Doria out of the game on a sack by senior Jeremy Stone (Lakeland, FL / Bartow HA / CC of San Fran.) and forcing the Red Flash to punt, Wagner tacked on three more points behind a 27-yard field goal from Czech for a 20-7 lead with 42 seconds let in the third.

Junior Warren Barnett (Springfield, MA / Central) had 88 yards on the ground for Wagner, while Graduate Marcus Wilson (Staten Island, NY / Poly Prep HS / Notre Dame) ran for 78, including a season long 41 yard run. Senior Craig Romano (Syracuse, NY / Solvay / Bridgton Acad.) had a game high 14 tackles (7 solo), while junior DB Chris Allen (Ravenna, OH / Kent) pick off his first career pass.

NOTES: Three field goals made are a career high for Czech, who also missed a 31-yarder in the second... Sciarra set a new Wagner single season record with 26 TD passes... Turner set a single season record with 12 TD catches... The TD pass to Grover ended a sting of seven straight TD passes to Turner... Doria threw two interceptions equaling his total from the previous nine games combined...Luke Palko (SFPA) went over the 200 career receptions mark... Caputo broke the SFPA season record for receptions previously held by Palko and tied the career TD receptions record with 23. ~wagnerathletics.com~