Box Score
Syracuse, NY – Syracuse All-American candidate Eric Dungey threw for 218 yards and five touchdowns in leading the Orange to a 62-10 win over Wagner at the Carrier Dome on Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, the Seahawks,
who earned a 40-23 win over Bowie State in the season opener last week, fall to 1-1 while Syracuse improves to 2-0.
Dungey engineered scoring drives on seven of the Orange's first 10 possessions while helping Syracuse build an advantage that reached 45-7 by halftime. Freshman defensive back Andre Cisco had two early interceptions that led to a pair of short SU scoring drives as the Orange jumped out to a 14-0 lead.
Senior quarterback
Luke Massei gained the start this afternoon for Wagner but, after throwing an interception on the game's first series, was replaced by graduate student
T.J. Linta. A 2018 Brown University graduate and two-year starter for the Bears, Linta provided a quick lift for Wagner upon entering the fray.
With Wagner trailing by that 14-0 margin, Linta engineered a four-play, 75-yard drive that took just 1:51, with the final 74 yards coming on a pair of big pass plays. On third-and-nine from the Wagner 26, Linta hit senior wide receiver
D'Erren Wilson on a 50-yard slant over the middle.
On the very next play, the 6-4, 240-pound Linta found tight end
Chris Woodard in the right flat and the senior did the rest, racing down the right sideline before going airborne, stretching the ball onto the pylon for the score. The TD pass from Linta to Woodard, who hails from Buffalo suburb of North Tonawanda, NY, made it a 14-7 game.
With the Orange on the move on the next drive, junior cornerback
Myron Morris intercepted a long pass from Dungey in the end zone, running stride for stride with the Syracuse receiver before making an over the shoulder catch, as the Seahawks took over at their own 25-yard line following the touchback.
The Orange then reeled off 31 consecutive points to close the half.
In the third quarter, after Linta was shaken up, the Seahawks turned to their third quarterback of the game, graduate student
Graham Lindman, a transfer from Ole Miss, who led the Seahawks on several well-executed drives, including an eight-play, 49-yard early fourth-quarter march, that culminated in a 26-yard field goal by sophomore
Eric Silvester.
Linta finished the day by completing 7-of-15 passes for 131 yards and the one TD. The 6-4, 215-pound Lindman ended up 9-of-15 through the air for 108 yards. In the receiving department, sophomore wide receiver
Joshua DeCambre, the rangy 6-4 local product who starred at Staten Island's Curtis High School, posted career numbers with eight receptions for 89 yards with a long catch of 19 yards.
Senior running back
Ryan Fulse, fresh off his 20-carry, 271-yard, three-touchdown effort in the lid-lifter vs. Bowie State, churned out a hard-fought 47 yards on 20 carries.
Defensively, redshirt junior inside linebacker
Santoni Graham shared game-high honors with 11 tackles, including a game-high eight solo stops. Fifth-year inside linebacker
Justin Osuji, along with sophomore defensive back
Tajai Owens, finished with six tackles apiece. A trio of Seahawk defenders, junior outside linebacker
Cam Gill (two tackles for loss), senior safety
Jesse Flaherty (one tackle for loss), along with Morris, added five stops apiece.
For Syracuse, Andrew Armstrong led the way with 11 tackles while Ryan Guthrie added seven.
Following the game, Wagner fourth-year head coach
Jason Houghtaling, who grew up two hours south of Syracuse in Windsor, NY, was asked about the Syracuse offense.
"They have a system and they stick with that system," he said. "Coach (Dino) Babers and his staff do great job implementing it. His guys understand what they need to do and you combine that with the talent out there, they're an explosive team."
Wagner is next in action on Saturday, September 15 when the Seahawks take a more than 2,000-mile flight to Bozeman, Montana to meet Montana State University in the first ever meeting between the Green & White and the Bobcats.
NOTES
*DeCambre's eight-catch afternoon led a group of eight different receivers who recorded at least one reception on the day. The other seven Seahawks in this department include Wilson (2-57), fifth-year senior
Andrew Celis (2-43), Woodard (1-24), fifth-year senior
Jeffrey Bost (1-24), redshirt sophomore
Willie Dale(1-10), senior
Denzel Knight (1-8) and senior
Andrew Cordani (1-0).
*For Cordani and Celis, the Seahawks' No. 1 punt returner who's coming off a productive four-year career at the University of Nevada, today's receptions marked the first of their respective Seahawk careers.
*Wagner was without the services of two-time All-Northeast Conference (NEC) inside linebacker
Quintin Hampton, who was sidelined with an upper body injury.
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