Photo by Adrienne Terzuoli
Boca Raton, FL – The Wagner College football team dropped a 42-7 decision at FBS member FAU in front of 14,210 fans on Saturday night at Howard Schnellenberger Field at FAU Stadium. With the loss, Wagner falls to 0-4 on the season while the Owls of Conference USA (CUSA) improve to 2-2.
The Seahawks return to the friendly confines of Hameline Field to open Northeast Conference (NEC) play on Saturday, September 28 at noon in a game that can be seen live on ESPN 3. LIU, playing its first-ever NEC game this afternoon, fell at home to Sacred Heart by a count of 34-10.
As for tonight's matchup, Owls' quarterback Chris Robinson completed 25-of-36 passes for 379 yards and five touchdowns, with wide receiver DeAngelo Antoine on the receiving end of 11 of those throws for 173 yards and four scores.
For Wagner, junior wide receiver
Joshua DeCambre caught eight passes for 124 yards and a touchdown, with the score coming on a brilliant second-quarter 28-yard TD reception from graduate student quarterback
Christian Alexander-Stevens, which came on a 4th-and-9 play.
The 124 yards receiving yards are a career high for DeCambre, while the eight receptions match a career high first set at Syracuse (9/8/18). DeCambre's performance marked the first 100-yard receiving game by a Seahawk since September 29, 2018 when
D'Erren Wilson had 10 catches for 127 yards at Monmouth.
For the season, the 6-4, 200-pound DeCambre leads the Seahawks with 18 catches for 290 yards (16.1 average) and two touchdowns.
"Josh has worked really hard ever since last year," said Seahawk fifth-year head coach
Jason Houghtaling. "There was some good protection on those plays, so it takes a whole team. But yeah, Christian and Josh certainly do a good throwing and catching it."
Junior wide receivers
Jeremiah Lorick and
Noah Ellison also also set career highs with eight and three receptions, respectively.
In his return to the Sunshine State, Alexander-Stevens, a Lakeland, FL native and graduate student transfer from FIU, was 22-of-38 through the air for 218 yards, the one TD and his first interception in a Wagner uniform. The 22 completions and 38 attempts are both high water marks for his four-game Wagner career, while his Seahawk-best passing yardage total is a 243-yard effort on September 7 vs. East Stroudsburg.
Defensively, senior outside linebacker
Khaliq Byard, coming off a 14-tackle effort that at Stony Brook last week that earned him NEC PrimePerformer honors, paced the Green & White with six tackles. Sophomore outside linebacker and sophomore free safety
Naseem Barnett were active as well as each was credited with five tackles on the night.
Wagner trailed 28-7 at the half and allowed just 14 second-half points, coming up with a number of big stops throughout the contest.
"I thought defensively we played pretty well for most of the game," said Houghtaling. "Offensively, we had too many penalties. We couldn't get the running game going, so the offensive line play wasn't good enough. Credit them, but yeah, now we're getting ready for conference play and looking forward to next week."
NOTES
The 2019 Seahawk Roster Features 13 Player who Hail from the State of Florida:
QB
Christian Alexander-Stevens
QB
Korey Besse
TE
Jeremiah Dezard
RB
Prince Hall
DB
Dee'Shari Keith
DB
Darrell Malone
DL
Julian McCleod
RB
Dymitri McKenzie
DB
Myron Morris
PK
Tanner Nairn
DB
Malik Prioleau
OL
Xavier Santiago
QB
Robert Smithwick
Wagner vs. Conference USA
With tonight's loss, the Seahawks fall to 0-4 all-time vs. teams who are current members of Conference USA.
All-Time vs. CUSA
August 31, 2012: FAU* 7, Wagner 3 - *Member of the Sub Belt Conference when this meeting occurred
September 6, 2014: FIU 34, Wagner 3
September 5, 2015: Rice 56, Wagner 16
September 21, 2019: FAU 42, Wagner 7
FAU Contest Marked 11th Time Seahawks have Faced an FBS Foe
Tonight's matchup at FAU marked the 11th time that Wagner face an FBS foe, having played at least one opponent from college football's highest division in each of the last eight seasons. While 0-11 in these contests, Wagner has the distinction of playing the two closest games vs. FBS teams among all Northeast Conference (NEC) opponents.
August 29, 2019: UConn 24, Wagner 21 (Point Differential: 3)
August 31, 2012: FAU 7, Wagner 3 (Point Differential: 4)
