Football Rolls Past Hartwick, 42-14: Keeps Post-Season Hope Alive
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Nov. 6, 2004 – Springfield College senior fullback
Tim Lutgens (Greenwich, N.Y.) rushed for 164 yards and a touchdown as the Pride cruised to a 42-14 victory over Hartwick (N.Y.) in an Empire 8 Conference game this afternoon on Benedum Field.
SC, which improved to 6-2 and 3-2 in the Empire 8, kept its hopes for a bid to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Northeast Championship game alive with the victory. A berth in that game would be SC’s third-consecutive post-season bid, a first in the program’s 111-year history.
Lutgens, who moved into third place at SC with 2,873 rushing yards, and senior quarterback
Ryan Sylvia (Marion, Mass.) both had big days in their final regular-season appearances on Benedum Field. Sylvia set a school record with his 45th-career rushing touchdown, a 31-yard score six seconds into the second quarter. He eclipsed Kevin Cahill’s mark of 44 set from 1997 to 2000. Sylvia totaled 104 yards on 14 carries today.
The Pride’s defense smothered the Hawks (1-7, 0-5 E-8), recording six sacks. Hartwick, which botched snaps on two punts in the first quarter, was held to minus-83 yards rushing, just 29 yards shy on the NCAA Division III record for fewest rushing yards. SC senior defensive tackle
Brian McLellan (Mansfield, Mass.) had a team-high nine tackles, including two tackles-for-loss and a half-sack, and senior defensive end
Curtis Schmidt (Whitesboro, N.Y.) had 2.5 tackles-for-loss and 1.5 sacks.
Lutgens got the Pride on the board with a three-yard run with 7:16 left in the first quarter. After Sylvia’s 31-yard score made it 14-0, junior fullback
Andre Clayton (Manchester, Conn.) had a five-yard TD run at 9:34 of the second quarter. On the Hawks’ next drive, SC sophomore safety
Kevin Fessette (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) scooped a fumble in the end zone to make it 28-0 with 8:04 left in the half.
SC freshman
Chris Sharpe (Derry, N.H.) opened the second half with a 93-yard kick-off return for a touchdown, marking the Pride’s first kick-off return for a score since Luke Quigley did it at UMass-Dartmouth on Sept. 8, 2001. In the fourth quarter, senior quarterback
Mike Judge (Chatham, N.J.) hooked up with senior split end
Mike Grendal (Foxboro, Mass.) for a 31-yard TD pass.
Team Links
Head Coach Mike DeLong
Michael C. “Mike” DeLong ’74 enters his 31st season as a head football coach in the fall of 2012. He enters his 29th year at Springfield College alone. For the past 28 years, he has been the head coach at Springfield, his alma mater. Mike had also been the head coach at Maine Maritime in Castine, Maine in 1979 and 1980.
Read more.
Contact Head Coach Mike Delong
E-Mail | Phone: 413.748.3156
