Sean Tucker ran for a career-high 232 yards and three touchdowns Saturday as Syracuse thumped visiting Wagner 59-0.
Garrett Shrader finished 17 of 17 for 238 yards with two passing touchdowns and a rushing score for Syracuse, which improved to 5-0 for the first time since 1987.
FCS foe Wagner (0-4) was outgained 631-50, finishing with four first downs and nine punts. The Seahawks’ Ryan Kraft went 2 of 6 for 19 yards, including a pick-six by Orange cornerback Duce Chestnut.
The first half was a complete annihilation. Syracuse led 49-0 at halftime after outgaining Wagner 425-19. Tucker ran for 227 yards and three TDs in the opening half, and Shrader passed for two scores, ran for another and completed all 14 of his attempts for an even 200 yards.
Shrader’s 1-yard TD run started the party less than four minutes into the contest before Tucker unleashed touchdown runs of 60 and 4 yards later in the period. Shrader then threw a pair of second-quarter TD passes — a 16-yard strike to Umari Hatcher and a 22-yard pass to Devaughn Cooper — to make it 35-0 midway through the second quarter.
Thirty seconds later, Chestnut stepped in front of a pass by Kraft and jogged 28 yards to the end zone. The cherry on top of the first-half uprising was Tucker’s third TD — a 6-yard score with 3:01 left before intermission.
The first half was such a lopsided affair that the teams agreed to play 10-minute quarters in the second half.
Tucker was still playing when the third quarter began, perhaps in hopes of setting the school’s single-game rushing record, but he walked off with an injury early in the period. LeQuint Allen replaced him in the backfield and quickly scored from 8 yards out to make it 56-0.
Allen then uncorked a 90-yard run on the Orange’s next possession, setting up a short field goal by Andre Szmyt. Earlier in the night, the first-half barrage of extra points helped Szmyt become the 28th kicker in FBS history to reach 400 career points.
–Field Level Media
