Sports

Wagner plays on for battered borough

PLAQUE OF AMBITION: Wagner College of storm-ravaged Staten Island celebrates its Northeast Conference title last weekend, which gave the Seahawks a home game against Colgate in the opening round of the FCS playoffs today. (David Saffran)

Wagner’s football team has given its beaten-down borough a lot to feel good about of late.

It plans to continue that trend today.

The Northeast Conference champion Seahawks will host Colgate in the school’s first-ever FCS playoff tournament contest, a reason for celebration in the first place. Factor in Staten Island’s besieged state following Hurricane Sandy and the outpouring of support Wagner has received in its last two home games, and the atmosphere figures to be electric.

“We’re playing for something bigger than us,” said cornerback Torian Phillips, one of seven Staten Island products on the team.

Wagner is a remarkable story in itself. It was picked to finish seventh by the league’s coaches during the preseason, got off to an 0-3 start, then put together a shocking program-best eight-game winning streak behind star senior quarterback Nick Doscher, a 25-year-old Staten Island product who spent three years after high school as a catcher in the Royals organization.

“It was a big-time goal for us since Day 1 of winter conditioning,” Doscher said. “Anyone’s that in it has an opportunity to win it. Only [20] teams are still playing football in [the FCS]. We have to take this opportunity and try to run with it.”

Virtually the entire team has put in time between practices and classes to help out the borough. Some have visited shelters and given out food or clothes. Others went to the parts of the borough hit the hardest, where homes were lost, and did whatever they could to aid in the rebuilding process.

“It was devastating, what it looked like,” wide receiver Dan Ford said. “I’ve never seen anything like that, to see the bottoms of houses [left standing]. There was furniture all in the street.

“They were shocked we were even there. They couldn’t be more thankful.”

Compared to the rest of Staten Island, Wagner had it good, losing power and water for just a few days. The team missed a day of practice, and it used a generator and index cards to watch film. In its first game after the storm, Wagner went up and hammered previously undefeated Albany, 30-0, a game many players point to as the moment they began thinking about the conference title.

“We knew that it was our time,” Phillips said.

The following week, in front of a raucous sellout crowd at Hameline Field, the Seahawks rallied past Holy Cross for a dramatic non-conference victory and clinched the Northeast crown the following Saturday against Duquesne.

“I haven’t heard it like that in four years,” Doscher said. “Playing in front of those people, they wanted it just as bad as we did.”

Wherever he goes, Doscher is asked by well-wishers to continue this magical run for Staten Island. Some have told him the team’s run has made them smile while others have derived power from the eight-game winning streak, Doscher said.

The quarterback understands football’s small role in what remains a trying time for so many in the area. He just hopes he can see a few more smiles this afternoon.

“We want to rally around Staten Island and let them try and forget what they’re going through [for a few hours], give them something else to think about and play the best football we can play,” he said. “We’re definitely playing for Staten Island.”