SPRINGFIELD, N.Y. – The Union College football team struggled to contain Springfield College's triple option attack as the Pride dealt the Garnet Chargers a 37-20 defeat on Friday night at Stagg Field.
 
Junior Patch Flanagan finished the day 21-of-38 for 262 yards and two touchdowns, both of which went to senior Robbie Tolbert, who caught seven passes for 71 yards and moved into a tie for 10th place on Union's career receiving touchdowns list with 14 career scores. Classmate Michael Fiore also ran for 73 yards to become the 13th player in program history to rush for 2,000 career yards for Union (1-2).
 
Springfield (3-0) ran for 354 yards on the evening and had four players rush for at least 70 yards, led by Dante Vasquez with eight carries for 94 yards and two touchdowns. Arsen Shtefan ran for 93 yards and two touchdowns as well for the Pride.
 
After Union punted on the game's opening possession, it took Springfield only three plays to score the game's first touchdown. After two runs for 18 yards, Vasquez rumbled 47 yards to the endzone to put the Pride up 6-0 with 3:52 gone by in the opening frame.
 
The next Union drive was short-circuited by a false start, but sophomore punter Hayden Hall booted a 54-yard beauty that took a fortuitous bounce and was downed at the one-yard line. The defense then did its job and kept Springfield pinned inside the 10-yard line to force a Springfield punt and the Garnet Chargers got the ball back at the SC 38-yard line. After a steady dose of Fiore and a 17-yard connection to junior Gil Rivera, Flanagan eventually found a seam to cross the goal line for the score. Senior AJ Condemi broke the plane on the subsequent two-point conversion to put the visitors up 8-6.
 
The Garnet Chargers fell victim to another long run on the final play of the first quarter, as Joseph Cannizza ran 63 yards to the Union 21-yard line and Vasquez scored his second touchdown of the game three plays later to put the Pride back in front.
 
After a Union punt, Springfield used several chunk plays to get into the red zone, but the defense made two key stops to force a Pride field goal that kept Union within a possession down 16-8 with 4:54 left in the second. The momentum was short-lived, however, as a Fiore fumble on the subsequent drive gave the ball back to Springfield in plus territory and the home team quickly made Union pay with another touchdown to take a 23-8 lead headed into halftime.
 
After the teams traded fourth-down stops to start the third quarter, Springfield cemented its advantage with a four-play, 59-yard drive capped by a Shtefan 10-yard touchdown run to take a 30-8 lead into the fourth frame. Union strung together a 13-play drive that spanned 79 yards and was finished off by a five-yard touchdown pass to Tolbert to make the score 30-14, and the visitors put together another 79-yard drive in the final minutes to get Tolbert his second TD of the game and complete the scoring.
 
Union finished the night with 387 total yards, compared to 422 for Springfield.
 
Union will finish up non-conference play next Saturday at Montclair State University, kicking off at 5 p.m.