Travis Rearick may have sustained a season-ending knee injury in today's 30-27 loss to Gannon./ETN file photo.

Bryant Kimball couldn’t hold back the tears after Mercyhurst College lost, 30-27, to  Gannon today.

His sorrow was for more than losing the crosstown PSAC West rivals in Mercyhurst’s homecoming game at Tullio Field.

The Lakers were hurting emotionally because they lost senior quarterback Travis Rearick to a serious left knee injury early in the second half.

“It just hurt to see him out there hurting like that,” said Kimball, an McDowell High graduate.

Rearick, who threw 23 touchdowns last season to spark Mercyhurst’s run to winning a 2010 PSAC title, earning its first-ever NCAA playoff bid and winning a playoff game, had 13 touchdowns passes this season counting the two he had today that gave the Lakers a 13-3 halftime lead.

Then early in the second half, Rearick went down after being hit by Gannon senior defensive tackle Randy Colling after completing a 20-yard pass to Steve Yarbrough.

“My back was to him,” Mercyhurst sophomore center Steve Reinhardt of Bradford said. “I saw the ball go over my head. I heard some noises, then shoulder pads and he started screaming. I didn’t even know it was him when it happened. I thought it was one of their D-linemen. Then I turned around and saw a flag and he was down.”

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Drew Herrell rushed for a game-high 76 yards to help No. 19 Edinboro win 27-0 at Gannon./Photo by Christopher Millette of the Erie Times-News.

Sophomores Drew Herrell, D’Andrea Vaughn and senior Brian Davis all had their moments in Edinboro’s 27-0 win at Gannon today.

Herrell had a game-high 76 yards on 10 carries, Davis had 61 yards on 12 carries in mostly relief duty and Vaughn, who started the game, had 52 yards on 11 rushes. Together, they accounted for 189 of the team’s 193 rushing yards to help the No. 19-ranked Scots (4-0, 1-0) stay perfect and open PSAC West play with a win.

The Knights (1-3, 0-1) were without junior defensive tackle Ian Jeffers and junior defensive end Matt Jones, whom were both injured. Senior Wesley Smith had six total tackles in place of Jones and redshirt freshman Sean Herron, a Strong Vincent graduate who is 6-3 and weighs a whopping 360 pounds, had two assisted stops in place of Jeffers.

So Gannon’s defensive unit wasn’t full strength, but it may have struggled to stop Herrell, Vaughn and Davis running behind a veteran offensive line even if it was.

Herrell broke the longest run of 45 yards on a play in which he hid behind the lineman as if someone was trying to get him across the kitchen table, moved left and then roared to the right for the long gainer.

Vaughn brought his usual spin moves and elusiveness to his runs while Davis just plows people with power, but sophomore quarterback Cody Harris had his wheels going, too particularly early in the game.

On the game’s first drive, Harris had five rushes for 29 yards and capped it with an 8-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver David Bostic. Now Harris just had a net six yards rushing because he was sacked three times, but his ability to run kept Gannon off balance early.