NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Bentley University graduate student Danny Guadagnoli (Framingham/Framingham HS) closed out his career with four TD passes, including two long ones to senior Jeff Hill (Mansfield/Mansfield HS), and the Falcon defense came up with four takeaways and five fourth-down stops as the Falcons rolled to a season-ending 30-7 win over Merrimack College at Martone-Mejail Field Saturday afternoon.

Guadagnoli, who concluded his career with 69 touchdown passes, broke the Bentley single season record for passing yards that he set last year, finishing with 3,438. He also eclipsed 9,000 yards for his career with his final total 9,170.

Hill entered the game needing 50 yards to reach 1,000 for the season and he achieved that on the very first play from scrimmage, hauling in a 54-yarder from Guadagnoli for a 6-0 lead just 14 seconds into the contest. His two TDs gave him 224 career points, moving him up to fourth on Bentley's all-time list.

Sophomore linebacker Bryan Hardy (Barnstable/Barnstable HS) had a huge game defensively, making 19 tackles, the most by a Falcon in at least two decades and matching the most by a Northeast-10 player this season. A dozen of his tackles were solo and his day included three tackles for losses, a forced fumble and a pass break-up.

It appeared the Falcons would make it 13-0 less than three minutes after the opening kickoff, but an apparent pick-six by junior Craig Hanley (Walpole/Walpole HS) was negated by an inadvertent whistle. The interception, the first of four takeaways for the Falcons, was credited but Bentley was unable to capitalize on the turnover.

Bentley opened things up by scoring ten points in 21 seconds later in the opening quarter, making it a 16-0 game. Following the 20th career field goal for junior Michael Baron (Medfield/ Roxbury Latin School), sophomore Junior Chery (Waltham/Waltham HS) recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. Two plays later, Guadagnoli teamed up with senior Jet Kollie (Lowell/Lowell HS) on a 23-yard TD pass and Baron tacked on the extra point.

Merrimack's only touchdown of the afternoon came in the third quarter when junior Armond McRae (Nashua, N.H.) took the ball in from the two to finish an extended 18-play drive that consumed the first 9:33 of the second half.

It took less than two minutes for Bentley to get its 16-point lead left as Guadagnoli again went deep to Hill, this time for a 62-yard touchdown on a third-and-14 play.

Bentley closed out the scoring midway through the fourth with sophomore Sean Myers (Foxboro/Foxboro HS) on the receiving end of a 25-yard Guadagnoli TD pass.

Guadagnoli completed 20 of 36 passes on the day, missing out on his 13th career 300-yard game by just a single yard, and had 332 yards of total offense. Hill, Myers and Kollie each caught six balls with Hill finishing with 163 yards, Myers a career-best 108 and Kollie 33.

Defensively, there were a number of standouts for Bentley, in addition to Hardy. Senior linebacker Kyle Young (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial HS) had 14 tackles, Chery had 12 stops in his first career start and junior defensive end Paul Norris (North Attleboro/North Attleboro HS) finished with 10 tackles, including four for losses and one sack.

Bentley outgained the 4-7 Warriors 372-367 despite the home team running 23 more plays and possessing the ball for 34:09, including over 29 minutes in the first three quarters.

For Merrimack, sophomore QB Nick LaSpada (Billerica) was 29 of 43 for 242 yards, and he also scrambled for 55 yards. The Warriors went for it on fourth down six times and were denied by the Falcon D five times.

Bentley finished its season with a 5-6 overall record and four wins in its last five games.