Saint Francis suffered its worst home defeat in its 13-plus years of football with a 40-13 loss to the NAIA's No. 2-ranked Marian on a windy, homecoming Saturday at Bishop D'Arcy Stadium. First-string fullback Nick Bradford's 4-yard touchdown run with 30 seconds remaining enabled the Knights (8-0) to hand the Cougars their second home defeat this season. Two weeks ago Saint Francis (4-2) lost to No. 1-ranked Saint Xavier, 42-31. The previous worst home loss was in Saint Francis' first season of football in 1998 when Malone registered a 55-30 win over the Cougars in what was the fourth game in Saint Francis football history. Justin Boser's 1-yard quarterback sneak late in the first period cut Marian's lead to 14-7, but the Knights got two touchdown runs from Tevin Lake and two field goals from Mike Josifovski to build a 33-7 lead. Back-up quarterback Wesley Hunsucker engineered an 18-play, 91-yard touchdown drive that ended with Hunsucker's 1-yard sneak with 4:03 remaining in the game. Lake ran for 144 yards, plus had the two touchdowns for Marian. The Cougars, meanwhile, had 86 yards rushing against the nation's No. 1-ranked scoring defense that came into the game with a 4.9 points per game average. Saint Francis will return home next Saturday to play Malone, beginning at noon. For more on this story see Sunday's Journal Gazette or go to www.journalgazette.net after 3 a.m.