FORT WAYNE – Kevin Donley occasionally points toward his 33 years of being a head coach and says he’s just about seen it all in college football. But this season – his 14th with Saint Francis – he admits there was something new.

In his Cougars’ 26-14 NAIA quarterfinal playoff game Saturday, Donley’s ninth-ranked team lost at No. 3 Georgetown, Ky.

It was the third loss of the season for Saint Francis (9-3), which had a five-game winning streak broken. Earlier in the year, the Cougars lost to then-No. 1 Saint Xavier and shortly after that lost to No. 2 Marian.

That gave Saint Francis losses to the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 teams, something he’s not sure he’s even heard about, much less experienced for himself.

“No,” Donley says via cellphone on the bus trip home, “I can’t say that I have seen that. I guess we didn’t mess around by getting upset by anybody. We got beat by the best.”

Even on the return trip home, Donley still thinks his team was better than Georgetown (12-0) overall, but not Saturday.

The turnover bug that cost Saint Francis in its two previous losses bit it again with two fumbles and an interception. The offense was stymied for 239 total yards, and Georgetown’s time of possession was nearly 12 minutes more, 35:52 to 24:08.

Saint Francis missed an opportunity to take a 7-0 lead when it had two chances inside the Georgetown 2-yard line, but both times the Cougars were stopped.

“That set the tone,” Donley said of the missed scoring chance.

A fumbled punt led to a 10-0 Georgetown lead and short field position helped the deficit grow to 17-0 before senior running back Frank Wolfe scored on a 12-yard run with 2:43 left.

After Georgetown got the lead to 24-7, Saint Francis senior quarterback Justin Boser connected with senior running back Koby Frye for a 24-yard touchdown pass.

Georgetown got its final points when a fumbled snap was booted to the back of the end zone by Boser.