WATERVILLE — Gabe Harrington’s college football career appeared to be over on Sept. 24. That day, the Colby College senior quarterback tore the ACL of his right knee early in the second quarter when he was sacked at Williams College.

Your senior season isn’t supposed to end just as it’s beginning, limping away from the first game. So Harrington didn’t let it.

Two months after being told his season was over, his college football career was over, Harrington was back on the field to lead the Mules in their final game against rival Bowdoin. There is knee surgery in Harrington’s future, probably over Christmas break, he said. That’s later. Now, he was celebrating Colby’s 32-16 win, and the fact that he was able to play an important part in the outcome.

“I started rehabbing. About Week 6, I was like, ‘I can actually do this,” Harrington said. “In Week 7, I decided I would do this.”

Harrington completed 10 of 18 passes for 125 yards. He didn’t start, alternating the first four Colby possessions with junior Christian Sparacio. By the middle of the second quarter, though, it was apparent the game was all Harrington’s. He completed four of his first five passes, three for a first down.

“He practiced this week and we didn’t know how he’d look. He looked pretty good,” Colby coach Jonathan Michaeles said. “It gives you a little boost… Guys who know this is their last chance to play a football game, it lifts everybody. It does, and it showed.”

With 9:42 left in the second quarter, Harrington gave his right knee its first real test. On first down and 10 from the Bowdoin 29, Harrington went up the middle untouched for a touchdown on a quarterback draw. The knee felt fine.

“We practiced that play during the week. I knew I had it. It worked perfectly,” Harrington said.

Michaeles said after watching Harrington in practice all week, he and the coaching staff had no problem adding the play to Saturday’s list.

“It was either you’re in or you’re out,” Michaeles said, “and he was in.”

Harrington was very much in. Thrown into the starter’s role as a sophomore in 2014, Harrington hadn’t missed a game in the last two seasons. He threw for just over 2,500 yards and 13 touchdowns the last two seasons combined, and this season was supposed to be his. You take two years of lumps to become the team leader as a senior.

“It was frustrating at first. It was tough. I took a role as a player-coach and it was great being around the guys, enjoying it,” Harrington said. “I didn’t know I would come back, but to come back, it means something special.”

Jabari Hurdle-Price, a senior captain and running back for the Mules, came back from injury to play against Bowdoin, too. Hurdle-Price missed just two games, though. He was happy to see his quarterback finish his career in pads, not in a Colby windbreaker.

“He’s like our emotional leader, so it was great having him back. He’s a great player, and an even better person, so it was great having him back for the final game,” Hurdle-Price said.

Harrington did not throw a touchdown pass in his senior season, but Colby (3-5) did go 2-0 in games in which he played, so that counts for something. He helped mentor Sparacio and freshman Jack O’Brien, who split time at quarterback in Harrington’s absence. That counts for something, too.

“Just being with the guys one last time, getting a win one last time, was unbelievable,” Harrington said.

By getting back on the field Saturday, Harrington’s senior season ended the way he always hoped it would. On the last snap of his college football career, Harrington took a knee, as the Mules lined up in victory formation.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

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Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM