MARLBOROUGH, Mass. -- The race for governor in Massachusetts a turned a corner on Friday.

NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu reported Democrat Tom Reilly made blunt accusations against his party rivals in Thursday night's televised debate.

On Thursday night, Reilly played offensive tackle. On Friday, he was on the defense for accusing Chris Gabrieli of leaking financial information on Marie St. Fleur, Reilly's running mate of one day.

"There are clear differences between me and my opponents," Reilly said.

"He tries to turn the discussion on some sort of made-up attack on me, and I think that is sad and reprehensible," said Gabrieli

Gabrieli denied that his campaign leaked any information about St. Fleur.

"I don't believe it at all," Reilly said.

"It's sad when someone turns to desperate efforts rather than just talk about the issues that matter to Massachusetts," Gabrieli said.

While the truth of the matter remains cloudy, Gabrieli heads into the final full week of campaigning with traction from his performance Thursday night. He was so confident on Friday that he declared this now as a race between him and Deval Patrick, who doesn't deny he's the front-runner.

"It's a long way from the conventional wisdom of 18 months ago when we started this," said Patrick. "I don't take anything for granted. I think there is still a lot of work to do to win this. We have a great organization on the ground, and we need to put it to the test and get out the vote."

The primary is scheduled for Sept. 19.