Caledonia-Mumford/Byron-Bergen scored touchdowns on their final offensive possession of the first half and their first of the second half to take a 20-16 lead, but allowed three touchdowns in the fourth quarter of their 38-20 New York State Class C Regional football playoff game loss to Cleveland Hills of Section VI at the College at Brockport.
The team earlier won the Section V title in their second year as a merged program after Byron-Bergen spent several years partnered with Elba.
Cleveland Hills ran a 10-play, 59 yard scoring drive – all on the ground – after receiving the opening kickoff and was successful on the two-point conversion to jump out to an early 8-0 lead.
It did not take long for the CMBB Raiders to respond. On a drive starting on their own 45-yard line, they were stopped on first down before senior quarterback Anthony Maye faked an inside handoff and scampered 55 yards untouched to make it 8-6.
The Golden Eagles scored in the second quarter on a 60-yard touchdown run and another two-point conversion to extend the lead to 16-10.
The Raiders again pushed right back as Maye, after converting on fourth-down and inches, found junior Lucas Stuccio on a 48-yard catch-and-run down the right sideline. Stuccio’s extra point closed the gap to 16-13.
CMBB opened the second half with a seven play, 49 yard scoring drive highlighted by a 22 yard reception by senior Robert Stevens and capped by sophomore Bryce Yockel’s two-yard scoring run. The extra point gave the Raiders their only lead of the game 20-16.
The Raiders defense forced a punt on the Golden Eagles next possession with Anthony DiQuattro registering a tackle-for-loss and Josh Platt forcing an intentional grounding call with third down pressure.
But the turning point came on a late-third quarter Raider drive that extended into the fourth. A 12-play drive that ate up almost seven minutes came up empty when they failed to convert on a fourth-down and four.
Cleveland Hills took over literally scoring touchdowns on a 59-yard run, a 46-yard run and a 91 yard run on their next three possessions to seal the victory.
“We played our hearts out,” Maye said. “I thought we were going to keep the lead, but things happened. We were going to pass the ball more (in the second half) and that’s what we did, but apparently it wasn’t enough.”
“The weather was a big factor,” Yockel said. “We came out fast and quick.”
Yockel rushed 13 times for 47 yards for the Raiders and Maye led with 89 yards on the ground plus was 11-for-12 passing for 168 yards.
