For the fifth consecutive year, the Brockport Blue Devils football team made it to the Section V Class A semi-finals. The bad news is that, for the fifth consecutive season, that’s where their season ended at Sahlen’s Stadium; this time to Greece Athena on a touchdown with just 40 seconds remaining.
“It’s been like a curse – this building,” Brockport head coach Scott Nugent said. “But we can’t come out and make mistakes in the first half like we did and expect to win against a caliber team like Athena.
The Trojans opened with an 11-play, 78 yard scoring drive finished on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Ta’Von Granison to Osondi Dimgba.
On Brockport’s second offensive possession, Athena blocked the punt to set themselves up at the Blue Devils 19 yard line, but the Blue Devils defense rose to the occasion stopping a third down quarterback keeper for no gain and then forcing an incompletion on a pass attempt in the end zone on fourth down.
That triggered the offense to respond with a 12-play, 86 yard scoring march with quarterback Josh Michels finding Antonio Alvarez on a key third down pass completion followed on the next play by a Cory Gross 23-yard run up the middle.
Michels finished the drive plowing through the middle from seven yards out for the touchdown. Chris Carlson’s extra point tied the game 7-7.
Athena retook the lead on their next drive thanks to a 26-yard run, a key facemask penalty and a 36-yard touchdown pass to Dimgba. The extra point attempt failed and the Trojans led 13-6 at halftime.
The Blue Devils defense held twice in the third quarter to keep the game within reach as the defense forced a fourth down incompletion on one drive and a tackle on a fake punt by Alvarez.
They held again on a third down play to open the fourth quarter before going on their go-ahead 11-play 84 scoring drive.
A third-down pass completion to Rapheal Odey allowed the drive to continue and Michels finished it off by finding Odey on a 15-yard touchdown pass after rolling to his right. The extra point put the Blue Devils up 14-13.
The defense held on Athena’s next possession, which included a second down quarterback sack by James Baker, but the Blue Devils offense couldn’t move the ball on a four-and-out to give the Trojans the ball back at their own 43 yard line with 3:33 remaining.
A 12-play drive, including a key fourth down pass completion, led to a 10-yard scoring run by Granison. The two-point conversion attempt failed giving Athena a 19-14 lead.
Brockport had one last chance from their own 44 yard line, 34 second and two timeouts and advanced the ball to the Trojan 39 yard line, but their final two pass attempts fell incomplete to end the game.
“We keep plugging along and we’re here every year,” concluded Nugent. Our program is coming along in the last ten years. When I went to school here, if we won one game it was a great year, so one of my goals when I got here was to help turn the program around and we’re consistently in the upper echelon now and eventually our time will come.”
Michels finished 11-127 for 165 yards, Austin Myers led the ground attack with 34 yards on six carries and Carlton Ekiyor finished with four receptions for 58 yards.
