The Brockport Blue Devils have made the Section V football playoff semi-finals for the past six consecutive years, but this year was different.
It turns out, very different.
Instead of their season ending with a semi-final loss, this year they won defeating Greece Arcadia 16-7 to advance to the finals for the first time in program history.
And then they won again, defeating second seed Canandaigua 28-7 at Sahlen’s Stadium to bring home their first Section V football championship.
“It’s been a real long road, but we finally crossed that bridge,” game Most Valuable Player Cory Gross said. “It’s a great feeling and those seniors over there did a great job.”
“We’ve been working since March to get to where we are right now and it just feels great to finally do what has never been done in Brockport football history before,” sophomore quarterback Ashton Scott said.
The Blue Devils got on the scoreboard first after Shane Hogan intercepted a Braves pass attempt that was first tipped by linebacker Josh Keegan.
A seven-play, 56 yard drive, including a key third down center screen to Austin Myers, was capped by three straight direct snap running plays out of the “wildcat” formation to the sophomore Gross – the last a three yard touchdown run. Cameron Fox’s extra point made it 7-0 Brockport.
An early second quarter Canandaigua drive was stopped on fourth down in the red zone when Gross leaped to tip away a sure touchdown pass.
Brockport capitalized on another Canandaigua turnover later in the second quarter when Jim Stone pulled the ball away from a Braves receiver with less than two minutes remaining in the first half.
The Blue Devils ran nine plays, including a fourth down conversion to Keenan, and capped the 62 yard scoring drive with an 18 yard touchdown pass from Scott to Antonio Alvarez.
The Braves scored on their first possession of the second half to close in at 14-7, but again turned the ball over on their next possession as Raphael Odey intercepted and ran it all the way to the Canandaigua 19 yard line.
Five plays later it was Gross again with a three-yard touchdown run on a direct snap to push the Blue Devils lead to 21-7.
Canandaigua had their next drive stall early in the fourth quarter as Keegan came up with a fourth down tackle. And Stone intercepted another Braves pass on their next possession to set up the clinching score as Jon Yaeger scampered in from eight yards out to make it 28-7 Brockport.
Gross finished with 88 yards rushing on 20 carries and Josh Keenan added 60 yards on the ground for Brockport. Scott was 9-of-19 passing for 119 yards while Odey and Jeremy Michaels combined for six receptions. The team scored on all four trips into the red zone.
Defensive lineman of the game Tyler Johnson led the way on defense with eight solo tackles including three sacks.
“Every year you think it’s going to happen and we get to semi-finals six years in a row and get over the hump and then we had a great performance after an awesome week of practice. It was just an awesome season for us,” Blue Devils head coach Scott Nugent said.
“When we first took over 15 years ago we just wanted to be competitive. To finally take my alma mater to a Sectional championship is beyond anything I ever thought of.”
