A long time has passed since the Bishop Grimes football team really offered a challenge to the top Section III programs – and when Section III threw a lifeline, the Cobras jumped at the chance to fight for a championship.
At least for the moment, those dreams aren’t far-fetched as, with a hard-fought comeback Sunday night in the Kickoff Classic at the Carrier Dome, Grimes defeated New York Mills 18-12 in overtime.
Mired in the Class D West division in recent years, the Cobras did not win a regular-season game in 2013, but they weren’t the only school fighting to keep football relevant.
Seeing this, Section III offered up a special National Football Foundation division (the NFF sponsors the annual Kickoff Classic and an end-of-season awards banquet at Turning Stone, among other activities) for those struggling teams.
Ultimately, Grimes joined in, as did 10 others. The Cobras were put in the West division with Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, Clinton, Hannibal, LaFayette/Fabius-Pompey and Oriskany, while New York Mills is part of an East division with Adirondack, Cooperstown, Little Falls and South Lewis.
These teams will have an eight-game regular season that runs through the weekend of Oct. 24-25. Then, the top teams advance to the post-season and will hold a championship game Nov. 9 at the Dome, but not advance to the state playoffs.
Still, it gives each of these programs a chance to get level and fair competition and play a full schedule of games, whether they make the NFF playoffs or not. Grimes’ introduction to this league would come against Mills, and it would prove exciting.
Both teams scored in the first quarter. The Marauders got on the board with quarterback Dalton Henry’s two-yard touchdown plunge, but Grimes countered with Shakari Williams’ eight-yard scoring run, set up by a Jakari Townsend interception.
Neither side could make a conversion, so it was 6-6 going into the second period. And it stayed that way through the next two periods, all the way to the opening seconds of the fourth quarter, when Henry’s 11-yard scoring pass to Terrance Nichols gave the Marauders a 12-6 lead.
By then, Townsend was out of the game with a knee injury. It affected the Grimes players, but they regrouped and mounted a clutch scoring drive capped when Williams’ replacement, Knox Wolaver, found the end zone from five yards out with 3:27 left in regulation.
Again, the conversion didn’t work, so Grimes had to settle for a 12-12 tie and overtime, where each team would get the ball on the opponent’s 20-yard line.
With all of the momentum, Grimes, getting the first possession, quickly moved to the Marauders’ five, and from there Wolaver scored a second time and put Grimes ahead by six.
Now Mills had to respond, but Wolaver sacked Henry and, on fourth down, a last-dash pass was intercepted, giving the Cobras an inspirational win.
Grimes plays its next two games on the road, and has a short week of preparation before visiting Onondaga Friday night at 7 p.m. The Tigers opened its season with a 15-8 loss to LaFayette/Fabius-Pompey.
