More than 100 points later, the Bishop Ludden football team was tired and sore – but was also exhilarated because it knew its season would extend into the Section III Class D playoffs.
The Gaelic Knights secured that post-season berth by surviving a wild battle with defending sectional champion Sandy Creek, prevailing 56-49 in a game not decided until Sh’ikem Lee found Keandre Sanders for a 22-yard touchdown pass with 22 seconds left.
Ludden had managed to survive a supreme effort by Sandy Creek running back Joe Benedict, who gained 406 yards on 35 carries and scored six touchdowns, two of them on 30-yard runs in the first quarter as the Comets grabbed a 21-14 lead.
Right away, though, the Gaelic Knights showed that it could damage Sandy Creek with big plays of its own. Kevin Burkhart’s 75-yard TD run in the opening period followed Lee’s initial score from 15 yards out, though John McGrew’s 28-yard dash to the end zone had the Comets up 21-14 through one period.
A big early moment came in the second quarter. Benedict had scored from 30 yards out to make it 28-14, but then Sanders took the ensuing kickoff and raced 90 yards for his first TD of the night, keeping Sandy Creek from getting too far away.
More madness followed in the rain and wind, Lee hitting Se’Vaughn Williams on a 32-yard scoring pass and Joe Connor from 26 yards out,with a Benedict 18-yard TD run in between, leaving it at 34-34 going into halftime.
Things calmed down a bit in the third quarter, Ludden going in front 41-34 on Lee’s 18-yard scoring pass to Connor, the Comets tying it again, 41-41, when Benedict scored on a 39-yard run midway through the period.
Then no one could score again until, with 5:31 to play, Sanders, from the Comets’ 38, sprinted to the end zone. Down 48-41, Sandy Creek answered again on Benedict’s five-yard run with 2:05 left, and when Benedict cashed in on a two-point run, it was 49-48 in the Comets’ favor.
Here, though, the effect of Sanders’ kick return was felt as a Sandy Creek onside kick went out of bounds. Taking over at its own 47, Ludden used clutch runs from Sanders and Burkhart to get to the Sandy Creek 22, where Lee threw to Sanders for the game-winner.
As Ludden prepares for next Friday’s game at Weedsport, Jordan-Elbridge would host Lowville, attempting to recover from what Altmar-Parish-Williamstown running back Jordan Mull did to his namesake opponent as the Rebels beat the Eagles 49-20.
Mull set an APW school record, amassing 491 yards on just 22 carries, and unlike with Joe Benedict against Ludden, it translated into a victory as Mull scored all seven of the Rebels’ touchdowns.
During the first quarter, Mull found the end zone on runs of 65 and 14 yards. J-E got on the board, too, but even with that, and a pair of second-quarter TD’s, the Eagles still trailed 35-21 at halftime because it didn’t have any answer for Mull’s big-play activity.
Three times in that second period, APW started out in its own territory, and every time Mull ran past J-E’s defenders as he recorded scoring runs of 57, 60 and 92 yards. And when the Rebels’ defense proved effective in the late going, Mull put the game away in the second half with dashes of 56 and 43 yards to the end zone.
With the loss, J-E fell to 2-3, but that was still two more wins than West Genesee possessed as it fell to Henninger 41-7 at Mike Messere Field, unable to recover from a first-half Black Knights blitz.
Henninger scored twice in the first quarter, on Darrius West’s one-yard run and Johnny Vigiliotti’s 45-yard pass to Emetri Allen. Then it pulled away in the second period when Tyler Mitchell recovered a fumble and returned it 46 yards for a TD before Vigliotti thew a 53-yard scoring pass to Mitchell and ran 20 yards for another score.
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter, with the score 41-0, did WG get on the board with Liam Barry’s 30-yard TD pass to Marcus Hudgins. The 0-5 Wildcats visit 3-2 Fayetteville-Manlius next Friday at 7 p.m.
