When Bishop Ludden and Dolgeville meet up in football, what’s almost guaranteed is a pile of points, regardless of the field surface or the stakes.
A year after combining for 90 points in a mud-filled first-round playoff game, the Gaelic Knights and Blue Devils lit it up again, only this time on the Carrier Dome turf with the Section III Class D championship on the line.
Now, as then, it was Dolgeville coming out on top, Ludden unable to overcome three turnovers or the Blue Devils’ dominant ground game in a 50-38 defeat.
For all the skill it had on hand, Ludden was up against plenty with Dolgeville – not just a roster twice the size (44, to the Gaelic Knights’ 20), but also a program with more sectional championships (16) than any other program in Central New York.
Of course, a big play can negate all of those numbers – and that’s the specialty Ludden delivered on its second possession when Sh’ikem Lee threw deep and found Joe Connor for a 69-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline, a hint at the wild stuff ahead.
The Gaelic Knights hurt itself with a fumble on its next drive, recovered by Dillon Lyon. A drive of nearly six minutes followed, capped when Aasin Claus, on the Blue Devils’ first pass play of the night, hit Chase Doxtader in the end zone from 17 yards out on fourth-down-and-15.
Devin Gorinshek’s two-point run put Dolgeville in front, 8-6, and moments later Ludden turned it over again, Riley Nagle intercepting Lee at Ludden’s 20, and his return set up Nic Bailey’s one-yard TD plunge and a two-point pass from Claus to Dylan Lamphere.
In a 58-second span, a six-point lead had turned into a 16-6 deficit, and it got worse when Rowser’s 68-yard run got called back for a motion penalty. But Ludden settled down and put together a 71-yard drive that Lee cashed in by dashing 13 yards to the end zone on a scramble with 1:43 left in the half, also running in the two-point conversion.
That was enough time, though, for Dolgeville to answer, Bailey going 31 yards for a TD just 16 seconds before the break, extending Dolgeville’s lead to 22-14.
Then, taking the second-half kickoff, the Blue Devils drove 68 yards, all on the ground. The 6-foot, 220-pound Bailey, running behind a powerful Dolgeville line that dominated the line of scrimmage, went the final 25 yards to score for the third time before another two-point pass to Gorinshek.
Trailing 30-14, Ludden quickly answered, Connor turning Lee’s swing pass into a 47-yard TD sprint, plus a two-point pass to Se’vaughn Williams. But Dolgeville used much of the rest of the third quarter on a six-plus minute march that led to Bailey’s fourth TD on a four-yard run.
Connor offered a 39-yard run that, early in the fourth quarter, set up Lee’s four-yard TD pass to Connor. A minute later, though, Claus, on his first pass of the second half, found Nagle in single coverage for a 73-yard scoring play, with two more points making it 44-30.
And that only lasted a minute before Lee hit Tamir Rowser on a crossing pattern at midfield and Rowser completed a 61-yard TD play, adding Connor’s two-point run.
Clinging to a 44-38 lead, Dolgeville decided to gamble. On fourth-and-two at its own 23. Bailey fought his way to a first down at the 26.
“I could not let that (Ludden) offense get on the field again,” said Dolgeville head coach Dan Zilkowski.
That decision, along with timely runs by Doxtader, were part of an 87-yard march that consumed more than six minutes of clock, Bailey going the final eight yards for his fifth touchdown with 2:57 left as he finished the night with 182 yards on the ground.
Desperate to get another chance, Ludden’s last chance was thwarted when Connor fumbled inside Dolgeville’s 20 and Jordan Ortlieb recovered, allowing the Blue Devils to run out the clock and claim a 17th sectional title.
Despite the loss, Gaelic Knights head coach Mike Rogers said he was proud of how, with a small roster and little room for error or injuries, Ludden has gone 20-4 the last two seasons.
