Even as time wound down and players scrambled around him, Pat Hackler maintained his composure, made his way to the line of scrimmage, took the ball and, when it was snapped, followed his blocks and fell into the end zone.
By the time he did, the clock had hit 0:00, and the Skaneateles football team had defeated Chenango Forks 27-26 in Saturday night’s Class B football regional final at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, a game that anyone who played in it – or watched it – would long remember.
Down 26-14 midway through the fourth quarter, pushed around for most of the game by the Blue Devils’ unrelenting ground attack, the Lakers managed to turn it around and prevail in the most dramatic way possible.
And it began not with the vaunted Skaneateles offense, but with a big defensive play from an unlikely source.
With 6:26 left, the usually airtight Forks offense flubbed, a fumble that the Lakers’ 265-pound senior lineman, Josh McIntyre, picked up near midifeld and returned for a touchdown.
Even with that, the Lakers trailed 26-21, and the Blue Devils drove to midfield, knowing that another first down or two might allow them to run out the clock.
But on fourth down-and-three at the 48, Lucas Scott, who had already scored twice for Forks, found himself stopped by several Lakers defenders inches short of the first down with three minutes left.
This gave Skaneateles a chance to win it. Hackler, to that point, had struggled as much as in any game the last two seasons, twice throwing interceptions and unable to lead any scoring drives in the second half.
At this critical moment, though, all of those previous ups and downs did not matter. As head coach Joe Sindoni put it, “Pat wanted the ball in his hands”, and everyone on the Lakers drew upon the close calls that marked its 2017 state title run.
Many of the plays on this final march were runs by Hackler, none more critical than a six-yard sweep to the two on fourth-and-three after Skaneateles had burned both of its remaining time-outs, only adding to the tension.
On first-and-goal, Areh Boni was stopped at the two. Hackler threw incomplete on second down, stopping the clock, but on third down, his sneak to the end zone was stopped a yard short.
Now it was a race for the Lakers to get to the line of scrimmage. Sindoni said that Hackler got off the final play with two seconds to spare, and with one more set of timely blocks, Hackler earned the most important six points of his record-setting career.
“I didn’t play well (overall), but we got the win and that’s all that matters,” said Hackler.
What the Lakers are trying to do – win a state title in two different classes – was something Forks had already accomplished, claiming three in a row in Class C from 2013 to 2015 after a pair of Class B state titles earned early in the millennium.
Without throwing a single pass in the first quarter, the Blue Devils scored on three consecutive possessions. In fact, it only took four plays for Forks to go in front 6-0 as Lucas Scott broke free on the right side and traveled 37 yards to the end zone.
Briefly, the Lakers answered, Hackler throwing 36 yards to Nick Wamp to set up his own five-yard touchdown pass to Nate Wellington as Wamp’s extra point inched Skaneateles in front 7-6.
Yet that lead lasted all of two plays. Jeremiah Allen, on nearly the same play that worked a few minutes earlier, went 47 yards for the TD to put Forks back in front, and a third drive produced a third trip to the end zone, Scott scoring from four yards out.
Forks’ first pass of the game got picked off by Wamp, and Skaneateles scored from there, Wellington’s diving 31-yard catch set up Areh Boni powering four yards for the TD.
And the Lakers had a great chance to get back in front right before halftime, moving inside the Blue Devils’ 20 before Scott leaped to make an interception on a Hackler pass across the middle at the 10.
Trailing 18-14 at the break, the Lakers surrendered another chance to go in front when Hackler forced a pass downfield early in the third quarter and Troy Arno picked it off at the 30.
For much of the period, Skaneateles found itself on defense, trying to contain a Forks offense controlling the line of scrimmage while eating up yards and minutes. One drive was stopped, but the Blue Devils converted late in the quarter as Scott went nine yards for the TD.
All of that, though, merely lay the foundation for an epic, historic Lakers comeback that kept the dream of a second consecutive state championship alive.
Next Saturday at 3 p.m., it’s Skaneateles against Section V champion Batavia in the state semifinals. The winner goes to the Carrier Dome Nov. 24 for the state title game against Glens Falls or Marlboro.
