Football state quarterfinals

Requiem for a dream

Bulldogs’ hopes for a trip to the Carrier Dome falter in agonizing defeat to Rye

By RICHARD A. ROSS

KINGSTON, NY — It’s over now. The locker room at Dietz Stadium stands empty and cold. Gone are the tearful Sullivan West players who watched their dreams of a state title quest slip away in a hard-fought game they will forever remember as winnable.

After suffering a narrow 14-6 loss to Rye, ranked number two in the state, the Bulldog players whose sights were fixed on the promised land of the Carrier Dome must now face life after football.

Though the defeat was shattering, this much is true: Life does go on, and will be made richer yet by the memories of playing through a remarkable season, one that will long serve as a benchmark for all future teams that hail from the school by the lake.

In the end, the 9-1 Class B Bulldogs met an adversary that was just like them: tough, resilient and capable of capitalizing on opponents’ mistakes to garner a cherished victory.

A postmortem analysis points to miscues as the deciding factor in a game that could have easily gone either way. While both teams committed turnovers, Rye’s two fumbles and interception were not as costly as Sullivan West’s two fumbles and three interceptions.

Fierce hitting and hyper-aggressive defense, both teams’ strongest suits, ultimately played out more successfully for the 11-0 Rye Garnets, a team that lost 16-0 in last year’s 2003 Class B championship to Chenango Forks of Section 4.

Rye hails from the powerful Section 1, which is renown for its 15 state titles since intersectional play began in 1993 and a one-sided 35-2 winning advantage over its regional adversary, Section 9. No doubt the Sullivan West players took some comfort in reading how the scales began to tip back over the weekend with Section 9’s victories by Class A Warwick over defending state champion Nyack and Monroe-Woodbury’s win over Section 3’s Saratoga, which marked Section 9’s first AA team win in a state tournament game.

To date, the 2000 Rondout Valley Class B team stands as Section 9’s only state football titleholder. In 1990 Class D Roscoe defeated Section 4’s Delhi 30-0 in an intersectional game, but there was no next round established at that time.

The Bulldogs were neither intimidated by Section 1’s historical success nor by the prospect of playing Rye.

“They’re just another good Class B team like us,” several of the players commented after watching the film of Rye’s Section 1 clinching 19-8 win over Sleepy Hollow.

For their part, the Garnets were on a mission of their own. Bouncing back from last year’s defeat and the graduation of 22 of its seniors, Rye passed unscathed through Section 1, and now, with the win over the Bulldogs, they will play Section 2’s Ravena on November 20 for the Eastern State title and a right to go the Dome.

This might well have been Sullivan West’s lot. But therein lies the tale.

The changing polarity of momentum

It figured that whichever team won the toss would elect to defer, thereby placing its vaunted defense on the field and defying the other team to break through first. Rye won the toss so Sullivan West received. To the shock of the Garnets and the Westchester crowd, the Bulldogs, who began on their own 40-yard line with a recovered fumble of the kickoff, needed just six plays to march 60 yards for the day’s first score. After runs by Steve Daley and Corey Hornicek netted a needed first down at the Garnet 44-yard line, Joe Meyer hoisted a perfect pass to Brett Youmans at the 15. Since Rye was keying on the strong side of Sullivan West’s power ‘I’ formation, Assistant Coach Chris Reichmann’s call for Jim Erlwein to run to the weak side caught Rye off guard. A devastating block by Steve Daley freed Erlwein to run 18 yards up the left sideline and to score with 9:03 to go in the first quarter. Oddly, Meyer missed the extra-point kick for just the second time this season. Even so, Sullivan West led 6-0.

Meyer’s deep kickoff put Rye at its own 16 and Sullivan West’s Doomsday defense looked to have Rye stymied after the Garnets came up short on a third-and-one, failing to convert a first down on their own 25-yard line. Gutsy Rye showed its confidence by deciding to go for it.

Good call.

Quarterback Jack Donnelly ran the ball out to the 39-yard line. Rye was rolling until a second-and-five play when Brett Youmans hit running back Steve Ramsey, knocking the ball loose. Corey Hornicek recovered it and the Bulldogs were in Garnet territory again with a first down on the 43.

Though Erlwein picked up a first down, Rye’s stingy defense forced Meyer to punt. A coffin corner kick rolled to the two, pinning the Garnets dangerously deep in their own territory. Then on second down and six yards to go, Donnelly turned a quarterback keeper into a 94-yard touchdown run up the left sideline. Sebastian Saunders’ extra point gave the Garnets a 7-6 lead that would stand for much of the remainder of the game.

Rye’s size advantage, estimated by Reichmann to be about 30 pounds per man on the average, made a difference in Garnet’s effectiveness at the point of attack. Still, though the Bulldog line bent, it would not break. Missing starting center Bryan Lopez on account of academic probation hurt the Bulldogs up front. When tackle Ryan Redmond moved to center, the coaches had to rely on the inexperienced Joe Ackermann and Jared Carlew to fill in for Redmond at tackle. Meanwhile Rye’s suffocating defense made the Bulldogs pay for every yard gained on the ground.

One way to counter the preponderance of defenders up front was to pass. On a third-and-eight play Meyer hit Andre Trujillo in the flat at the Rye 43-yard line, but Sullivan West’s attempts to run outside of the tackles proved fruitless, especially for Peters whose speed had made him the team’s most valuable rusher this season. Peters was hunted down and smothered on nearly every sweep attempt, incurring some ferocious hits along the way. Going back to the inside run, Erlwein rushed the ball to the 18-yard line, giving the Bulldogs a first down.

When Rye tightened the noose, the Bulldogs were facing fourth-and-seven from the 15. Meyer’s pass was incomplete but Rye was called for defensive holding and a personal foul and the Bulldogs had a first-and-goal at the seven-yard line. The clock read 8:53 of the second quarter when fate delivered the second blow of the day to the Dawgs. Erlwein fumbled and the Garnets recovered. The emotional pendulum swung once again, signaling the game’s changing flux.

Undaunted by adversity, the Bulldogs rallied and held Rye again. After Peters was snowed under at the 31-yard line on the punt return, the Bulldogs couldn’t advance the ball. On a third-and-13, Rye’s Tim Monaghan intercepted an overthrown pass to Peters. Rye went to the sweep, and Ramsey carried the ball to the Sullivan West 41. After Orion Darder broke up a pass, Donnolly, who was wrestled to the ground on third down, completed a fourth-and-13 pass to Monaghan, giving Rye the ball at the Bulldogs’ 27 with 1:25 left in the half. When Peters intercepted Donnolly’s next pass and streaked up the sideline, it looked like the Bulldogs would regain the lead, but linebacker Steve Gulotta took an angle on the hasty halfback and stopped his 44-yard sprint at the 37. It was another momentum shifter and it felt as if instant karma was beginning to favor the Garnets.

A low pass to Andre Trujillo on first down missed the mark and the Bulldogs could not capitalize on the turnover. The half ended with the same 7-6 Garnet lead.

‘Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.’

With Rye receiving the second-half kickoff, the importance of the Bulldogs’ first defensive stand loomed large. Rye was penalized and rendered ineffective on its initial drive, but with a third-and-30 Robert Nieves gained 18 yards, thereby improving the Garnets’ field position. Rye’s punt drove Sullivan West back to its own 21.

Unthinkably, disaster struck again. As dive plays and outside running were going nowhere, the coaches called for a halfback option pass. Darder did not see the Rye defender who blindsided him, and the ball came loose to be recovered by Rye’s Franny Archibald. Adding insult to injury, the Bulldogs had Donnolly in their grasp on a fourth-and-9 at the 14-yard line. Receiver Peter Niehaus was covered by Peters and Darder, but Donnolly wriggled free and Niehaus darted under the goalposts just in time to receive the touchdown pass. The extra point made it 14-6, and though more than a quarter of the game still remained to be played, the events were beginning to take their toll on Sullivan West’s psyche. As the third quarter ran down, linebacker T.J. Smith picked off a pass intended for Trujillo.

Still, Sullivan West refused to lose. Hornicek picked up a Ramsey fumble at his own 20, but the Bulldogs simply could not get on track. A fumble on the exchange between Redmond and Meyer cost a down, and though Daley advanced the ball to the 48-yard line for a first down, the drive faltered and the Dawgs punted.

As the fourth quarter began to wane, Rye deployed a ground control game to use up the clock. Donnolly was able to keep the drive alive with timely passing on long yardage situations, but the Dawgs finally stopped him with about three minutes to go. Peters returned the ball to the 31-yard line and Trujillo thrilled the crowd by going up the ladder to bring down a pass at the Sullivan West 38. Peters got a first down and ran out of bounds to stop the clock. Then Yeomans made a great catch at the 15 and the flame of hope re-ignited only to flicker and die after the Dawgs were pushed back by a penalty, an ineffective run and mortally wounded by an interception courtesy of Defensive Player of the Game Steve Ramsey. The Garnets took a knee and the clock expired on Sullivan West’s season.

Coach Ron Bauer spoke highly of his team’s efforts. “They played really hard and I’m proud of them,” he said. “There’s very little margin for error in a game like this and we made some mistakes that really hurt us.”

Rye’s coach Dino Garr complimented Sullivan West as a hard-hitting competitive team. “When you get to this level,” said Garr, “you expect to meet teams of this caliber. The fact that we got back here brings us one game closer to the dome. That’s a tribute to our kids.”

Sullivan West’s loss officially ends the school’s fall season. To the players and their dedicated coaches, thanks for the memories.

Stat line: Peters: six carries for three yards; Hornicek: five-for-three; Meyer: two-for-two; Erlwein: 11-for-45 and an 18-yard touchdown; Daley: 11-for-45; Total rushing: 37-for-90. Meyer completed six of 15 passes for 131 yards with three interceptions, Peters caught a 36-yard pass, Daley caught a 12-yard pass, Trujillo caught two passes for a total of 19 yards and Youmans caught two passes for a total of 64 yards.