Football

Surreal appeal

Finger’s eight TDs and 485 yards rushing power Millbrook to shootout league win over relentless Tri-Valley

By RICHARD A. ROSS

GRAHAMSVILLE, NY — Two types of football games captivate the imagination: defensive standoffs and wild-and-wooly offensive escapades.

In the crucial league match up between defending Class C champion Tri-Valley and visiting Millbrook on October 4, the former variety of football was nowhere in sight. Millbrook, abetted by a trio of Tri-Valley turnovers, outlasted a punch-counterpunch battle to the rarified tune of 66-57.

Numbers were the commanding story. Millbrook’s Nick Finger came into this game as Section Nine’s leading rusher. By day’s end, following his stunning rushing total of 41/485 yards and eight TDs, both of which rank as the second best in NYS high school history, Finger had accrued 1,365 yards and 19 touchdowns in just five games. That’s an average of 273 yards per game, which gives an entirely new meaning to the expression Finger food.

Someone call up Sports Illustrated, please!

Finger’s five two-point conversion runs brought his total to 58 points in the game, a NYS record that supplants the mark of 54, which dates back to 1929 but has since been tied. His 118 points to date surpassed Sullivan West’s Brad Reimer, who had been Section Nine’s leading scorer.

Finger’s tally was a major part of Millbrook’s 69/639-yard ground onslaught. One more startling number: 123 points were scored in the game. Was this basketball?

Astoundingly, Millbrook’s output was almost not enough to contend with Tri-Valley’s potent offensive response that produced a total of 482 yards, highlighted by Dan Byrne’s 16/148 with three TDs and a pair of conversions and Dustin VanLieu’s 19/110 with one TD and one conversion. Jesse Boncek’s 7/74 and one TD, and rushes from Peter DeMilia and Matt Bogorad, who also had a TD, gave the Bears more than enough to beat virtually anybody.

Anybody except Millbrook on this crazy Saturday.

Coming into week five, each team had only one league loss but had not yet played a common opponent. The Bears had practiced all week to stop the run, while they schemed to deploy a multitude of weapons against the Blazers’ porous defense that yielded 56 points to Sullivan West.

Bears’ coach John Rusin hoped a ball control game could keep Finger and the Blazer offense off the field. The last thing he wanted was a slugfest.

That said, the Bears moved the ball better than could have been imagined. They just couldn’t stop Millbrook. One key stop, especially late in the game and down by one score with Millbrook facing a fourth and nine, might have done it.

Except, Nick Finger broke a tackle in the backfield. The rest would be history. There was not one single punt in the game.

Game highlights

Tri-Valley received. Eight plays later, Dan Byrne scored on a one-yard TD at 8:33. Logan Ackerley kicked the PAT. The Bears led 7-0.

Darnell Cummings: 32-yard TD at 5:51. His conversion made it 8-7 Blazers.

A Bear’s fumble set up a Finger one-yard TD. Blazers led14-7. Andrew Yager intercepted the conversion pass.

Byrne: 14-yard TD. Brandon Edwards caught the conversion. Bears on top 15-14.

Finger: 69-yard TD, conversion failed. Millbrook led 20-15.

Byrne’s 26-yard TD made it 21-20. The conversion failed.

Finger: Eight-yard run and a two-point conversion make it 28-21 with 2:06 left in the first half.

VanLieu threw a 35-yard TD pass to Moore and Byrne ran in the conversion. Bears led 29-28 at halftime.

With 9:38 remaining in the third quarter, Finger ran 34 yards for the score. The Blazers led 36-29 with Finger’s conversion run.

A Bears’ fumble was recovered by Kosta Theodoropolous. At 7:17 Finger’s five-yard TD made it 42-29. The conversion failed.

VanLieu took off for 42 yards and then completed the quick drive with a one-yard run. He broke a tackle to score the conversion. The Bears closed within five at 42-37 with 4:13 left in the third.

Finger ran 66 yards for the score at 3:54. He added the conversion run and the Blazers led 50-37.

Bogorad scored on a 15-yard run at 11:13 of the fourth quarter to make it 50-43. Byrne was stopped on the conversion run.

Finger ran it in from the 10 at 7:44 to make it 58-43 with yet another conversion.

Rusin’s troops fired back again. After an option pitch to Bogorad, Boncek scored on a five yarder to make it 58-49. The conversion attempt failed.

Finger scored on a 14 yard- run on to make it 66-49 with 2:58 to go.

Still, the Bears refused to die. With a great return on the kickoff by Bogorad and a run by VanLieu up the sideline, the drive ended with a four-yard TD by Byrne and a twopoint conversion pass to Edwards for the final gasp of the 66-57 marathon.

Post game views

A tired Finger talked about what had just happened. “This is the highest scoring game I’ve ever been in. The Bears are a terrific football team. Number 43 (Byrne), oh my God. He probably tackled me 90 percent of the time,” Blazers’ coach Sean Keenan said. “Our kids block. I didn’t think we’d give up 50 points twice this year and be 4-1. We can’t get into a basketball game every week and expect to win. Tri-Valley is a class team. They play hard to the final whistle, no cheap shots.”Next up is Ellenville, a team Millbrook has scouted three times.

Rusin noted, “We told our kids that whoever won the turnover battle would most likely win the game. We turned it over three times and they didn’t turn it over at all. We want to control the clock and the tempo. I can’t say enough about what Millbrook did. They’re tight knit and they work well as a unit. Finger is one of the best football players I’ve ever seen. We knew if we could get one stop, we felt we could win this game. I can’t say enough about my kids’ heart. They never quit. ”

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of pictures and a detailed narrative.