With around thirty seconds remaining in the Class B state quarterfinal, Skaneateles head coach Joe Sindoni stood by the referee and tapped his shoulders twice, calling his final timeout. The Lakers trailed by five points and Skaneateles senior quarterback Pat Hackler trotted over to Sindoni. Before Sindoni could open his mouth, Hackler demanded that the ball be in his hands.

“When you got a kid like that and he’s done so much for you, when he says ‘I got it,’ you believe that he’s got it,” Sindoni said.

On fourth down and three, Hackler scrambled left and high stepped past the first down line to the three-yard line.

Two plays later, as the clock ticked under five seconds, Hackler glanced to the clock behind him, seeing it drop below two seconds. He snapped the ball and followed his right guard, past the arm tackle of a Chenango Forks defensive tackle and across the white goal line at Cicero-North Syracuse stadium. Sindoni put his hands on his head with his mouth gaped open, an assistant coach threw off his headset and sprinted towards the stands, and senior Areh Boni laid chest first on the five-yard line.

“That’s an old play we used to run. We don’t really have that in our playbook anymore,” Hackler said.  “We ran up and were tough.”

Halfway through the fourth quarter, Chenango Forks was dominating the line of scrimmage, leading the Lakers by 12 points, 26-14. The trio of Blue Devil running backs: senior Jeremiah Allen, senior Matt McDonald, and sophomore Lucas Scott, hurdled diving cornerbacks, shredded arm tackles, and stiff-armed linebackers. The three running backs accounted for all four Blue Devil touchdowns.

Then, the unpredictable occurred. Chenango Forks was driving, near the 50-yard line, but a toss fell through Allen’s hands. Skaneateles senior defensive tackle William McIntyre snatched it and sprinted down the Laker sideline. With a cornerback by his side, he jogged into the end zone, cutting the lead to one score.

Six and half minutes later, No. 2 Skaneateles (11-0) came back to win 27-26 over No. 1 Chenango Forks (10-1).

“I haven’t seen Josh McIntyre run that fast all year long. He’s going to run sprints like that because I’ve never seen him run like that,” Sindoni said. “It was a huge turnaround in the game.”

Following the 31-point victory over Cazenovia in the Carrier Dome last weekend, senior Nick Wamp and Sindoni’s voice trembled as they discussed the Chenango Forks rushing attack.

“They’re very, very impressive,” Sindoni said. “We know we got to have our A game just to be able to compete with those guys.”

On the very first drive of the game, their concerns became reality.

Standing in the wing-T formation on the Skaneateles 37 yard line, Scott sprinted through a gaping hole. With a blocker in front of him, he dashed his way into the end zone on the fourth play of the game.

The Blue Devil rushing attack appeared unstoppable, even into the fourth quarter. That was until the second to last possession.

Chenango Forks held the ball close to where Allen had dropped the pitch only one drive earlier. On a third down and long, Scott pounded his way past the 50-yard line, setting up a fourth down and short.

Scott pushed away a diving defender and followed his blockers toward the 45-yard line. Two Skaneateles defenders latched onto his ankles as Hackler drove his shoulder into the 6’3 fullback. Scott fell back, half a yard short of the first down. The Lakers, with two timeouts and less than two minutes remaining, had one chance to win the game.

“It was a heart and a muscle play,” Hackler said. “That’s all it was.”

Hackler, in his final opportunity to extend his high school career, outsprinted and muscled his way past defenders into the red zone.

As the clock struck zero, Hackler stretched his arm past the goal line, finishing the six-minute comeback.

“I said if we don’t get in here, we’re going to have a little bit of time so we have to get right on the ball,” Hackler said. “I trusted my line to make their blocks and they did.

“It was a crazy game.”

Published on November 10, 2018 at 7:50 pm

Contact Adam: adhillma@syr.edu | @_adamhillman