By Andrew Walter / The Citizen
Saturday, December 25, 2004 10:16 PM EST
NYSPHSAA Class D championship at the Carrier Dome on Nov. 27. The
Warriors won a 22-21 thriller over Tuckahoe. Reid Silverman / The
Citizen
Little old Cayuga County had its fair share of sports action in 2004.
In Weedsport, it may long be remembered as the best sports year of all time.
1. Weedsport wins state title
One way or another, they got it done.
Weedsport's 2004 football team had two starting linemen who weighed under 170 pounds.
Nearly all of the Warriors' starting players played every down on offense, defense and special teams.
Still,
they were met with surprisingly little resistance on their way to the
New York State Class D championship game, outscoring opponents by an
average score of 39.2 to 10.1.
Only Onondaga (15-7), Little
Falls (28-22) and Oakfield-Alabama (28-16) posed reasonable threats to
the Warriors' undefeated status.
When
the Warriors finally got everything - and more - than it could handle
in the championship game against Tuckahoe, they found some way to win
one more time.
With their thrilling 22-21 victory, the Warriors
chastened an entire small town, a community which had lived a magical
autumn one weekend game at a time.
Before a nervous and giddy
throng that filled the Carrier Dome's lower level's south side,
Weedsport mustered only 11 first downs, three in the second half, to
Tuckahoe's 21.
The Warriors had the ball for 14 minutes and six seconds, compared to the Tigers' 33 minutes and 54 seconds.
They converted one third down, compared to nine for Tuckahoe.
They
mustered 214 yards of offense, compared to 323 for the Tigers, which
ran the ball at will with bruising tailback Alex Cortijo (32 rushes,
211 yards).
Still, Tuckahoe never led in the game until early in
the fourth quarter, when Elliot Melendez's 2-yard touchdown run capped
a 48-yard drive, one that followed an 83-yard job in the third quarter.
But the Tigers' lead lasted all of 13 seconds on the game clock.
For
Brad Bach, the Warriors' go-to offensive player, caught the ensuing
kickoff, faked a reverse handoff to Jeff Williams, and weaved 83 yards
for a touchdown that closed the gap to 21-20.
Bach, who rushed
for an astounding 1,929 yards and 35 touchdowns over the course of the
season (his twin brother Brandon added 1,297 yards and 16 TDs), had
never before performed this particular gridiron feat, the one that
would key the biggest victory of his life.
The call of head
coach Cal Mosher's life came next. With a reliable placekicker, Brandon
Magill, ready on the sideline, but with an offense having increasing
difficulty moving the ball, Mosher opted to go for two points, and
leave the Warriors' fate in the hands of quarterback Mike Coolbaugh.
With
Weedsport's juggernaut offensive line all pulling left, Coolbaugh faked
a handoff to Brad Bach the same way, then wheeled around and ran a
bootleg to the right. Coolbaugh pump-faked a throw before breaking a
tackle and flopping backward into the end zone. Weedsport had regained
the lead, 22-21.
Coolbaugh later gratefully picked off an
overthrown pass from Melendez deep in Weedsport territory. The state
championship was finally sealed when defensive linemen Kerry Green and
Bob Bradtke stopped Melendez behind the line of scrimmage on fourth
down with under two minutes to play.
"Not many kids get a chance
like this," said Brad Bach, named the game's MVP. "We were just lucky
that we played our best game and came out on top."
