BY JONATHAN SKUZA
BROCKPORT, N.Y.– Running back Landyn Thomas and the Attica Blue Devils’ defense played critical roles in a fourth-quarter comeback to deliver Attica its first Section V Football title with a 16-8 victory over East Rochester/Gananda 16-8 in the Class C Championship, Saturday evening on the campus of SUNY Brockport.
“I could see things coming together,” Attica’s head coach Jeffrey Cusmano said. “Just an unbelievable team. They worked hard, they come to practice every day, just to work harder and get better. I couldn’t be more proud of them as a group of individuals.”
Thomas was a majority of the offense for the Blue Devils rushing for 114 yards and two scores on 22 carries. The junior back’s performance kept the Blue Devils in the game on Saturday and earned him Most Valuable Player honors at the end of the contest.
“He was an unbelievable athlete this evening,” Cusmano stated. ” He runs hard, he keeps playing to the fullest potential and I can’t ask for anything more out of him.”
ER/Gananda (9-2) scored first with a 68-yard rushing touchdown on the second play of the second half from Michael Daniels. The Bombers converted the two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead. ER/Gananda’s defense kept pressing the Blue Devil offense by stalling out their drives and forcing two fumbles.
The tide turned for Attica late in the third quarter when Nicholas Kurowski recovered a fumble on the ER/Gananda 33-yard line. The Blue Devils used the short field and Thomas punched it in for his first score of the contest from four yards out. Attica tied the game with their own two-point conversion from quarterback Braden Allein to tight end Clayton Bezon.
The Blue Devil defense stepped up again in another crucial spot stopping the Bomber offense on their own 27-yard line on a fourth down and one conversion try to give its offense another short field drive. Thomas took advantage of the short field again scoring his second touchdown on the third play of the drive. Samuel Strzelec ran the two-point conversion to give the Blue Devils the eight-point lead with 8:12 left in the final quarter.
“From the beginning, we just always preach do your job,” Cusmano said. “We’ve had some tough games throughout sectionals and we tell the kids hey, we can’t panic, we just continue to stay with the game plan, keep pounding away and we’re going to do what we do and that’s run the ball and we just continue to pound away.”
Attica’s defense stood tall on ER/Gananda’s final drive. The Blue Devils were able to stop the Bombers 10 yards short of tying the game to seal the victory and their first Class C title.
“We bent a little bit, but we didn’t break and we gave up a couple of big plays, but when the rubber meets the road, we just made it happen,” Cusmano stated about his defense’s play.”
Attica (9-2) advances to the New York State Far West Regional next weekend and play Section VI champion, Lackawanna.
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