By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
In all likelihood, the play that the Victor Blue Devils ran to produce the overtime touchdown against Irondequoit in a showdown of Section V Class A unbeatens on Friday night has some fancy name in the playbook.
But in its simplest form, the play is rather basic, according to the guy who scored the touchdown, Nicholas Leonard.
“It’s pretty much a Travis Kelce play – just get open by any means,” Leonard said.
Which is just what the senior tight end did. On first-and-goal from the Irondequoit 10-yard line, he found open space in the seam of the defense, caught a pass from freshman quarterback Eric Torres III at the 5 and bulled his way into the end zone.
Mason Overton then kicked the extra point to give Victor a 21-14 lead, and when Irondequoit failed to convert a two-point conversion try after its own OT touchdown, the Blue Devils had a 21-20 homecoming victory and a 5-0 record.
Pretty? No. Still unbeaten? Yes.
“Five-and-oh, let’s carry it on,” Leonard said.
For Irondequoit, the loss came down to two big What Ifs. What if the Eagles had been able to stop the run in the first half? Instead, Victor senior Adam Ruffalo scored touchdowns on runs of 5 and 2 yards as the Blue Devils built a 14-0 lead.
And what if the two-point conversion pass in overtime from quarterback Taiden Makubire to Jordan Nolan and found hands instead of turf? Then it would the Eagles standing at 5-0 heading into October.
Makubire had hooked up with Nolan for the Eagles OT touchdown on a third-and-goal from the 5. There was no hesitation when it came time for the point-after conversion try. No kicker came onto the field.
“That’s what we do, we go for two; the kids wanted to, I wanted to,” Irondequoit coach Dan Fichter said.
The loss stung, especially after the Irondequoit defense dominated the second half, and the fourth quarter in particular. Victor had three possessions in the final 12 minutes of regulation; two ended in punts and the ball was turned over on downs on the other.
“That’s the fourth-ranked team in New York State,” Fichter said. “If we had the first half back, it could have been a lot different.”
For an unranked team, Irondequoit gave the Blue Devils quite a scare. While the Eagles defense shut out Victor in the second half, Irondequoit junior running back Cameron Freeman began to pile up the yardage as the focal point of the offense.
He burst through the middle of the line and darted 27 yards for a touchdown midway through the third quarter to cut the deficit to 14-6. Then just 23 seconds into the fourth quarter, Freeman capped a 61-yard drive with a 26-yard sprint to the end zone. When Nolan ran the PAT try into the end zone, the score was tied 14-14.
“They got a lot of momentum in tying the game up,” Ruffalo said.
That momentum didn’t carry over into OT, however. Victor had the ball first and, starting at the Irondequoit 20, needed just two plays to reach the end zone. Torres found Ruffalo for a 10-yard gain, then he passed to Leonard on a 10-yard catch-and-run TD play.
Just a freshman, Torres admitted he was nervous to start OT but still made the key throws.
“They’re making it easy on me,” he said of his receivers. “I just get it to them and they catch it.”
The play call to Leonard for the OT touchdown was based on tendencies by the Irondequoit defense, Victory coach Geoff Mandile said.
“We had a smash concept to the outside and we saw a nice hole on film (for Leonard to slide into),” he said.
Irondequoit’s journey to the end zone in overtime was much more eventful. The Eagles needed to convert a fourth-and-nine from the 19, and did so when Makubire found tight end Isaiah Ballard, who toe-tapped in bounds along the right sideline before falling out of bounds at the 6.
The Eagles scored three plays later but couldn’t convert the PAT.
“This was a great football game,” Mandile said. “Unfortunately, we’re probably going to have to play them again (in sectionals).”
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