Fox Lane’s last-second goal-line stand preserves a 7-6 football victory

By JIM MACLEAN 

Sometimes you have to dig deep and stand tall on defense to pull out a win, and that was certainly the case for the Fox Lane varsity football team Friday, Sept. 25, as the Foxes hosted R.C. Ketcham.

It all came down to one final play and the Fox Lane defense came up big, stopping a two-point conversion attempt to hold on for a 7-6 victory to stay unbeaten at 4-0 overall on the season.

“They scored with 59 seconds left and went for two and we stuffed it, Noah Lieberman made the tackle,” Fox Lane coach Andrew Giuliano said. “That was a big stop. We could have been up 21-0 in the first half, but made some uncharacteristic mistakes and we turned the ball over on three interceptions. They had some really big kids and it was a tough game. We were lucky to escape with the win and I think we learned a lot from the first half of that game. We did our job and played better and cleaner in the second half.”

Fox Lane took a 7-0 lead in the first half as Emmett Bendish caught a screen pass from quarterback Andrew Rudolph and carried it 40 yards for a touchdown behind some big blocks from Gavin Mammola and Jason Milito. Owen Heilman converted the point-after-touchdown kick, and that proved to be the difference in the game as the Foxes held on for the victory.

Neither team was able to score throughout the rest of the first half and the third quarter until Ketcham was able to reach the end zone in the final minute of the game. Fox Lane was able to move the ball as Rudolph completed passes to seven different receivers, but the turnovers were costly to stop potential scoring drives.

Ketcham was able to answer and move the ball on the ground, but the Foxes came up with the stop when they needed it with Lieberman leading the way on the final stand to stuff the two-point conversion run.

The Foxes are still unbeaten with a 4-0 start to the season, but Giuliano feels it was a wake-up call as the team escaped with the win and faces tough challenges ahead against local rivals Horace Greeley and John Jay.

“They should be excited about it, but we know who we are and where we are at,” Giuliano said of his team and the 4-0 start. “We’re becoming more confident, but we don’t want to be cocky. We have a lot of work to do and need to improve.”

Fox Lane was set to host rival Horace Greeley for the Foxes’ homecoming game Friday, Oct. 2.