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Harvard Cup Action heats up By Richard W. Kozak, Jr.  |
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Perhaps it is only fitting that on the same weekend of the closing of Yankee Stadium that the team put the spotlight back on some of the grand history the club has developed over the years. One of the greatest characters in the history of the Bronx Bombers was catch Yogi Berra. Perhaps when he uttered that now famous line of his, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over” maybe he was talking a little bit about the Harvard Cup Football League.
After three week of play, perhaps no game had a more exciting finish than last week’s Intense Milk Harvard Cup Game of the Week between the Lafayette Mighty Violets and the resurgent Burgard Bulldogs. You can listen to the exciting WJJL Radio Broadcast of the game by clicking on this link. Just fast forward to the end to hear the fantastic finish.
I can not say enough about the gentlemen on these two teams and how they all battled for the ENTIRE game. For the most part, with exceptions given to the heat of battle, it was a cleanly played, fair contest that was a treat for the over 1,000 fans in attendance and local and worldwide radio listeners.
I was extremely impressed by the line play of both teams. Offensive and defensive linemen rarely get their fair share of publicity, but ultimately, their level of play is what propels a team to various amounts of success. While quarterbacks, backs, and receivers might get their share of the headlines, linemen wallow in anonymity as they get their share of bumps and bruises.
For a full 48 minutes, both the Mighty Violets and Bulldogs demonstrated the tenacity and pageantry of the Harvard Cup League and when the dust settled, the Mighty Violets reigned triumphant by the slimmest of margins, 14-13 with a great defensive stand on a potential game winning two-point conversion.
After a scoreless first half that witnessed both teams make some great offensive strides only to be thwarted by both team’s staunch defenses, Burgard opened the scoring nearly four minutes into the third quarter.
Breon “Baby Culpepper” Daniels who looks more like a chisled defensive lineman than the elusive pivot he is, bought himself some time and found the elusive Samari Chaney in the left corner of the endzone with a 31-yard strike to put the Bulldogs on the board. Burgard’s talented kicker Jeff Thomas crushed the kick for a perfect extra point to give Burgard the 7-0 lead.
Lafayette’s psyche was put to the test and the Mighty Violets own talented quarterback, Jurrell Hall, answered the bell with a knockout punch. Hall surprised some Harvard Cup pundits as a fantastic freshman and he has not skipped a beat as a sensational sophomore. Hall led the Mighty Violets on a six minute drive with a mixture of running and passing that culminated in a nine yard “Hot” Todre Rodgers touchdown run. The two point conversion was good to give the Mighty Violets an 8-7 lead they would take into the fourth quarter.
Hall would rise to the occasion again midway through the fourth quarter as he kept Lafayette’s hopes alive with his legs and his arm. Hall gave Lafayette the lead with a 14-yard TD pass to Corey Hunt, to give Lafayette a 14-7 lead that it looked they would ride to a comfortable victory.
That’s why we should always remember what Yogi said.
Lafayette’s Corey Perry looked as if he snuffed out a potential Burgard game winning drive when he intercepted Daniels and ran the ball back to the Burgard 22 yard line. The run back was wiped out by a penalty and the ball was returned back to Lafayette’s 21-yard line with exactly one minute remaining on the clock.
A mixture of good defense and perfect use of the two remaining time outs allowed Burgard Bulldogs back the ball at the Lafayette 29-yard line after an injured Hall could only muster a 9-yard punt.
Daniels and the Bulldogs line up with only 11.9 seconds left, but as he rolled to his left, a pump fake caused the ball to slip from his hands. Alertly, Daniels scrambled to throw the recovered fumble out of bounds, but was flagged for an intentional grounding penalty that backed the ball to the Lafayette 44 with 2.7 seconds left on the All High clock.
On the ensuing play, Daniels dropped back and floated to his left where it looked as if he was going to be sack by a group of three of four Mighty Violets. Daniels kept his balance, ran to his right and heaved the ball down field to an open Lyndon White for a dramatic 44-yard touchdown pass as the stadium erupted.
In the jubilant chaos, the Mighty Violets took a penalty to bring the conversion try to within 1 ½ yards of the end zone but the ‘Dogs seemed unsure of the play call and Thomas was enveloped inside the one yard line to preserve the lead and record a much deserved win for Lafayette.
In other Harvard Cup action, Bennett downed East 26-12 while Hutch-Tech blanked South Park 31-0.
Tune into 1440 AM WJJL on Saturday, September 27 at 3 PM as the Hutch-Tech Engineers take on the Grover Cleveland Presidents in a battle for first place. You can log on the internet at www.buffaloschools.org or ibn.ihigh.com to listen to the streaming broadcast live or archived at the game’s conclusion.
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