HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Ballston Spa stuns Eastchester in epic come-from-behind victory

It was a thrilling season opener for the Ballston Spa High School football team, as it came back in the fourth quarter to defeat Eastchester at Union Colleges Frank Bailey Field on Saturday in the Upstate/Downstate Classic.The first half was all Eagles.

Eastchesters run game, powered by Nicholas Martucci, and its passing game, led by Dylan Burbridge was the story of the first two quarters.The play of the day came with 1:29 to go in the first quarter, as Burbridge hit tight end Peter Telesco in the back corner of the endzone for a remarkable over-the-head touchdown catch to put the Eagles up 7-0.It was Martucci who carried the load on Eastchesters second scoring drive.

He muscled his way in for a short-yardage score at the 6:08 mark of the second quarter and gave his team a 13-0 leadOn the very next play, the sloppiness continued for Ballston Spa, as it fumbled seven seconds after the Eagles touchdown.

The turnover would lead to another Eastchester touchdown, with Burbridge taking in a quarterback keeper from two yards out.At halftime, the Eagles would lead 20-0.In what seemed like a crucial drive to open up the second half, the Scotties recovered a muff punt at the opposing 20-yard line.

After converting a big pass on 4th and 9, Ballston Spa finally got on the scoreboard on a quarterback keeper by senior Chris Duclos.

At the 6:43 mark of the third quarter, the Scotties were down 20-6.Ballston Spas offense kept rolling into the fourth quarter, searching for a come-from-behind win.

Running back Ethan Nazarian did it all himself when he scored on a dump off pass, adding two more points on the two-point conversion.

Early in the drive, he had a long gain to set the Scotties up.Im a sophomore on varsity, so I kind of have to prove myself more than the rest of them.

And the thing that helped me kind of come out in the second half and really turned around was Coach Cook, one of my linebacker coaches, Nazarian said.

He just motivated me to be better.Once again, Ballston Spa was able to force Eastchester to punt and were back on offense with just under 6 minutes to go, down by six.

At his own 38-yard line, Duclos unloaded and found a wide open Wyatt Older ahead of the coverage near the left sideline.

The pass went right into Olders bread basket, and the senior wide receiver took it the distance for an electric 62-yard touchdown.I knew Chris was going to put it right on me, Older said.

Knew we were going to get the touchdownDuclos was also confident that the game-changing play was going to work in that moment, despite the same play not working in the first half.(We) had great receiver mismatches on their corners.

We knew it was going to be wide open, Duclos said.

Just great blocking.

Good route by Wyatt.With 5:12 to go, the Scotties had their first lead of the game, and it was a lead Ballston Spa would keep.

Another defensive stand and two big first downs led to a victory formation for the Scotties.The four values that head coach Jason Ohnsman instills on his team are faith, love, accountability and toughness.

Ballston Spa showed all of those attributes in the second half.We said there was gonna be some tough parts, Ohnsman said.

The whole first half was tough, right? But we had to dig in.

And these guys showed up for each other..

This article has been shared from the original article on troyrecord, here is the link to the original article.