BEEKMANTOWN — The comeback bid was swift, but Beekmantown did what was needed to hold on for the win.
After seeing a 16-point fourth-quarter lead shrink to just three, a late touchdown sealed the Eagles’ 35-26 win over Plattsburgh High School Friday in CVAC football action.
The game couldn’t have started much better for Beekmantown. After holding the Hornets to a three-and-out on the opening possession, it took the Eagles just three long Carter Lapier rushes, capped off by a 24-yard run up the sideline, to take an early 6-0 lead.
“I felt great,” Lapier said. “I’m nothing without my [offensive line] line… I just followed their blocks, made the cuts I needed to, used my speed, and that turned into a touchdown, so you can’t complain about that.”
Plattsburgh responded quickly, with quarterback Ryan Colburn completing three passes longer than 20 yards, ultimately finding Cooper Holland for the touchdown, with the extra point taking the lead.
The Hornets added to that lead early in the second quarter, as Will Boire took a direct snap two yards out and dove across the goal line, but the Beekmantown response was swift.
“We knew that if we trusted our game plan and kept running the rock, good things would happen,” Lapier said.
On the second play of the Eagles’ next drive, running back Owen Rankin spun out of initial contact and got pushed off balance behind the line of scrimmage, but managed to stay on his feet and get around the corner for a 33-yard touchdown run.
A couple defensive stops bookending a touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Keller Crucetti built the Beekmantown lead to 22-13, and an interception by Garrett Pelkey seemed to have finished off the half.
The Hornets nearly got one back at the stroke of halftime, as Crucetti took a hard hit at the Plattsburgh 25 yard line and fumbled the ball, which was scooped up by Owen Dubay and returned 67 yards, eight shy of the end zone.
“I thought the first half we played pretty well,” Beekmantown head coach Joe Fish said. “Going into halftime having the lead, and then getting the ball back [to start] the second half was a great position to be in.”
The third quarter was a defensive affair. One drive for each team ending with a punt combined to take more than eight minutes off the game clock, but Lapier again found the end zone in the final minute of the quarter. With a 29-13 lead entering the fourth quarter, the Eagles seemed comfortably in the driver’s seat.
That changed quickly.
With junior Nico Custode now at quarterback, Plattsburgh saw an 11-play drive capped off by a 12-yard touchdown pass to Holland with 5:30 left in the game.
The Hornets then successfully executed the onside kick to retain possession, and needed just one play — a 51-yard pass from Custode to Colburn — to score again, cutting the deficit to just three points.
On the ensuing drive, the Eagles were stopped on third down, but a facemask penalty kept the drive alive, and Lapier ran the next play 53 yards, just four yards short of his third touchdown. A few plays later, Crucetti dove across the goal line to score.
“We faced adversity [in a one-point win] against Springfield,” Lapier said. “We know how to play these games. These close games help for the bigger games in the future.”
Now trailing by nine points in the final minute, the Hornets needed to score twice. A couple Beekmantown penalties helped get Plattsburgh into the red zone, but the Eagles’ defense held on.
“We put ourselves in that situation, and it shouldn’t have been as tight as it was,” Fish said. “So we have to clean up those mistakes.”
With victory sealed, Fish was ready to make use of the Eagles’ bye week to prepare for the next big test, an October 9 road matchup with the league-leading Peru Nighthawks.
“We’re looking forward to the opportunity to get better over the course of the next two weeks, and be ready to rock and roll for a tough one against Peru,” Fish said.
—
Beekmantown 35, Plattsburgh 26
BCS 6 16 7 6 – 35
PHS 7 6 0 13 – 26
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
B- LaPier 23 run (kick missed) 9:26
P- Holland 23 pass from Colburn (Holland kick) 7:28
Second Quarter
P- Boire 2 run (conversion failed) 11:16
B- Rank 33-run (Corrado pass from LaPier) 10:40
B- Crucetti 18 run (LaPier run) 0:26
Third Quarter
B- LaPier 20 run (Whalen kick) :57
Fourth Quarter
P- Holland 12 pass from Custode (conversion failed) 5:30
P- Colburn 51 pass from Custode (Holland kick) 5:17
B- Crucetti 3 run (kick missed) :40
Individual Statistics
Rushing
B- Lapier 22-239, 2TD; Crucetti 13-95, 2TD; Rankin 8-34, TD; Ladue 1-5; Totals: 44-373, 5TD. P- Colburn 7-15; Custode 5-38; Rodriguez 5-8; Carpenter 1-13; Boire 1-2, TD; Team 1-(-4); Totals: 20-72, TD.
Passing B- Crucetti 3-5-0-18. P- Colburn 10-15-1-146, TD; Custode 6-17-0-86, 2TD; Totals: 16-32-1-232, 3TD.
Receiving B- Pelkey 1-10; Rankin 1-8; Lapier 1-0; Totals: 3-18. P- Holland 8-89, 2TD; Boire 4-43; Carpenter 2-40; Colburn 1-51, TD; Patton 1-9; Totals: 16-232, 3TD.
Interceptions B- Pelkey