The Delhi football team has only lost four games over the last two seasons. Unfortunately, all four of those defeats have come at the hands of the same team. That was true again Friday night.
The Bulldogs saw their season come to an end in Johnson City as they fell to two-time defending state champion Tioga 55-7 in the Section IV Class D Championship.
The Tigers scored touchdowns on their first eight possessions of the game while Delhi’s offense couldn’t build any momentum to make a dent in the deficit.
Tanner Bracchy scored the Bulldogs’ lone touchdown early in the fourth quarter on a 9-yard run.
For Tioga, Drew Macumber ran for 92 yards with three touchdowns, Ousmane Duncanson had 134 yards and two scores and Caden Bellis threw for 135 yards with two touchdowns in addition to a rushing touchdown.
While it was a disappointing end to a great season, Delhi coach Phil Neumann had only good things to say about his team’s performance, not just Friday night, but the entire season.
“I’m just proud of this team, getting to the finals in back-to-back years,” he said. “We lost 11 seniors last year and I didn’t expect to be here. It started this summer. The kids put in the work and a lot of the younger kids stepped up. I’m proud of the kids. We had a hell of a season.”
Things couldn’t have started much worse for Delhi in the title game.
Tioga methodically drove down the field to open the game and capped off an 11-play drive with a 5-yard scoring run by Macumber.
On Delhi’s first offensive play of the game, quarterback Charlie Haight was intercepted by Evan Sickler on a deep pass.
Three plays later, Bellis hit Sickler for a 58-yard touchdown and it was 14-0 before the Bulldogs could catch their breath.
After Tioga’s defense came up with another quick stop, the offense struck paydirt on another big play as Duncanson bolted for a 78-yard touchdown on the first play of the drive.
The Tigers ended the first quarter up 21-0 and would enter halftime with a 41-0 lead after TD runs by Bellis and Macumber and a 56-yard scoring strike from Bellis to Karson Sindoni.
Despite having the score get away from them early, Neumann said he was proud of his team’s effort and of them not hanging their heads despite the large deficit.
“We talked about leaving everything we had on the field,” he said. “We knew what we were up against. We were gonna need a few breaks to even stay in the game. We said that we’re going to walk off the field knowing that we gave everything we had no matter what. Play it one play at a time, 110 percent and get to the next play even if you had a negative play where [Tioga] had a big one. We’re just going to keep fighting till the end.”
This was the second year in a row Delhi fell to Tioga in the sectional final with the Tigers winning last year’s title game 42-14.
In fact, the Bulldogs’ last five losses as a program have all come against Tioga: the regular season and sectional final meetings in both 2022 and 2023 as well as the 2021 sectional semifinals.
Sam Davis led the Bulldogs with 36 yards on the ground while Bracchy and Noah Dungan each had 32. Dungan added 51 receiving yards on two catches.
Haight finished the game 11-of-22 for 127 yards with two interceptions.
While this group of Delhi seniors wasn’t able to get over that Tioga-sized hump at the end of the season, Neumann said their contributions to the program go far beyond wins and losses.
“I just love those kids,” he said. “Those kids have put so much into this program. We had 18 kids sign up originally and they worked the hallways and got more kids out. And then they got the kids in the weight room this summer. We go three nights a week in the weight room and those seniors got those kids there and worked hard. It was just great leadership out of this senior class to get us here.”
Tioga 55, Delhi 7
T … 21 20 14 0 — 55
DA … 0 0 0 7 — 7
First Quarter
T — Drew Macumber 5 run (Gavin Fisher kick)
T — Evan Sickler 58 pass from Caden Bellis (Gavin Fisher kick)
T — Ousmane Duncanson 78 run (Gavin Fisher kick)
Second Quarter
T — Caden Bellis 2 run (kick is no good)
T — Drew Macumber 11 run (Gavin Fisher kick)
T — Karson Sindoni 56 pass from Caden Bellis (Gavin Fisher kick)
Third Quarter
T — Ousmane Duncanson 28 run (Gavin Fisher kick)
T — Drew Macumber 8 run (Gavin Fisher kick)
Fourth Quarter
DA — Tanner Bracchy 9 run (Lucas Nealis kick)
Delhi rushing: Tanner Bracchy 6-32-1, Charlie Haight 4-(-2), Noah Dungan 4-32, Adam Cook 2-3, Sam Davis 11-36
Delhi passing: Charlie Haight 11-22 127 0-2
Delhi receiving: Tanner Bracchy 2-25, Angelo Krzyston 2-16, Noah Dungan 2-51, Adam Cook 3-19, Sam Davis 2-16
Tioga rushing: Drew Macumber 16-92-3, Valentino Rossi 2-23, Caden Bellis 3-38-1, L. Bellis 5-16, Jonah Lamb 2-11, Jayden Duncanson 1-4, Gianni Silvestri 1-11, Ousmane Duncanson 6-134-2, Gage Hopkins 1-2, Shane Platukis 1-(-1)
Tioga passing: Caden Bellis 4-5 135 2-0
Tioga receiving: Evan Sickler 2-61-1, Ousmane Duncanson 1-18, Karson Sindoni 1-56-1