Bears Close Regular Season with Loss, 3-3 Conference Record [VIDEO]

After a defensive battle on its home turf, the varsity football team closed its regular season with a 17-0 loss to the Ossining Pride Friday.

In a game that was much closer than the score would seem to suggest, both teams had trouble sustaining drives offensively. Brewster’s offense in particular had a rough evening, turning the ball over 10 times throughout the contest. Junior quarterback Brian McNeill (6-26, 143 yards, 5 INT) shouldered the brunt of the blame for his offense’s woes.

“I couldn’t hit anybody,” the young quarterback said after the game. “I was overthrowing, underthrowing, I was misjudging everybody, I wasn’t seeing people. I just messed up.”

Brewster Head Coach Dan Polverari agreed that his team’s turnovers ultimately lost them the game. 

“Defensively, we played well enough to win the game,” Polverari said after the game. “But you can’t turn the ball over against a quality team and expect to win.”

The Bears threatened to get on the scoreboard first when they drove into Ossining territory with key passes from McNeill to receivers Ryan Hanson and Kamal Johnson. The drive stalled on the Pride 15-yard-line when McNeill threw three straight incomplete passes. 

Later in the quarter, McNeill dropped back to throw on 3rd and 6. His pass was on the mark, but bounced out of Hanson’s hands and directly into the arms of Ossining’s Noah Morton. Two plays later, a 29-yard touchdown pass from Brian Connolly to Rashawn Armstrong and the ensuing PAT put the Pride on top 7-0.

With 2:01 remaning in the half, Brewster got the ball back with hopes of tying the game before the intermission. Again, McNeill targeted Hanson, this time on a wide receiver screen. Ossining’s Tyler Howton-Bynoe stepped in front of the pass, picked it off and dashed 30 yards to the end zone for a pick-6 on McNeill’s fourth interception of the day. After the PAT, Brewster trailed 14-0.

After a third quarter field goal put the Pride up 17-0, Brewster drove the length of the field with a key 27-yard pass from McNeill to senior receiver Adam Tavolilla and a big 19-yard run from Johnson. 

The Bears were poised to, at the very least, make the game interesting when on 3rd and 3 from the Pride 15-yard-line, junior running back Fernando Solis broke through the middle of the line and set his eyes on the end zone. He seemed to have a free pass to paydirt, but fumbled the ball inside the 2-yard-line and Ossining recovered.

“I was just going as hard as possible; I didn’t realize what I was doing,” Solis said after the game. “I wasn’t paying attention to the ball, I was just seeing the end zone — that’s all I saw.”

Brewster’s final chance to score came in the game’s final quarter. Blessed with a short field, the offense took over on the Pride 21-yard-line and picked up a first down soon after. However, on 4th and goal from the 5, Solis was stopped short of the goal line and Ossining preserved the shutout to win 17-0.

With the loss, Brewster falls to 3-4 on the season, but maintains its conference record of 3-3. The Bears' destiny was entirely out of their own hands on Friday, as they needed several things to go their way elsewhere in the league to secure a playoff berth. Those hopes were dashed with news of Walter Panas’ loss to Gorton. 

“We’re disappointed,” Polverari told Patch after the game. “You don’t go into a season and say ‘I want to go .500.’ We want to go undefeated — we practice like that, we coach like that, and these guys play like that.”

Though the games have not been scheduled yet, Brewster will most likely play two postseason games despite their elimination from the playoffs. Check back with Patch for details.

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