For those looking for juicy story lines on the gridiron, one didn’t have to look farther than the Horace Greeley-Sleepy Hollow contest at Sleepy Hollow High School Saturday afternoon.
One team, Greeley (2-0), was looking to show that it is indeed capable of going back to the Section 1 Class A championship game this year and beyond. Sleepy Hollow (1-1), meanwhile, was looking to prove that it could compete with the elite of Class A.
Then if that weren’t enough, the game involved two of the best players in Section 1 in Greeley’s Justin Ciero and Sleepy Hollow’s LJ Garrant.
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On this day, it was Ciero who led his teammates to victory. Ciero rushed for 183 yards and four touchdowns on 23 rushes and was 7 of 10 while throwing for 142 yards and a touchdown in Greeley’s 35-21 victory against the Headless Horsemen.
“Everybody contributed,” Ciero said. “The line did a great job blocking. The coaching staff did a great job of game-planning. It was a great team win.”
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Things did start off right for Sleepy Hollow though as Garrant electrified the hometown crowd on the first play of the game with a 95-yard kick-off return for a touchdown. Jake Warren kicked the extra point to put the Headless Horsemen up 7-0.
“LJ is fabulous,” Sleepy Hollow coach Steve Borys said. “He starts off with a big touchdown run like that. He can catch, he can throw. He threw a touchdown pass that got called back. He can do it all.”
Greeley responded quickly and tied the game with 8:56 to go in the opening quarter. Ciero connected with Cory Ekstrom on a 27-yard pass play for a touchdown. Jackson Weisman converted the PAT to tie the game at 7-7.
Turnovers played a big role in the game afterwards. Ciero appeared he was going to give Greeley the lead on a 4-yard touchdown run but just before he could get over the goal line, he fumbled and Sleepy Hollow recovered in the end zone.
Ciero though returned the favor late in the first quarter when he halted a Sleepy Hollow drive with an interception at the Greeley 27-yard line. Sleepy Hollow’s Steve Bencosme answered when he intercepted a pass at his own 8-yard line in the beginning of the second quarter.
Sleepy Hollow appeared like it was going to retake the lead when it had a first and goal at the Quaker 5-yard line but Greeley’s defense held strong, forcing the Headless Horsemen into a four and out.
A big factor in that drive was that Garrant got hurt at the beginning of it when he twisted his ankle. He missed the remainder of the first half before returning after halftime.
Greeley took over from its own seven after shutting down the host and went on a 93-yard touchdown drive. The drive was started when Ciero connected with Ekstrom on a 49-yard pass.
Ciero finished the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run, with Weisman’s PAT with 37 seconds remaining in the second quarter giving the Quakers a 14-7 halftime lead.
Greeley added to its lead in the beginning of the third quarter when Ciero went around the corner for a 4-yard score. Weisman’s PAT put the Quakers in front 21-7 with 7:50 to go in the quarter.
Sleepy Hollow then got it going when its quarterback Nick Vallo connected with Bencosme on a 50-yard touchdown pass. Bencosme made a great adjustment to catch the ball deep in Greeley territory near the sideline before running it in for the score.
The missed PAT kept Greeley’s lead at 21-13. Borys though showed a lot of guts, calling for an onside kick, which his squad recovered.
That led to a 4-yard touchdown pass from Vallo to Bencosme. Vallo then connected with Zeke Sierra on the 2-point conversion that tied the game at 21-21.
“We had trouble stopping them, we just wanted to get another possession there and it worked out well,” Borys said. “We took the ball again and scored. Unfortunately we couldn’t get anything going after that.”
Greeley was however, as Ciero scored on a 1-yard run with eight seconds left in the third quarter and an 8-yard run with 2:42 left in the game to seal the win for the Quakers.
“I thought that we executed very well offensively,” Greeley coach Bill Tribou said. “Defensively, we had a couple of issues, more than anything tackling. That has got to get fixed. But we came up big when we had too.”
