Football: Yorktown Beats Scarsdale 21-14

Scarsdale's hopes of an undefeated season faded slowly at the hands of Yorktown. 

Yorktown's ability to execute, not turn the ball over and physical play on both sides of the ball proved to be enough as Yorktown (3-1) held on for a 21-14 victory over Scarsdale in the weekend's class AA game at Scarsdale High School.

Scarsdale tried to muster a late game comeback but it was too little too late. After trailing Yorktown 21 to 7 at the half and for the majority of the second half, Scarsdale finally scored its second touchdown on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Brian Bauersfeld to Matt Wheeler with a little over a minute left in the fourth quarter—to close the gap to 21 to 14. 

Scarsdale set up for the on-side kick, short squibbed it, got it past the first set of Yorktown's players hands but the ball was gobbled up by the next Yorktown player, which would set up two straight kneel-downs to end the game.

"We missed opportunities and they capitalized," Scarsdale quarterback Bauersfeld said. "Simple as that. We're a team of winning so this one is going to be hard for us, but it's only a minor setback and we have two big upcoming games where we can prove ourselves once again."

"We weren't really concerned with their 3-0 record, we were more concerned with playing our game," Yorktown quarterback Justin Mabus said. "We knew if we did our job good things would happen and sure enough they did."

One of those good things came in the first quarter when Mabus connected with the electrifying Alex Terry on an 85-yard touchdown pass with Eric Cooley's extra point putting the Huskers on top 7-0.

"It wasn't even supposed to go to him (Terry)," Mabus said. "We just made eye contact, I saw him and I am not going to pass that chance up. I threw it to him and he turned it into something amazing. You have to give him the most credit there. To find me, turn around again and find the end zone 85 yards down the field isn't easy to do."

After Scarsdale tied the game at 7-7 in the second quarter, the Huskers went up by 14 at halftime on two touchdowns on a 69-yard run by Brandon Trager and 1-yarder by Mabus. Trager rushed for 124 yards on 18 carries.

The Huskers huge victory sets up a big game on their homecoming when they host Ossining 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8. The game is a rematch of a thrilling playoff contest two years ago Ossining won in overtime 45-44.

"To win this one would be big," Mabus said. "Not only for homecoming or a league championship, but to just beat Ossining. It's going to be a heck of a game. It's going to be fun to watch."

Although the mood felt as though Scarsdale had lost the championship, the team still is right in the thick of things at 3-1 and the members are still in alignment with their preseason goal of making the playoffs.

Scarsdale head coach Andy Verboys was disappointed with his team's lack of execution overall but simply summed up the performance as "just one of those games."

"Tonight was just one of those nights for us," Verboys said. "We let them convert on 3 and long, we couldn't convert on 4th and short, they had takeaways and we didn't, and we had a few blown assignment that led to points for them. You have to give credit to Yorktown they are very big and physical upfront and they played well. I thought my guys left some points out there but now we have to move on, correct some things and finish the season strong."