By: Ashton Townsend
HILTON, NY – In a battle of 3-0 teams, the McQuaid Jesuit Knights came out on top 28-24 against the Hilton Cadets. The Knights have won the last five Class AA Section V championships and this game could have been a preview of the sectional final.
"I thought our whole team just played hard," Hilton sophomore Tyler Reger said. "But, tough team too as well. We just got to bounce off of this one and win the next one."
The Cadet’s rushing offense couldn’t be stopped in the first half. Seniors John DiBattisto and Drew O’Buck split time in the backfield. Reger also got a couple of snaps back there as well.
Reger led the Cadets doing everything for them with an interception, a receiving touchdown and he never missed an extra point and went one-for-one on field goals.
On the Cadet’s first drive of the game, they completed one pass and ran the ball 60 yards down the field to eventually settle for a Reger field goal.
After a few punts traded back and forth, the Cadets hit pay dirt in the second quarter when sophomore quarterback Matt Kosiorek found Reger in the end zone on a jump ball. With two minutes left in the second quarter, Hilton had a 10-0 lead.
The Knights had a chance to respond after lackluster offense all half. Traveling 70 yards in under two minutes, Will DiMarco threw a touchdown pass to Charlie Meyer to cut the lead to 10-7 going into halftime.
"We had a good half, got to play a better second half," Hilton head coach Rich Lipani said. "It should be a great game. They (McQuaid) are a great team, so we got to hold them off for 48 minutes."
To open up the second half, Kosiorek threw an interception to Xavier Cox. The Knights then responded by going 85 yards and finding Cox for a touchdown before the third quarter ended, giving McQuaid a 14-10 lead.
DiBattisto capped off the next Hilton drive with an 11-yard rushing touchdown to go up 17-14 in the fourth quarter. That lead was short-lived as Pierson Glennon scored the next touchdown for the Knights to put them up 21-17 with under six minutes remaining.
The Cadets started their next drive running the ball, chewing time off the clock. They faced a third and medium from the Knights’s 13-yard line and Kosiorek connected with Nolan Tydings with 1:26 remaining to take the 24-21 lead.
With a chance to rebuttal, the Knights took advantage of a good kick return and started the drive on their 40-yard line. Receivers Cox and Charlie Meyer had six receptions between the two on the last drive and the Knights were knocking on the door. Glennon punched it in from the two-yard line with 16 seconds remaining to take the 28-24 lead. Hilton was unable to get into a good position to score, securing the win for McQuaid.
"Some of those big plays towards the end, we need to close up on and start to do good on them," Reger said.
The Cadets are now 3-1 on the season and take on University Preparatory Charter next Saturday at 5 p.m.
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