In a football season displaced by COVID-19 and devoid of the traditional sectional or state playoff tournament format, at least two teams found some sort of normalcy in their season finales last weekend. On April 24, Haldane and Tuckahoe—the only two Class D teams in Section I—squared off with the unofficial sectional crown hanging in the balance.
After a thrilling four quarters of football, it was the host Tigers who emerged victorious, edging the Blue Devils 37-36 on a Jason Santos field goal with just 17 seconds remaining.
Santos’ attempt was set up by a 47-yard pass from quarterback Michael Annunziata to tight end John Benke, which saw the sophomore tight end break three Blue Devil tackles to get into field goal range.
Benke would injure his ankle on the play and needed crutches to participate in the postgame celebration with his teammates, but admitted afterwards that any temporary pain was more than worth it.
“I just kept running,” Benke said. “My leg could be broken in half right now and I’d be fine it.”
The wild finish was par for the course in a game that saw its fair share of twists and turns. After Tuckahoe jumped out to an early lead, Haldane responded with three straight touchdowns—with two scores coming on fumble returns—before the Tigers roared back to take a 21-20 lead heading into halftime.
Haldane seemed to grab control in the second half until Annunziata was able to cut the lead to 36-34 with a 54-yard scamper with 3:17 remaining. The Tigers forced a Haldane punt on the ensuing possession to set up the final drive.
“Giving up the fumbles that was a surprise because that hasn’t been something we’ve done all year,” first-year coach John D’Arco Jr. said. “But we just kept telling the guys to trust the process and stay with it and getting it back play by play.”
“We never got down on ourselves,” Annunziata said. “We kept our heads in it, kept working and I feel like we just won states.”
Annunziata—a sophomore—explained that the team’s veteran leaders ensured that Tuckahoe played with the mindset that this was indeed a sectional championship. Although there was technically no hardware on the line, The Blue Devils and Tigers square off each year for the title.
“We talked about it all week, we knew there wasn’t going to be anything else; we had Haldane and this was a dream scenario,” he said. “All the seniors gave it everything they had at practice and we just fed off that.”
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