ELMA — Seton Catholic fired the final shot in a wild fourth quarter to emerge with a 36-28 win over Elma in a non-league football game Friday night at Davis Field.
The visiting Cougars led 28-14 early in the final period.
Thanks to some impressive runs by Brady Shriver and Taitum Brumfield, the Eagles were able to come within seven points after Brumfield took the ball into the end zone from 5 yards out to make the score 28-21 with 9:18 to play in the contest.
Things looked hopeful for Elma when Tysen Richardson picked off a Seton Catholic pass on Elma’s 14 yard line with 6:53 to play.
Brumfield eventually ran for another touchdown from 6 yards out to make the score 28-28 with just over two minutes to go.
The Cougars, however, answered on Tyvauntae Deloney’s 25-yard touchdown pass to Taj Muhammad with 1:32 on the clock. A two-point conversion pass to Mike Silveira ended the scoring.
Elma, with only 33 seconds to go, was in scoring position until a Cody Vollan interception closed out the game.
For most of the game, the line of scrimmage was a dangerous place to be. Both teams were forced to contend with aggressive defenses that met runners at the line and yielded few big plays on the ground.
“Our defense did some good things,” said Elma coach Ron Clark. “We flew to the ball and hit pretty good. We put them in too many positions though, offensively not being able to get good drives and first downs.”
While they were few and far between, both teams managed to break big plays for touchdowns in the first quarter. After a Seton Catholic botched punt saw Elma take possession on the Cougars’ 39-yard line, setting up a 35-yard touchdown run by Brady Shriver.
Shriver rushed for 112 yards on 11 attempts in the contest, and Brumfield rushed for 97 yards on 21 attempts.
With 7:21 to go in the first quarter, the Cougars put up their first points by way of a 50-yard pass. The Cougars failed on the subsequent two-point conversion attempt.
Late in the first half, Elma’s Brandon Tyler fell on a Seton Catholic fumble at around the Cougars’ 33-yard line.
Vollan put Elma in a position to score when he connected with Carter Jacobson who took the ball to Seton Catholic’s 6-yard line. On second down. Brumfield took it in for a touchdown to put the Eagles ahead 14-6 with 2:07 to go in the half.
The Cougars drove the ball down the field, throwing it into the end zone and completing a two-point conversion to tie the game 14-14 going into the half.
The third quarter was scoreless until with 3:53 to go Deloney hit a 68-yard touchdown pass to Muhammed. That resulted in a 20-14 Seton Catholic lead to start the fourth quarter.
“We had a rough time tonight offensively,” Clark said. “In the second half we started really playing and really running hard and getting some holes so we kind of turned that around a little bit. We had a rough time getting our passing game going, our quarterback was under too much pressure. That’s a good athletic team.”
Clark noted the play of Elma’s running backs in addition to the defense.
The Eagles (1-3) continue non-league action Friday at Rochester.