An Early Lead Disappears as Greeley Falls Again

With his hand over his mouth, Tim Sullivan was in complete shock at what had just unraveled in front of him late in the fourth quarter on Saturday afternoon. The Horace Greeley head coach looked on in disbelief as his team’s chances of winning its first game this season all but disappeared.

On a third down and long, trailing by a point with time running out, the Quakers managed to strip the ball from Beacon quarterback Taurus Philips. But Greeley was unable to recover the big fumble and instead the Bulldogs’ Kristopher Buck scooped up the football and ran 12 yards up the field for a first down, keeping the drive alive.

Soon Philips would scramble nearly 50 yards for Beacon’s second touchdown of the day, putting the finishing touch on a 13-6 Bulldog road victory that kept Greeley winless five games into its schedule.

A possible turnover that would have given the Quakers an opportunity to take the lead late instead became the springboard to a Beacon victory. It was a turn of events difficult for Sullivan to grasp.

“It seems to happen to Greeley,” he said afterwards. “That’s Greeley luck.”

With mounting injuries that include the loss of captain Cory Ekstrom and change in top leadership within the football program just before the start of the season, the Quakers have had little reason to expect their luck to start improving. Saturday’s loss, in front of a sparse crowd, was just the latest misfortune for the team.

The Quakers put up a fight and even took a 6-0 first-half lead on a Teddy Graves touchdown run from a yard out. The rushing-heavy drive led by Graves gave the Quakers the advantage going into halftime.

When the second half started, the momentum continued for the Quakers and they quickly forced Beacon to punt the ball away. Greeley started moving the football, but its drive ended when the Bulldogs’ Will Coris picked off a pass by quarterback Brett Mester.

“Anytime you have a turnover, it’s just with this group turnovers are so costly,” Sullivan said. “We can’t recover.”

While Beacon failed to immediately take advantage of the interception by Coris, the Bulldogs eventually got on the scoreboard with a three-yard touchdown run by Jonathan Underwood. When  Patrick Schetter added the extra point, the Quakers suddenly found themselves trailing.

From there, the Greeley offense struggled to get anything going. The Quakers’ last legitimate chance to regain the lead disappeared when a bad pitch from Mester to Graves resulted in a turnover and the eventual clinching touchdown run by Philips.

“It feels like,” said Graves, “nothing has gone our way this season.”

Even before they stepped on the field for their first game, the Quakers have had huge obstacles to overcome. Players dealt with a coaching change as the season approached when former coach Bill Tribou resigned following his suspension by the Chappaqua school district.

According to Graves, it’s been a difficult situation for the Quakers to overcome and has had a major impact on their season. Structure was lacking compared to past years, with team captains running winter workouts.

“The captains had to do everything since we had no coach,” Graves said. “We had to do it ourselves, so it’s definitely been different.”

But Graves said the promotion of long-time assistant coach Sullivan to the head job has eased the transition. But even Sullivan admits the adversity in the offseason had “a huge effect, but I don’t think the results would have been that much different.”

Sullivan said the season has been summed up by injuries, inexperience and mistakes the team has made since its first game, up in Brewster. Still, he’s been pleased by the character his team has displayed during a trying year.

“This team’s very resilient,” he said. “They came up this week after being 0-4 and it’s like they were a 4-0 team. It’s a tight group and I’m very proud of them.”