Bobcats’ Comeback Bid Falls Short at Harrison

The Byram Hills football team spent the entire second half of Friday night’s Class A playoff qualifier trying to catch up on the scoreboard with the Harrison Huskies.

In the game’s final minute, the Bobcats nearly did.

But a pair of Brett Stafford passes into the end zone, first to Jay Jay Bancone and then to Antonio Aversa, fell incomplete, sealing a 28-20 victory for the host Huskies at McGillicuddy Stadium. Junior running back D’Andre Cosby rushed for 188 yards and three touchdowns as Harrison defeated the Bobcats for the second time this season and advanced to the quarterfinals of the sectional playoffs.

“We had a situation where we had a chance to win at the end and it just didn’t go our way today,” said Bobcats head coach Doug Carpenter shortly after his team’s comeback bid ended in disappointment. “That’s life, but I’m really, really proud of how my kids played.”

The Bobcats, winners of four consecutive games to close the regular season, found themselves trailing 21-6 at halftime. But a Stafford-to-Bancone touchdown pass, the second one of the evening, cut the Byram Hills deficit to eight points midway through the fourth quarter. And when John Addeo burst through the line to block a Huskie punt with 17.7 seconds remaining, setting the Bobcats up at the Harrison 20-yard line, hope remained for a miraculous finish.

“I just was so proud of how our kids battled, like the definition of ‘never quit,’” said Carpenter. “It would’ve been easy for them to kind of like not go full speed and kind of bag it on that punt block. But we’ve got some really good kids and they cared a lot.”

The blocked punt left the Bobcats with 8.5 seconds to get into the end zone and move within a two-point conversion of tying Harrison. On first down, Stafford sent a pass high into the air toward the right side of the end zone, but Bancone was unable to come down with the football.

Then, with just one second remaining on the clock, Stafford lobbed a pass into the left side of the end zone, toward tight end Aversa, whose size at 6-foot-5 has created matchup problems for opposing defenses. But with three Huskies draped around him, the ball fell harmlessly to the ground, putting an end to the Byram hopes.

“I was hoping we’d get an opportunity, get a couple shots at the end zone, which we did,” said Carpenter. “And we came up short, and that’s OK. You know, football has a lot of lessons to teach. That’s why I love it. And one of those lessons is, sometimes when your dreams are in front of you and you have opportunities, you do fall short.”

They fell short mostly because of the ability of the Huskies’ Cosby to move the football on the ground with his speed. His 35-yard touchdown run, and the point-after by Austin Evans, gave Harrison a 7-0 lead exactly three minutes into the game.

The seven-point Huskie lead lasted until Byram Hills began a 10-play, 69-yard drive late in the first quarter that was highlighted by a 20-yard pass play to Matt Weiler, immediately followed by a 16-yard Stafford-to-Aversa completion. The Bobcats got on the board with 10:48 left in the half on a three-yard TD pass to Aversa, but the PAT try by Skyler Healy was blocked, keeping Harrison in the lead.

The Huskies quickly answered by going 48 yards in four plays, with Cosby getting to the right sideline and racing 21 yards for a touchdown. A Bobcat turnover soon gave Harrison the ball at the Byram 22-yard line, but on third and eight a Frank Nannariello pass was picked off by Nick Scaglione, ending the threat.

Unfortunately for the Bobcats, they quickly went three-and-out and Harrison extended its lead by marching 57 yards in six plays, getting a third touchdown when Nannariello connected with a wide-open Ray Sanchez for 31 yards along the right sideline. The kick by Evans gave the Huskies a 21-6 lead with 4:33 to go in the half.

“They’re a really good team,” said Carpenter of the Huskies. “I mean, they are multidimensional. They can pound the ball inside, they can put the ball in the perimeter, they’re well-coached, they have a great staff. They came out and won the line of scrimmage right away. We challenged our kids in the locker room at halftime to respond, and they did.”

On their second possession of the third quarter, the Bobcats drove 62 yards in 13 plays, scoring when Stafford found Bancone for a 15-yard touchdown. Healy added the extra point, narrowing the Harrison lead to 21-13 with 3:11 left in the period.

Nearly midway through the fourth quarter, Cosby capped a 10-play, 80-yard drive with an eight-yard burst up the middle for his third touchdown. The Huskies’ Nannariello twice converted on third-down passes to keep the drive going.

Trailing by 15 points again, the Bobcats responded with a 52-yard drive that needed just 19 seconds and three plays. The first of them, a long pass to Dean Schaefer, covered 27 yards and would have turned into a touchdown if he hadn’t fallen making the catch. But two plays later, Stafford threw over the middle to Bancone for a 25-yard score and Healy added the extra point, cutting the Byram deficit to 28-20 with 6:18 to go.

The Bobcats soon got the ball back again and moved it down to the Harrison 41-yard line. But on fourth and 10, Stafford was sacked by Zach Jones at midfield with 2:24 on the clock. When the Huskies then went three-and-out, Byram got its final chance as Addeo blocked the punt. That set the stage for the two dramatic passes by Stafford into the end zone.

While Harrison now moves on to face second-seeded Lourdes in the quarterfinals, the Bobcats will have to settle for a matchup at home with Hen Hud in a consolation bowl on Saturday afternoon.

“It’s kind of awkward at this point where a lot of people view the rest of the season as, like, whatever, you’re knocked out of the playoffs, that’s it,” said Carpenter. “But, to me, we don’t get a whole lot of opportunities to play the game and coach the game. I love it and these guys love it. So I’m excited that I have them for a couple more weeks.”