High School Football: Orchard Park gives Section VI a record four state championships
Orchard Park rallies to win state football championship
Quakers’ second half fulfills childhood dreams
SYRACUSE — When many of the players on this year’s Orchard Park football team were in seventh grade, they were handed a folder which included their offseason workouts.
At the top was printed: “2008 state champions.”
At halftime of Sunday afternoon’s Class AA state final, with Orchard Park in a 17-0 hole against a team playing in its fourth straight championship game in the cavernous Carrier Dome, the thought of those OP players living out that childhood dream seemed as far away as middle school.
From that point on, these Quakers grew into state champions, one big play at a time.
Orchard Park owned the second half to beat Monroe-Woodbury of Section IX (Orange County), 21-17, before an estimated 4,000 at the Carrier Dome. The Quakers completed a perfect 13-0 season with the school’s first state championship by beating a team that won the 2005 Class AA title but has lost the last three.
“In youth football leagues when we were really young, we knew we were going to do everything we could to get there, so we predicted a 2008 state championship,” said OP senior David Goltz. “It just shows dreams can come true.”
Senior Jeff Tundo ran for 102 of his 146 yards in the second half, including a 21-yard touchdown on Orchard Park’s first drive.
Senior quarterback Kyle Hoppy earned game MVP honors by running for 101 of his 131 yards in the second half, including a 14-yard touchdown and an electrifying, 67-yard game-winning score with six minutes left.
Seniors Brandon Nuessle (17 tackles, sack) and Goltz made huge interceptions to end two last-ditch drives by the Crusaders (11-1).
“We said to each other, we have to make these plays, it’s our last chance to win a state title and we have to go do it,” said Hoppy. “In the second half, we just played like gods. We played our hearts out and won the game.”
Orchard Park joined Sweet Home (A), Southwestern (C) and Maple Grove (D) in emphatically
establishing the best performance by one section in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association playoffs. No section had won more than two titles in one year in the tournament, which began in 1993.
At halftime, it appeared that Section VI would be going 3 for 4.
“We were in a hole big-time,” said OP coach Gene Tundo. “Our guys showed tremendous poise, tremendous courage, tremendous resolve. Everybody made big plays. Everybody.”
Hoppy ran for 131 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries (he had seven carries in the first half) while senior Jeff Tundo ran for 146 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries (10 in the first half).
The second-half tone was set when the OP defense, which included standout games by Robert Kugler (13 tackles, sack) and Gary Davies (seven tackles, sack), stuffed three runs and forced the first of five straight punts.
The Quakers then moved 50 yards in five plays — helped by a personal foul penalty on Monroe-Woodbury — and scored on an outstanding run by Tundo. The 5-foot-11, 205-pound back fought off some tacklers and faked out others on his 21-yard run to the right side.
OP limited the Crusaders to one first down on their next drive. Hoppy converted a fourth-and-3 pass to senior Kyle Perla for a first down at the Monroe-Woodbury 15, and two plays later Hoppy had a highlight run for his 14-yard score. He caught a low snap just off the turf, ran to the right, out-sprinted three defenders to the sideline, then put on the brakes to shirk another would-be tackler and dive into the end zone to cut the lead to 17-14 with 1:49 left in the third quarter. Tundo delivered a nice block on two defenders to spring Hoppy.
“I told my defense, ‘You get a stop, I’m scoring,’ ” said Hoppy. “We came out, they got a stop, and we scored. I told them again: ‘I want to score again, get another stop.’ Our defense just picked up their game.”
Hoppy’s 67-yard, game-winning run is one that needs to be posted on YouTube. The senior kept the ball to the left, quick-footed his way through some traffic, cutting right, then left, and outrunning the defense to the end zone.
“Once I broke into the open field, my receivers saw me and they kept blocking, no matter what,” said Hoppy. “I kept cutting back and forth, and they kept following me around. They weren’t quitting on that play either. They laid some great blocks and it just gave me a crease to the end zone.”
Nuessle’s interception swung the momentum back one play after Monroe- Woodbury had stopped Hoppy on a fourth-and-1 attempt and took over at the OP 44 with 2:21 remaining. Quarterback Dan Scalo lofted a pass to the left that Nuessle jumped up and grabbed with two hands.
“We said all week before this game that if we could make this team throw the ball we were going to win the game,” said Nuessle. “He tried to dump it to someone behind me and he didn’t get it high enough. My feet were in a good position so I was able to go up and get it. I couldn’t believe I caught it.”
Scalo, a 6-3, 202-pounder was masterful in the first half, engineering scoring drives of 11, nine and seven plays. Scalo ran for touchdowns of 1 and 2 yards while Central Florida recruit Jamie Boyle booted a 27-yard field goal. Scalo had 130 yards rushing on 25 carries, but only 17 on eight carries in the second half.
After being outgained, 189-102, in the first half, OP won the second, 233-41. In the first half OP had three first downs to Monroe-Woodbury’s 11; in the second half OP had 10 and allowed only two.
“I said in the locker room [at halftime] . . . ‘We’re not going out like this,’ ” Nuessle said. “This is incredible. We’ve been dreaming about this since we were 9 years old. Jeff and I have been playing together since we were 8 years old. We talked about our senior year, we’re going to win a state championship. We got it done. We always knew it.”
