High school football: Sweet Home, Southwestern and Maple Grove are state champions
Wearing the triple crown
Sect. VI goes 3 for 3; OP goes for title today
SYRACUSE — With a record-setting football season already in the books, Section VI has a chance to make even more history today.
Sweet Home (Class A), Southwestern (Class C) and Maple Grove (Class D) each won New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships Saturday at the Carrier Dome on the Syracuse University campus.
It’s the first time any section has ever had three teams win state football titles in the same season, and each did it in perfect 13-0 fashion.
“Oh God, that’s amazing,” said Chuck Funke, Section VI’s football coordinator. “It’s a wonderful day.”
Top-ranked Orchard Park (12-0) can provide the cherry on top of this monumental sundae at 1 p. m. today when it faces last year’s Class AA runner- up, Monroe-Woodbury of Section IX, at the Dome.
The only other time Section VI had multiple teams win titles at the Dome in the same season was 1998 when Lackawanna (Class B) and Maple Grove (Class D) achieved the feat.
Sweet Home earned its first title in thrilling fashion, beating II-Burnt Hills, 35-28. Quarterback Casey Kacz threw for 246 yards and had three touchdowns, two passing, in securing MVP honors. His biggest completion was a 12-yarder on fourth-and-5 to Noah Nwachukwu with just over a minute left that allowed the Panthers to start their celebration early as Burnt Hills had no timeouts left.
Southwestern won its first title by drubbing Section I champ Croton- Harmon, 35-7, as MVP quarterback Zack Sopak threw two TD passes and ran for one.
Maple Grove won its second title by routing VII-Moriah, 55-7, as MVP quarterback Chris Secky completed 8 of 9 passes for 214 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for two TDs.
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