It was a wet and wild ride, but the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake football team is heading back to the Section II, Class A Super Bowl.
Tailback Nick Henderson’s 9-yard touchdown run and Keaton Flint’s interception in the final 1:09 helped the Spartans defeat Amsterdam 22-19 in last Friday’s rain-soaked semifinal in Burnt Hills.
Any time you can beat an Amsterdam team, that’s a feather in your cap, said BH-BL coach Matt Shell.
The game featured more twists and turns than Route 67 from Amsterdam to Ballston Spa. The Rugged Rams (7-2) took the lead twice in the second half, but missed extra points left the door open for the Spartans (8-1) to walk through and advance to Saturday’s class A Super Bowl against Lansingburgh.
`It was a crazy game tonight, but I’m glad we kept our composure,` said quarterback Paul Layton, who led BH-BL’s offense with more than 80 rushing yards.
Amsterdam grabbed the lead midway through the third quarter when Ben Miseikis capped a long Rugged Rams series with a 14-yard touchdown run. BH-BL blocked Joe Flint’s extra point attempt, though, leaving Amsterdam with a 13-7 advantage.
The lead lasted all of 12 seconds. That was the time it took Derek Seward to return the ensuing kickoff 91 yards for a BH-BL touchdown. Layton added the extra point to give the Spartans a 14-13 lead.
`We needed that (return). That was really big for us,` said Layton.
Amsterdam steadily marched down the field on its next possession, and Miseikis once again capped the Rugged Rams’ series with a touchdown run. This time, the junior tailback scored from two yards out to make the score 19-14 early in the fourth quarter. But Amsterdam’s two-point conversion attempt was stopped short, giving BH-BL new life.
The Spartans took advantage, putting together their most impressive drive of the game. Starting from their own 20-yard line, they kept the ball moving with sweeping runs toward the sidelines. Eventually, BH-BL got inside Amsterdam’s 5-yard line with two minutes left in regulation.
The Spartans tried plowing the ball up the middle on their first two plays, but the Rugged Rams stopped those attempts. Then, a false start penalty moved BH-BL back to Amsterdam’s 9-yard line.
The penalty didn’t hurt the Spartans, though. Henderson took the handoff from Layton and swept to the left sideline for a 9-yard touchdown run to put BH-BL back in the lead. Layton added a two-point conversion pass to Connor Hadcock to increase the advantage to three points.
`You’ve got to make plays when you have to, and the times we did that were the (Seward) kickoff return and that last drive,` said Shell.
Amsterdam had a chance to go for the tying field goal in the final minute after driving inside BH-BL’s 35-yard line, but Flint picked off Ethan Kreisel on a second-down pass with less than 30 seconds left to seal the Spartans’ victory.
BH-BL meets Lansingburgh at 7 p.m. Saturday at Colonie Central High School. It’s the second year in a row that the Spartans and Knights have met in the championship game. BH-BL has won the last two meetings with Lansingburgh.
In other Sectional action last weekend, Shenendehowa lost to LaSalle 42-14 and Guilderland defeated Ballston Spa 21-7 in the class AA semifinals.“
