ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — For an entire quarter, classic Randolph football took the stage at Highmark Stadium.
Up 22-8 at halftime and receiving the second half kickoff, the defending sectional champion Cardinals viewed the opening drive as a chance to put away a pesky Franklinville/Ellicottville challenger. But they couldn’t have expected the extent of their methodical draining of the clock — and of F/E’s upset hopes — they pulled off.
The Titans never touched the ball in those 12 minutes as Randolph drove 68 yards over 19 plays, all the way to the F/E 2-yard line — before the clock ran out. Finally, two plays into the fourth, Randolph finished its marathon march that lasted 12:44 to stretch its lead to 30-8. Though F/E scored on its next drive, it was already too late as Randolph ran out the final four minutes to put the finishing touches on a 30-14 victory and a repeat title in the Section 6 Class D championship game.
The drive was reminiscent of those great Randolph teams of the past, including state champions coached by both Brent Brown and his predecessor, Pat Slater.
“That’s like Pat Slater, right? He would love watching this right now,” Brown said. “That’s awesome. And I’ll tell you what, when you’re playing defense, that’s like bleeding to death. It’s slow and it’s painful and we talked about it in the locker room, we needed one long, time-consuming drive to put it away and the kids did it.”
Of those 21 plays on its statement drive, 20 were runs to just one pass and 16 of them went to Xander Hind, Randolph’s workhorse and reigning Big 30 Player of the Year. Hind finished with 37 carries (his second-most this season) for 201 yards and all four touchdowns.
“Four touchdowns, I didn’t know that,” Hind said when informed of his stats. “It’s the o-line, you saw them. They drove for over a quarter. They were so dominant today. I love those guys.”
Hind sounded as if he was ready for a few more carries if his team needed it, insisting the long haul didn’t fatigue him.
“I don’t really get tired from just the right up the gut plays, like three, four yards at a time,” he said. “When Coach sends me around the outside, I’ve got to run 20 yards, get up the field, that’s kind of when I get tired. But that was an awesome, incredible drive.”
F/E scored on the game’s opening drive with a 27-yard pass from Gian Nuzzo to Hunter Smith for an 8-0 lead. Randolph countered on its first drive to cut the deficit to 8-6 and F/E looked primed to drive again, but a botched shotgun snap and fumble return sparked the game’s first turnover and set up the Cardinals with a short field for a 36-yard drive.
“When you’re playing a team like Randolph and they can control the clock, you can’t afford to have miscues,” F/E coach Jason Marsh said. “It hurt us; obviously they get the ball there and they get good field position. It definitely hurt us there. We needed to play perfectly and it just didn’t quite happen tonight.”
Nuzzo led F/E’s rushing attack with 12 attempts for 59 yards. He went 4-of-8 passing for 59 yards and an interception while backup Isaac Towne went 2-for-3 for 72 yards, with a 38-yard completion to Beau Bielecki and a 34-yarder to Nuzzo. Billy Slavinski caught a fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Nuzzo.
Ben Brol made 7.5 tackles while Brad John made six. Hayden Trietley, Bielecki and Slavinski made 5.5 each.
For Randolph, Jaiden Huntington made 6.5 tackles and Owen Nelson grabbed an interception.
For all its slow, grinding drives, the Cardinals also showed they could strike fast as Hind blasted through the line for a 54-yard touchdown run on the first play of a late second-quarter drive.
The win gave Randolph its 12th Section 6 championship and marked its third time going back-to-back, along with 1992-94 and 2012-14, when it won three straight.
“Any time we do that, you’ve always got one group,” Brown said of repeating. “This group of seniors, they were Super Bowl champs when they were peewees, they were Super Bowl champs when they were midgets and it seemed like it was this team they played every time. So you get one good group that gets used to winning and they know how to win, that’s what you get.”
Marsh admitted he’ll be glad to see these Cardinals seniors graduate.
“Holy smokes, that’s a wrecking crew,” he exhaled.
After his fourth season leading the Titans (8-3), Marsh couldn’t fault their effort against the vaunted Cardinals.
“Honestly, I’ve never been in a game where a 13-minute drive — just three yards, three yards — and I’ll bet that’s close to a record somewhere, it’s got to be,” Marsh said. “Because I’ve never seen it before. We came out and our kids fought really hard. We can’t fault their effort at all. They gave everything they had, but Randolph is big and physical up front and they just three yards and a cloud of dust and that’s what they did in the second half, they controlled the clock. They do what Randolph does best. They ran the football down our throat.”
The Cardinals (11-0) will await the winner of Saturday’s Section 5 championship between Alexander and Oakfield-Alabama/Elba, with the Far West Regional set for the following week in Batavia.
Last year, the Cardinals fell to Oakfield-Alabama/Elba, 28-22, in the regional.
“You know that’s all they’ve talked about for a year and it’s taken us a year to get back to that spot,” Brown said. “I’m sure we’ll have a good week of practice this week. I don’t know who it’ll be, Oakfield or (Alexander), they’re both undefeated over there, so it could be either one but whoever it is we’ll be ready to play.”
