Tonight, the two teams met again, this time in the quarter-final round. Neither team is really the same as they were last year, but fans arriving at Picken Field for the game were greeted with a shocking surprise, that being the sight of senior tailback Joey Ward on the bench, wearing only his uniform jersey, but not the full uniform. Ward was benched for disciplinary reasons, which enabled his younger brother, Xavier, to make his season debut as a reserve.
CBA took the opening kickoff, and marched right down the field, leading to QB Ben Farrell connecting with Dylan Gotay on a 27 yard TD strike. After the extra point, CBA led, 7-0, but it wouldn't last long. Just like last week, Troy would do the rest of the scoring.
Senior receiver Dev Holmes got all three of his touchdowns on the ground, but also contributed on defense with an interception, which nearly turned into a pick-six before Gotay tackled Holmes at the CBA 5. Two plays later, QB Joe Casale ran it in himself from 3 yards out. In all, CBA suffered three turnovers to Troy's one, but once again, Troy was nearly undone with a ridiculous number of penalties, some of which were deserved and obvious. Meanwhile senior placekicker Jordan Audi made only one out of two PAT attempts, and it appeared when he missed the second attempt that he'd reinjured himself, such that Troy opted to go for 2 after the last two TD's, but couldn't convert. Troy ends up with its season lowest point total, eliminating the Brothers for the 2nd straight year, 25-7.
Up next for Troy will be Shenendehowa, which beat Colonie tonight. The other semi-final sees Empire division champ Saratoga entertaining Shaker. For Troy, fans have to hope Joey Ward returns to action next week. The decision to bench him had to be an 11th hour decision, as in, made today, well before kickoff. With their star tailback out, Troy struggled on offense, but did enough to win. They really can't tempt fate a second time, can they? We'll find out next week.
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