Coming off their first ever playoff win in a football game, the Scarsdale High School Raiders faced off against the Mahopac Indians on Saturday, October 25th at the legendary Willard B. Dean Field. A chilly and gray October afternoon turned out to be quite historic for the school as the Raiders strung off a miraculous late game drive led by quarterback Michael Rolfe ’16 to win the game 33-28. The Raiders fell into trouble early as the Indians connected on a 65-yard passing touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. “I was shocked. We were so hyped up for the game, so to start like that was tough but sometimes stuff like that happens, and you have to bounce back,” commented Captain Sam Squadron ‘16. There was plenty of back and forth action, but the Indians took the lead back a few times after Scarsdale would tie the game. Although being down a score with 6 minutes left, Scarsdale stayed poised as  tailback Nick Leone ’17 scampered for a 23-yard touchdown. Once the team kicker, Josh Potter ’17, lost the extra point which was unfortunately blocked, the Raiders went for a onside kick which the Mahopac recovered. The Raiders refused to stop pounding.“We just had to play good defense and stop them. We knew they didn’t have enough guys to stop the option so we had to make the most of every possession,” shared Rolfe. As a major turning point in the matchup, Scarsdale’s defense stood tall and forced Mahopac to punt almost instantaneously. The final drive was as good as football gets. Rolfe completed 3 passes as the Raiders capped an 85-yard drive with a Squadron touchdown off a great pass from Rolfe with just 18 ticks remaining. The completion sent No. 4 Scarsdale on to a wild victory over No. 5 Mahopac in the Class AA quarterfinals. The Raiders will visit No. 1 seeded New Rochelle Huguenots in Saturday’s semis. Last time the Raiders and Huguenots faced off, back in 2014, New Rochelle smothered Scarsdale, 27-0. Squadron and Rolfe are both confident coming into next week’s bout. “We know that we can beat them, though, we are going to have to play a near perfect game,” remarked Squadron.

By Griffin Elkins

Photo Courtesy Ariel Kachuro (Maroon Photo Director) 

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