In a game full of storylines before the opening kickoff, the thrilling contest itself became the biggest storyline. Bishop Ludden rallied from a 28-14 3rd quarter deficit to beat Syracuse Institute of Technology 34-28.
Of course heading into the game, everyone was talking about ITC Coach John Cosgrove's return to Bishop Ludden, a team he led to the 2007 Class C State Championship but ith just over six minutes to play, ITC led the Gaelic Knights 28-27. That's when Ludden Senior Captain Chris Davis took a misdirection hand off to the left corner and scored on a 4th and 18 from the ITC 23 yard line. The touchdown put Ludden up 34-28, and the Knights foiled a pair of Eagle comeback attempts one via a Matt Rogers interception and one by stopping ITC inbounds with no timeouts and time expired.
With the win Bishop Ludden improves to 1-1, Coach Mike Rogers wasn't so worried about the 0-1 start since it was a non-league loss, but anytime you get a win especially with all the emotion in this matchup, it's a special thing. "All of our players came through for us" said Coach Rogers. "They (ITC) fought as hard as they could too I thought it could've gone either way...but we pulled through" he added.
With the loss Syracuse Institute of Technology has nothing to hang their heads over, the team is in its first year of existence and almost opened up the season 2-0 against the teams that finished in the top two spots of the Class C West Division. No doubt though, with a winning coach like John Cosgrove and all the tremendous athletes the Eagles feature, it could come down to these two teams for the Division Championship
