October 3, 2022 by John Vilca (’23) by Brady Reynolds (’23)
On Friday, September 23rd, the Blue Streaks got sweet revenge against undefeated Guilderland in a tightly fought 18-14 victory at home. As has been custom with Toga football’s home games, the SSHS crowd came dressed and ready for white-out night, which gave the Blue Streaks even more of a reason to fight all game long for the win.
Going into the game, the Blue Streaks had worked hard during the week to be physically and mentally ready. Blue Streaks player Gordon Murray said, “we knew this would set the playoffs. We did a lot of conditioning because we knew that was our weak spot. For the past couple of years, we haven’t been as conditioned as a team as we should’ve been. We worked a lot on doing what we do best, which is pound the ball down the middle, and you could see that evident in the game. But we also worked on a lot of new passing routes that were able to get through the Guilderland defense really well.”
As the game was ending, with one second on the clock, the Blue Streaks called a hail mary for the win. Murray said “Before the final play, Christian Mello made a really nice catch on the sideline and Coach wanted to go right back to him. So, we had him go on a route towards the corner of the endzone, and the ball was a bit underthrown but thank god it wasn’t caught. I was very scared if it was caught, we would have run out the clock.”
“We have one second left on the clock and I get the call from Coach to go to the endzone and we’re doing a hail mary. We lined up, got the snap, and I ran straight down the middle because it’s supposed to be thrown directly to the middle,” Murray said. “I look back and Rodell has rolled out of the pocket and I’m like ‘oh I have to sprint to where he’s going to throw the ball’ which is probably (Christian) Mello because he’s been the target the past 3 plays. I thought I was gonna jump up and grab it, but I thought Mello had a better position than me, so I let him get the touchdown and I was just there as a safety net. And he just tipped it and it fell right into my hands.”
Toga Blue Streaks gave Guilderland their first defeat of the season. Murray noted how important a win it truly was for the Blue Streaks, who are now preparing for their next game against Schenectady on September 30th to keep their winning streak alive.
Murray said, “I think it was an important statement win for us because we got destroyed last year. We played them on TV and we got blown out 33-0 and I think no one expected winning this year’s game coming into it, but I think by the second half everyone was all in. We really wanted it more than them.”
The postgame celebration of the home crowd storming the field became legendary for the students and many of the players and, as Gordon Murray puts it, “just seeing all of the student section pour onto the field, wow. It was just a life-changing moment for me.”