Advantage: Cavaliers, Lions

Tom Burgess was itching to make a big play all night.

But the Immaculate Heart Central senior quarterback had been handcuffed due to Sandy Creek's ability to control the ball on the ground, keeping Burgess and his offense on the sidelines for a good part of the game.

However, with his team trailing by a point and a possible Section 3 Class C North title on the line late in the game, Burgess got his opportunity in an eventual 14-6 victory. And did he ever make the most of it.

Taking a snap from the shotgun, Burgess saw a big opening in the middle of the field. He took off, saw an opening on the right sideline and sprinted 66 yards untouched for the go-ahead score in IHC's win over Sandy Creek at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds.

The win gave IHC (4-0 overall and league) at least a tie for the conference crown with one league game remaining in two weeks against Thousand Islands. But the Cavaliers didn't wrap this one up until they stopped Sandy Creek (3-1, 2-1) on a fourth-and-7 play on the IHC 10-yard line with just over four minutes to play.

IHC then converted two first downs and ran out the clock.

Burgess, who rushed for 109 yards on 16 carries and passed for 120 more yards and a touchdown, said the winning play came on a call from the press box.

"They noticed that Sandy Creek's linebackers went with our backs through the line, and that the middle was open," said Burgess, who hit Andrew Hauk on a 42-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter for IHC's first score. "Once I got into the open, there was some terrific downfield blocking. But I almost ran out of gas at the end."

Other than the two big touchdown plays, Sandy Creek kept the explosive IHC offense in check.

And Sandy Creek's vaunted running duo of senior tailback Dylan Shiel and senior fullback Koby Fowler were as good as advertised. Shiel carried 32 times for 159 yards and the Comets' lone score, and Fowler contributed 78 yards on nine carries.

But IHC's young defense limited the big plays, and Sandy Creek hurt itself with one big fumble and some key penalties that stopped drives.

"Our inexperience on defense showed for the first time tonight," said IHC coach Paul Alteri. "Those two backs are tough to bring down, and we didn't do a good job wrapping them up. But we got a couple big stops when we needed them."

Sandy Creek coach Mike Stevens said his team didn't play well enough. "We had that one bad turnover, a lot of substitution issues and some poor play calling," he said.

The Comets had taken a 7-6 halftime lead on Shiel's eight-yard TD run in the second quarter and Chris Loran's PAT.

IHC missed the PAT after the Burgess-to-Hauk scoring play, also in the second quarter.

Sandy Creek put together a 10-play drive to begin the second half and looked like it would push over a huge score. But IHC made Shiel cough up the ball on the Cavaliers' 5-yard line as he was trying for extra yards.

"It took us awhile to get our pursuit to where we had a lot of guys in on the tackle," said IHC linebacker Santino Alteri. "And we tackled too high most of the night until it really counted."

After Sandy Creek quarterback Corey Sprague was sacked on a fourth down play on the IHC 29 early in the fourth quarter, it took Burgess just one play to turn the game in IHC's favor.

"He is what he is — a tremendous athlete that can kill you with one play," said Stevens of Burgess

Coach Alteri said, "We had been trying to get Tommy into some open space all night, but we just didn't have the ball enough. We knew their game was ball control and that we would have to make some big plays."