‘It’s like something out of a movie’ -- Hamilton wins first-ever playoff game

Leading Sycamore by three points with four minutes left, Hamilton switched to its “Jumbo” package on offense with extra bodies in the backfield, and Verdon broke through and found space for a 20-yard run and a key first down. Then, on fourth-and-4 at the Aviators’ 34-yard line with about a minute left, he pushed through the pile and converted again.

That sealed Hamilton’s 13-10 victory over Sycamore on Friday in the first round of the Division I, Region 4 playoffs at Virgil Schwarm Stadium. The Big Blue (8-3) advance to the second round for the first time to meet GMC champion Princeton (11-0).

“It’s like something out of a movie,” Verdon said. “I don’t even run the ball, and they gave me the ball and I got like 30 yards, got some first downs. It’s amazing.”

Verdon finished with three carries for 27 yards but also anchored the defensive line and had a key blocked punt late in the third quarter that proved to be a momentum swinger after Sycamore had taken a 10-7 lead on Seth Truter’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Gio Garrett two drives earlier.

Hamilton took advantage of good field position, setting up near midfield, and a few plays later, Antonio Mathis Jr. connected with Nick Lindsey on a 22-yard touchdown pass for the game winner with 11:54 left. The Big Blue also blocked Sycamore’s 43-yard field goal attempt on a line drive that had no chance with 6:03 left, which gave them the ball back for the final drive.

“We wanted to run the clock, that was the main thing,” said Crouch, who took over the program last year. “We need to take a look at a couple things and what we’re doing and create some more offense and eating up the time because we’ve got three dudes back there that can run and are powerful.

“But I’m just proud of our kids. That was some adversity.”

The offense came through at the end of the game, but defense was doing it all night, holding the Aves to 132 yards of offense. Eugene Harvey finished with 102 of those yards on 22 carries, but Hamilton got stops when it needed them. Neither offense scored in the first half.

Sycamore’s only score in the first half was on a safety when the Big Blue’s long snapper sent the ball over punter Cournell Bennett-McCoy’s head and all the way out of the back of the end zone from the 29-yard line. That made it a 7-2 game with 58 seconds left in the second quarter after Hamilton had taken the first lead on RJ Shephard’s 88-yard punt return about 11 minutes earlier.

The Aves received the ball first to start the second half and took advantage with an aggressive play on fourth down at the Hamilton 32, which resulted in Truter’s touchdown pass to Garrett. Truter then combined with Garrett again on a two-point conversion, but the 10-7 lead wasn’t enough.

Hamilton had beaten Sycamore 28-21 two weeks earlier.

“They just made more plays,” Sycamore coach Scott Dattillo said. “It’s frustrating. They blocked a punt, blocked a game-tying kick and return a punt for a touchdown (in the first quarter). You can’t overcome that along with the normal ebbs and flows of the game. You do that and it’s just hard to overcome.”