Golden Eagles juniors championship came down to final minute

Craig Bakay | Nov 27, 2019

The Sydenham High School Golden Eagles junior football squad was undefeated going into last Thursday’s KASSAA championship final versus Holy Cross (6-0 in the regular season). And it came down to a final drive by the Crusaders to eek out a 32-29 win.

“It was a nail biter,” said Sydenham head coach Karl Hammer. “In our regular season game, we beat them by three points — ironic, eh?”

This was the second year in a row the Golden Eagles fell to Holy Cross in the final, both years Hammer described as “a series of unfortunate events.”

In the 2018 final, Sydenham had a punt blocked in the dying seconds that led to a Holy Cross score for the win.”

This year, we were up 29-25 with two minutes left and we didn’t want to punt because of what happened last year but there was some miscommunication and we ended up giving them the ball on an interception,” Hammer said.

It was almost like the football gods had it in for Sydenham.

“After they intercepted, we stopped them but there was a roughing the passer call on third down,” he said. “And I’ve never seen our defensive backs tip three pass attempts only to have it fall into the hands of a receiver before.”

When Holy Cross finally punched the ball into the end zone, there were 11 seconds left on the clock.

“They won by a field goal,” he said. “Earlier in the game, they missed a field goal but an offside call gave them a second chance from five yards closer.

“Take away that field goal, and it’s a tie game.”

Hammer did acknowledge that the game was entertaining for the fans.

“And we did have a great season with a lot of support from the community,” he said.

And, he said, he’s looking forward to seeing his charges move up to senior next year.

“We’ve had two years of kids coming so close, I’m hoping it’ll light a fire in their bellies,” he said.

Hammer said one of the things he’s proudest of this year is the sense of culture and “family” his team showed.

“We also had several exceptional leaders too like lineman Nate Hamilton, two-way player Brennan Finucane, linebacker Sam McLeod and quarterback Keiren McNeely.”