LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — Friday, October 18 was chock-full of football at Sullivan West as it featured a hard-fought game between the home team Bulldogs and the Comets of Fallsburg, senior recognition night, the introduction of the 2019 Homecoming Court and the crowning of this year’s homecoming king and queen.

The scoring got off to a quick-fire start, as the Dawgs racked up a couple of points on a safety to take an early game 2–0 lead.

At the 6:02 mark in the first frame, Sullivan West scored and then followed it up with a 2-point conversion to put them up 10–0.

With 1:46 remaining the opening quarter, the Comets bounced back with a TD, but the conversion failed, and in the second frame repeated their scoring attack with a conversion that came up short to put the visitors ahead 12–10 at halftime.

Sullivan West’s Gage Campanelli was back at the helm in the third quarter, and promptly scored at 11:09. The conversion flopped, but the home team was back in the lead 18–12.

About way through the frame, Fallsburg (2-4, 1-3) scored, and in the wake of a conversion that didn’t make it, the game was tied 18-18.

The rest of the Section IX eight-man Division 1 game was all Dawgs (2–4, 2–2), as they scored once more in the third quarter (32.1) and in the final frame posted another TD with 2-point conversions added to the scorebook to close out the homecoming game with a home town crowd pleasing 34–18 victory.

Dominick Scanna, coach of the Fallsburg Comets, didn’t pull any punches when he accepted full responsibility for the loss.

“I didn’t do a good enough job preparing my kids, and it’s on me… They came here and fought hard… I take full responsibility for the loss.”

But the bright side, the Comets accomplished one of the early season goals for their eight-man football squad: making it to the playoffs.

“We don’t look back on things… We feel bad for about two seconds, and then prepare for what’s ahead, that’s our job,” said Scanna, adding, “This is a hell of a team, and I’m super proud of them.”

In this sports scribbler’s notebook, the way in which the Comets helmsman stepped up to the plate to take on the mantel for the loss rather than blaming his players, a couple of bum calls, or otherwise dodging the bullet, went a long way in setting the standard of sportsmanship at a high level for his team—in other words paying homage to the old adages “lead by example” and “lead from the front, not behind.”

Sullivan West’s coach Ron Bauer is always a man of a few salient words when it comes time to wrap up a game.

“It was a good game, probably the best second half we’ve had all year… we played a good 48 minutes of football and kept it going.”