OWEGO – The Owego Indians came to play on Friday, Sept. 9 as they hosted the Norwich Purple Tornado varsity football team. Owego would earn the late win at 21-20, sending Norwich home with a loss on their record.

“The first half offensively I thought we did a great job moving the ball, and defensively we held our own,” said Norwich head coach Mike Chrystie.

Late in the second half, and with a Norwich lead at 14-7, Owego proceeded to drive down the field and with just :20 seconds left edged Norwich for the halftime lead of 15-14.

They ended up scoring to take the lead before halftime with 20 seconds, got up 15-14. It was Owego's number 14, who would run the ball across the goal-line from two yards out for the touchdown, before the Owego coaching staff elected to go for two instead of the mere extra point. This payed off in dividends, as a successful attempt lead to the the one point lead, and essentially was the game winning point when all was said and done.

“I never question our kids effort. It just seems like we need to get that one guy to get 11 guys doing their job each play, then we'll improve. So that's our goal this is to get those 11 all working together more consistently,” said coach Chrystie.

First half scores for Norwich were scored off a 57 yard run from Drew Walsh in the first quarter, followed by a Scott Manwarren kick; and a quarterback, Cole Rifanburg run from one yard out for the second score, followed by a Manwarren kick.

“The second half we only had three possessions. We couldn’t sustain anything offensively, and for the most part they couldn’t either until late when they scored,” said coach Chrystie. “They went on a nine minute drive, they ended up scoring and then went to two, we ended up stopping them which was huge.”