SYRACUSE – The Norwich Purple Tornado traveled north on Friday, Sept. 16 to play The Eagles of Syracuse Institute of Technology.

A game which would feature two athletic teams, both coming off losses the prior week, saw Norwich emerge late for the win at 21-12.

Late in the fourth quarter, only up 14-12 with :30 seconds left in the game, Norwich would seal off the win to move to 2-1 on the year when quarterback Cole Rifanburg would find the end zone from two yards out. This marked the second touchdown in the game for Cole. An extra-point kick solidified a Norwich win at 21-12.

The Tornado defense would hold for the short remainder of the game.

“We always talk about all the time the idea of the next man up. So when someone goes down, well this game made that statement true, we had a lot of guys step up where they needed to. So to come out of there with W, it's a good win for us,” said Norwich head coach Mike Chrystie.

Norwich would suffer through two early losses from injury, which required players to step up on both sides of the ball. On offense Norwich elected to hand the reigns to Zack Race.

Race is a junior, who previously has qualified and placed in the 100 and 200 meter dashes at the New York State Track and Field Meet in 2016. Race would be asked to showcase that speed once again as he stepped in as the main running back against the Eagles. Race would take advantage of his opportunities as he helped carry Norwich to their victory with his 109 yard performance on the ground. These yards would come off of 15 carries, as Race would find the end zone once in the second quarter of play.

“Zack has taken a few reps for us as our R-back but I don’t know if anyone anticipated him stepping in and looking like he has played there all year. It worked out great for us, he had a couple good carries, had a couple that got some much needed first downs for us, and he found the end zone. So I think it was a good confidence booster for him and a good confidence booster for our team,” said coach Chrystie.

An early second quarter Cole Rifanburg touchdown on the ground, coupled with the the touchdown from Race from five yards out would give Norwich a 14-0 lead. However, the Eagles would grind their way back into the game.

“We were able to move the ball pretty well on them. Our Achilles heel on offense was our four turnovers,” said coach Chrystie. “The turnovers gave them a short field, our defense played well and we obviously have some things we need to clean up on both sides of the ball.”