(Frank Speziale Photo)

NORWICH – The Purple Tornado went to battle with the visiting Maine-Endwell Spartans for 48 minutes on the gridiron Friday night but fell one touchdown short of the comeback attempt in the 35-28 loss to the current No. 2 team of the Section IV Class B standings.

Despite Norwich trailing by two scores a few times throughout the game, the home team was not to be counted out at any point during the contest. With the Purple Tornado scoring a 54 yard touchdown through the air, Norwich pulled within seven points with 4:10 remaining. 

The stout Tornado defense came up with a stop, forcing M-E to punt the ball back to Norwich after the three-and-out stand with less than a minute left in the game. The punt, which had a short distance to travel to pin the Tornado deep in the their own territory, took a nice Spartans roll to give the home team the ball starting inside the five yard line. 

Norwich’s quarterback Griffin Mills attempted to pass the ball down the field twice but one pass fell incomplete. The other saw Mills get brought down to the turf with the clock running down. The final attempt was complete to a Norwich receive as time expired and as they hoped for a little magic, the Tornado team began to lateral the ball backwards. 

However, the first pitch back fell to the ground after a Spartans player got a hand on it, ending the game. 

Mills ended the night with 245 passing yards as he was 11-for-26 on attempts through the air as Norwich’s offense was clicking with the passing game. As the junior quarterback threw most of the game, three of the Purple Tornado’s touchdowns came as air strikes and Carson Maynard was on the receiving end of all three. 

Maynard’s three touchdowns were three of his seven catches that totaled 199 yards for the game. 

The first scoring pass of the Mills-Maynard connection was 31 yards completion. Mills dropped back to pass and saw Maynard beat his defender, lobbing it up to where only his receiver could catch it. Making the highlight play, the Norwich wide out dove with arms stretched out to bring the ball to tie the score at 7-7 with 3:31 left in the first quarter. 

The Spartans, however, drove quickly up the field to take the lead back as Ryan Brozovic took a 42 yard run into the end zone with just over a minute running off the clock between touchdowns. 

M-E took their first 14 point lead of the game after Brozovic ran 33 yards for the score in the early minutes of the second quarter. 

Many who have seen the Spartans play know they are capable of beating up teams to win by a large margin but Norwich wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

As the two teams held each other for the next several possessions, Norwich was the next team to score in the dogfight, bringing the score within seven points again after Mills kept the ball to punch it in from a yard out with 3:14 left in the first half. 

With a big stop before the intermission, Norwich started with the ball trailing by the same margin. 

Once again, the two defense’s limited the opposition’s offense for several series. It wasn’t until 6:46 left in the third that the Spartans were able to score as their running back powered his way through the line for three yards and went over the goal line to once again give M-E a two-score advantage. 

Attempting to go for two points for the third time in the game, Maine-Endwell converted to lead 29-14 in the third.