Harrison Wins the Title

There was once a time when WGCH covered more than just Greenwich.

For a stretch, we did games in Rye, Port Chester, and Harrison NY.

Harrison -- the Huskies --worked their way through the New York state playoffs in 2002, and we went along with them.

When the Huskies played in the Class B quarterfinal at Dietz Stadium in Kingston, we were there as they beat New Paltz.  We were back in Kingston eight days later for the Huskies' victory over Lansingburgh.

After that, Harrison was onto the state championship. The game wasn't at a high school stadium.

It was in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.

To tell you what a different time it was, Mark Rosen, Sean Kilkelly and I were allowed to get a hotel room and go call the game. We even had a station van -- a white Dodge, as I recall.

Mark and Sean picked up the van in Greenwich and drove to Mahopac, where I joined them. Mark drove for the first stretch with the threat of snow hanging in the air.

Wait. Snow? Would that stop things?

My mind began to race as we climbed NY Route 17 towards Binghamton. I could feel the van slipping in the snow, so I began to ponder canceling our room in Syracuse and finding something in Binghamton.

That would not be necessary. The snow backed down as we moved onto Interstate 81. We got gas, I took over driving, and we made our way to the Hampton Inn in Syracuse. After checking in, we went back out to a local pub for dinner before crashing and calling it a night.

The snow raged as we slept. I grabbed breakfast and headed outside to warm the van up and clean the snow off the windows.

We went to the Dome. I had been in it once earlier -- during a sportscasting camp back in 1991 -- and was fascinated by it. That also meant I knew a little about the lay of the land.

So we parked, headed inside, and checked in. We were, of course, crazy early.

We were escorted (!) to our booth, marked with WGCH on a placard outside the door. Inside we found plenty of room for our equipment and luxuries that we were hardly used to.

But before the game, we connected with the gentleman who led us to our booth, and he showed us to the field where we were allowed to throw a football around, kick field goals, and generally act like kids.

As for the game, it was a classic. Playing Chenango Forks from outside of Binghamton, the Huskies found themselves trailing 14-6 before a Steve Burton interception return cut the deficit to 14-12. But the Blue Devils answered to take a 21-12 lead into halftime.

The Huskies got a 46-yard touchdown run from quarterback Peter Kohlasch to close to 21-18. The extra point was good -- the first one converted by Harrison in the game -- and it was 21-19.

The drama was just building.

The Huskies got the ball with 3:32 to go at the Blue Devils 13. Harrison needed to convert a fourth-down play to keep the drive going before Kohlasch drilled a 30-yard field goal to win the championship.

Talk about dramatic. More on the game can be found here.

We enjoyed our time in the Dome, getting stat pages and eating cookies before breaking down and heading out. The drive was long and arduous, with me opting to take us across the New York State Thruway to deal with the snow.

The weather finally broke and we grabbed dinner in Albany before heading back to Mahopac.

It was a memorable weekend.

Here are the highlights of the game broadcast.


Check this out on Chirbit

For the record, I don't like the game-winning field goal call.

So it goes.