The Eagles traveled to Riverdale High School on Sept. 7 to play the Cowboys in a non-league battle. FC claimed its first win of the season on a game-winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles were led offensively by junior quarterback Caleb Nale, who had 169 passing yards and 3 touchdown passes, including two to senior Brandon McCormick and another to his younger brother Cole Nale, ’16.

“The Riverdale game was just exhilarating,” Caleb said. “In the fourth quarter we were down by 13 and had the ball on the eight. I snapped the ball and tossed it to my brother in the endzone to make it a single-possession game (26-20).”

Nale also was instrumental in the Eagles final drive of the game, which resulted in the game-winning touchdown pass to McCormick.

“On third down from the 20-yard line, I rolled to the right and saw B-Mac {McCormick} open in the corner of the end zone and fired it at him. Once he kicked the extra point there were still 40 seconds left, but thanks to great pressure on the quarterback our defense held them and sealed the win.”

Sophomore Matt Ely – who had 7 tackles, one of which was a sack, felt that although they came away with a win, the Eagles played poorly.

“We did not have a very good game,” Ely said. “I mean, yeah we got a win, but I think there are more negatives than positives to take away from it. We just played sloppy. We missed blocking assignments, defensive rotations, communicated poorly and it just was not our day. This being said, I’m proud of the way we battled it out and finished strong.”

Defensively, Junior Bobby Christopher had 12 tackles. Also, Junior David Taylor had an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

Taylor felt the kick return was a huge swing in momentum for the Eagles, giving them the morale to stay focused for the rest of the game.

“Running the kickoff back for a touchdown was exciting and thouroughly nerve-racking,” Taylor said. “Right before the kick, JP [Caprioglio] (’13) told me that if I just followed him I’d make it. So, I did follow him and cut around a few people and eventually made it into the open field. The one thing I have to say is that we had a pretty weak student section. We need more fans at the game.”

The Eagles will next play Tranquillity High School, Sep. 14.

For more sports, read the Sept. 4 article, Football Sport Shorts: Laton.