By Frank Rizzo
WEST POINT — October 31, 2000 – James I. O’Neill copped the Class C regular season title in a preview of this Friday’s Section IX — Class C football game.
The Raiders downed Sullivan West 46-34 in Friday’s regular season finale, played at West Point’s Shea Stadium.
The two teams will tangle Friday at 8 p.m. at Kingston’s Dietz Stadium for the championship.
SW took a 14-13 lead after one quarter on touchdown runs by Kevin Mullally and John Compton.
Paul Barrett’s 32-yard fumble recovery and TD run gave the Bulldogs their last lead, at 20-19.
O’Neill’s Austin Wilson then scored his third TD of the half to sent the hosts into the locker room with a 27-20 lead.
After recovering SW’s kickoff fumble to open the second half, the Raiders upped their lead when QB Jon Logan found Wilson on a 23-yard scoring pass play.
Logan then connected with Wade Smith on a 13-yard pass to make it 39-20 with what turned out to be the winning TD.
Mullally and then Compton scored the last two touchdowns for the Bulldogs.
Compton added a two-point conversion while quarterback Bill Reichmann kicked a pair of PATs for the Bulldogs.
“We had a great offensive game, with great blocking, and had a lot of rushing yards,” said SW coach Ron Bauer.
In all, SW ground out more than 400 yards on the ground.
Compton had 207 rushing yards and added kickoff returns of 85 and 63 yards to total 345 yards on the day.
Mullally had 129 rushing yards and 198 all-purpose ones, while Barrett added 50 on the ground.
“The key was the three turnovers [two fumbles, one interception] we had,” said Bauer, who noted that “O’Neill has a great passing attack. Our kids hung in there all the way, and it was anybody’s game until the end.”