With four seconds left in Thursday’s first half, play was halted due to injury. A New Hartford player was down on the Carrier Dome turf for more than 10 minutes before leaving on a stretcher. Oneida, then 14 yards out of the end zone, would have time for one more play.

The initial leaning on the sideline was to attempt a field goal. The long-snapper got a handful of practice snaps in as the delay went on. But then, Oneida head coach Jason Fuller and his staff changed their minds. The Indians would throw.

Ryan Chevier dropped back and had to wait a few beats. But Will Merrell eventually became open in the back half of the end zone. Chevier found him, and Merrell dove to haul the ball in.

“We had to pass there, four seconds left,” Merrell said. “We just had to come down and execute, that’s really what it was.”

That 14-yard touchdown pass at the end of the first half put Oneida up two touchdowns on New Hartford. It came on the back of two prior completions by Chevier. And in a game that Oneida emerged to win, 26-20, in the Kickoff Classic at the Carrier Dome, the decision to throw and the execution from Chevier and Merrell made the difference in the ball game.

“It was amazing,” Chevier said. “Now you’re not up one score, you’re even better up two scores.”

Oneida took over the ball, up 14-7, with about three minutes to go in the first half. Chevier had struggled earlier in the game, making strong throws that just weren’t in the vicinity of his receivers. Lukas Albro had taken snaps at quarterback after the early struggles, giving more of a running look to New Hartford’s defense. But Chevier was called on to use his big arm to make chunk plays with limited time to play in the first half.

First, from the New Hartford 41-yard line, Chevier took the snap in the shotgun, hopped twice, and delivered on time over the middle to Vinny Leibl for 15 yards. The next snap was a bit high, and Chevier barreled into the line for a couple yards.

An incompletion followed where it appeared Chevier wasn’t sure which of two receivers he was throwing to. After a holding call brought a rushing touchdown back, it looked like Oneida was running out of time. But Chevier completed a pass toward the right sideline to Merrell for 10 yards to get to the 14-yard line.

As it turns out, New Hartford’s injured player, who appeared to be rolled up on near the line on Merrell’s 10-yard catch play, was crucial to what came next. The Indians were out of timeouts, but when the player stayed down the refs called time. Oneida had been scrambling to try and spike the ball and waste a down to stop the clock. Instead, there’d be more than 10 minutes to consider the play.

“I was just going with the flow,” Chevier said. “I was just seeing whatever the coaches say, I’m good with (that) because they know what they’re doing.”

Before Chevier headed back out to the field for the half’s final play, an assistant coach had a message for him.

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“‘Stay strong in the pocket,’” Chevier recalled being told. “‘Wait there because it’s gonna come open late.’ And he was right.”

Merrell set up as the outside man on the right side of the field. The slot receiver worked a combo with him, faking inside before heading to the back corner. Merrell ran a post pattern, cutting inside straight toward the goalposts.

After Chevier waited for a few moments, just like his assistant told him, there was Merrell, wide open.

“I was open pretty much most of the play,” Merrell said. “Yeah, I was just hoping he would hit me, find me in the end zone.”

Once he hauled the ball in, Merrell jogged toward the pylon on the Oneida side of the field and tossed it to the official standing there. The Indians’ student section behind its bench was as loud as they’d been all game. The two-point conversion try was no good, but Oneida was fired up and ran hard off to the locker room.

There was still 24 minutes of football left to play. New Hartford scored the game’s next two touchdowns to get back to all square. But because of Chevier and Merrell, Oneida could withstand that comeback.

“We decided to go with that (play), and it worked out,” Fuller said. “Sometimes you roll the dice and it works, sometimes you don’t.”

Published on August 31, 2018 at 12:45 am

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3