Throughout the Garnets magical season the common thread was quarterback Andrew Livingston’s Midas touch. So, when the 9-0 Garnets met the 8-1 Somers Tuskers November 9 at Mahopac for the Sectional championship, all eyes and expectations were on Livingston.

 

By Melanie Cane

 

Throughout the Garnets magical season the common thread was quarterback Andrew Livingston’s Midas touch. So, when the 9-0 Garnets met the 8-1 Somers Tuskers November 9 at Mahopac for the Sectional championship, all eyes and expectations were on Livingston.

 

But Rye’s golden boy was also Somers’ target and the Garnets were the only thing standing in the way of a Tuskers’ repeat. One man, especially a marked man, cannot carry a team, and this is essentially what Livingston, along with Shane O’Malley, was asked to do, as the progressively crippled Garnets, hobbled to the finish line.

 

This was their fourth game without lead rusher Conor Murphy, who was injured in the Rye/Harrison game along with Chris Santangelo, another key component of Rye’s offense, who was playing with a sprained ankle. The final blow came in the semifinal game against Tappan Zee the previous week, when starting tackle Will Oberlander was ejected from the game and suspended for the Somers game.

 

Somers knew they had to stop Livingston in order to win and Rye knew they had to beat Somers’ defense in order to win. At the end of the second quarter, Rye came close to scoring the first points of the game, when Livingston went for a 37-yard field goal. But Somers blocked the kick and the game was scoreless at the half. The Tuskers also intercepted two of Livingston’s passes and sacked him.

 

In the fourth quarter, Somers scored two touchdowns and Rye found themselves down 14-0. Rye answered one on an 80-yard catch and run by Santangelo. Then, with five minutes remaining in the game, Rye pulled out all the stops, but what should have been a touchdown, turned into a fumble in the end zone by Tim DeGraw. Somers took possession at their own 20-yard line with four minutes remaining.

 

After a series of first downs, Somers converted for their third touchdown, and Rye’s magical season came to a crashing halt, 20-7.

 

O’Malley ran for 179 yards to lead all rushers, but Livingston acknowledged that Somers had “a great game plan and we didn’t make the plays when we had the opportunities.”

 

Livingston’s season ended with him one TD short of the Section 1 record 26.