SYRACUSE – The Norwich Purple Tornado traveled north on Friday, Sept. 16 to play The Eagles of Syracuse Institute of Technology.

A game which would feature two athletic teams, both coming off losses the prior week, saw Norwich emerge late for the win at 21-12.

Late in the fourth quarter, only up 14-12 with :30 seconds left in the game, Norwich would seal off the win to move to 2-1 on the year when quarterback Cole Rifanburg would find the end zone from two yards out. This marked the second touchdown in the game for Cole. An extra-point kick solidified a Norwich win at 21-12.

The Tornado defense would hold for the short remainder of the game.

“We always talk about all the time the idea of the next man up. So when someone goes down, well this game made that statement true, we had a lot of guys step up where they needed to. So to come out of there with W, it's a good win for us,” said Norwich head coach Mike Chrystie.

Norwich would suffer through two early losses from injury, which required players to step up on both sides of the ball. On offense Norwich elected to hand the reigns to Zack Race.