NORWICH- In a showdown of two teams featured in the latest NYS football rankings, Friday night’s contest proved to have a flair for the dramatic. Windsor ranked 19th in Class B football, while the unbeaten Tornado ranked 11th in Class C. Unfortunately for the hometown Tornado- their record this year won’t go without a blemish as the Black Knights (3-0) held on for the 12-8 victory.

“They did to us what we did to Sus Valley last week,” said Norwich head coach Mike Chrystie, referencing the Tornado’s upset win last week. “They (Windsor) controlled the line of scrimmage, they were the more physical team and they made plays when they had to, we didn’t do that tonight.”

Black Knights quarterback Jimmy Lindsley was an uncontainable one-man offensive juggernaut- rushing 27 times for 149 yards on the ground along with passing for one touchdown.

Lindsley struck lightening at 4:58 in the first quarter- finding Black Knights receiver Logan Colwell for a 21 yard touchdown pass, putting Windsor up 6-0 over the Purple. But, Norwich wouldn’t stay silent for long.

The Purple’s Trent Wessels forced a fumble, which Norwich recovered in their own territory, on a rushing attempt from Lindsley. That’s when the Norwich offense set-up shop.

With four minutes remaining in the second quarter, the Tornado tandem of Torin Lawrence and Holden Ryan connected on a 57 yard touchdown passing play. Lawrence threaded the needle to Ryan- who was blanketed by two Windsor defenders, Ryan evaded both tackles and scampered into the end zone untouched to knot the game.

A reception by Sandler Montgomery from a Lawrence feed moments later put the Tornado up 8-6 at the half.

Just minutes after starting the second half, Windsor’s Jimmy Lindsley struck again with a 19 yard touchdown run with 9:42 remaining in the third quarter- giving the Black Knights the lead 12-8.

“We knew that their quarterback was a big part of their offense. We schemed around stopping him,” said Chrystie.

From there, the Black Knights ran out the majority of the second half clock- thanks to the three-headed running game from Lindsley, Mason McCombs and Dominic Weaver. The trio combined for 269 rushing yards in the game.

It was all until a turnover on downs gave the Tornado the ball deep in their territory with 20 seconds left to play for one last chance to win, but the Windsor defense prevented them from finding the end zone.

“We didn’t execute tonight, we didn’t do what we needed to do. We had several guys out that couldn’t play, and that depth hurt us tonight. And they out played us,” added Chrystie on the Tornado’s first loss of the year.

Evan Slystra led the Tornado in rushing yards with 55. Holden Ryan led Norwich in yards receiving with 84 with 1 touchdown. Torin Lawrence completed 10 of his 17 passing attempts for 135 yards and 1 passing touchdown.

Mason Edwards led the Purple and White on defense by leading the team in tackles with seven.

Norwich (3-1) is back in action on Friday October 1st, when they begin their first of three consecutive road games, starting with the Sidney Warriors at Sidney High School with kick-off scheduled for 7:00pm.

Score by quarters

WINDSOR- 6 0 6 0- 12

NORWICH- 0 8 0 0 - 8

Summary:

First downs: N 9 W 18; Rushes-yds: N 26-74; W 52- 280 Passing; N 10-17-0, 135 yds; W 4-11-0, 59yds. Total yards: N 209; W 339. Punts-avg: N 6- 35; SV 2-35. Penalties-yds. N 6-60; SV 5-55. Fumbles-lost: N 2-0; W 2-2.

Records: N 3-1; W 3-0.

Scoring: W, Jimmy Lindsley pass complete to Logan Colwell for 21 yard TD (2 pt conversion fails). N, Torin Lawrence pass complete to Holden Ryan for 57 yard TD (Lawrence to Sandler Montgomery for 2 pt conversion success). W, Jimmy Lindsley runs for 19 yard TD (2 pt conversion fails).

Individual Statistics

Rushing:  N E. Sylstra 15-55, T. Lawrence 8-11, S. Montgomery 1-5, Holden Ryan 1-2, Brady Smith 1- (-1); W J. Lindsley 27-149, M. McCombs 12-89, D. Weaver 9-31, D. Haughton 3-11, E. Dibble 1-0.

Passing:  N: Lawrence 10-17-1- 0 135; SV: Lindsley 4-11-1- 0 59

Receiving:  N: H. Ryan 5-84 , T. Wessels 2-30, E. Sylstra 1-17, S. Montgomery 1-5, M. Edwards 1 – (-1); W: KJ Hagley 1-28, L. Colwell 2-23, R. Kennedy 1-8.