By MICHAEL KELLY

For the Express

BROADALBIN — Nursing a two-point halftime lead, the Broadalbin-Perth Patriots’ defense was set to deal the visiting Cobleskill-Richmondville Bulldogs quite the blow on their opening drive of the second half.

After Pierre LaPort’s second sack of the game for the Patriots, C-R hiked the ball at B-P’s 34-yard line on a crucial 4th-and-11. Bulldogs quarterback Mitchell Wrighter scrambled out of the pocket to the 25, but seemed trapped there.

Then, Wrighter dished the ball to tailback Jordyn McIntire, who had been trailing on the play. Confused, no Patriots were able to bring down McIntire who dashed to the end zone for a momentum-switching touchdown.

“It put us in a situation that we didn’t know how to react to at the time,” said B-P linebacker Antonio Ortiz.

From there, the Patriots challenged, but never pulled even as the Bulldogs emerged with a 35-16 Homecoming-dashing road victory.

“Was it a game-changer?” C-R head coach Ed Hantho posed to himself after his team’s crucial Section II Class B West Division win.

“I don’t know,” he answered, “but it was good to get that score.”

B-P head coach Jim Pelneau had a different take on whether that score tilted the affair interminably in C-R’s favor — “Absolutely” — Friday night at Patriot Field.

“If you get a team like that on fourth down, you have to stop them,” the rookie head coach said.

The Patriots (1-5, 1-3) entered the second half feeling pretty good about themselves. After C-R (3-3, 2-2) started the scoring with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Wrighter to Chris Phelan, B-P took control in the second quarter. First, B-P was granted a free two points on a safety after a snap back to C-R punter Marcus Mack turned into a topsy-turvy adventure; then, B-P quarterback R.J. Pingitore found his favorite target, Percy Steele, in the end zone on a 21-yard pass.

But it was the Bulldogs, not the Patriots, who came out of halftime full of energy in the must-win contest. Both teams entered Friday night in a four-way tie for third place in the West Division; only four teams make the playoffs from the division.

“I got in the kids’ faces a little bit (at halftime) and told them we had to [play better],” Hantho said.

The Bulldogs did, outgaining the Patriots in yardage in the second half, 248 to 186.

The senior-led Patriots did not go quietly in their regular season home finale. After a touchdown by C-R’s Dillon Green pushed the Bulldogs’ lead to 23-9, the Patriots came back shortly after with their final score of the night. The five-play, 67-yard drive culminated in a 13-yard touchdown connection between a pair of senior captains, Pingitore and Nick Coveney.

“We didn’t stop fighting,” said Pelneau. “We kept digging in.”

“They’re spunky,” Hantho said. “They kept coming back.”

But the Bulldogs just had too many big plays in them. Two plays after the Patriots’ score, C-R’s Greydon Marlow — who finished with 12 carries for 173 yards and two touchdowns — reached the end zone on a 17-yard streak. Then, on C-R’s next possession, Marlow hit for an 80-yard score.

“I felt like once they got up, we got down,” said Pingitore. “We’d come back up, but then they’d make another big play and we’d come right back down. We couldn’t maintain that high intensity that we had the whole first half.”

Pingitore led the Patriots’ offense by converting 16-of-28 passes for 231 yards and two scores along with a late interception. Steele was Pingitore’s preferred target Friday with eight catches for 93 yards.

The pair of seniors led a spirited effort from B-P’s upperclassmen on Homecoming Night.

“I’m super proud of those guys,” Pelneau said of his seniors. “I know they wanted this one, it’s Senior Night and Homecoming, and they fought right until the end.”

The win puts B-P in an awkward situation for next week; the team travels to Hudson Falls for a must-win game, though it is possible, because of tiebreakers, that even a win will not send the Patriots to sectionals.

“It’s basically do or die now,” said Pelneau, who thinks his team will recover quickly from Friday’s tough loss.

“I think our guys should respond,” he said. “They’re a pretty resilient group.”