Onwe Makes Big Plays For Sleepy Hollow Football

SLEEPY HOLLOW, N.Y. — Dominic Onwe electrified the Sleepy Hollow crowd Saturday with an 84-yard kick-off return for touchdown to open the game and later had a 54-yard run.

Unfortunately though, both highlight-film plays were negated because of penalties on Sleepy Hollow. This made the John Jay-Cross River fans happy, but it would not be the last time Onwe left John Jay’s defense chasing him without success.

Onwe scored on a hook-and-lateral and also had a 77-yard scamper, fueling Sleepy Hollow’s 43-36 victory over John Jay in a Section 1 Class A football game.

Onwe had a game-high 141 yards on 16 carries. His nullified 54-yard run came in the second quarter.

“It was a little disappointing but we still believed in each other,” Onwe said. “We just wanted to get back on the field and do what we knew we were capable of doing on offense.”

Sleepy Hollow led 31-21 early in the fourth quarter and was facing fourth-and-8 from the John Jay 35-yard-line. Sleepy Hollow coach Steve Borys called a timeout to discuss what play he would use.

“We had that play (the hook-and-lateral) in our minds,” Onwe said. Coach wanted to call another play but we asked to run the play. He felt confident in us that we could run it to perfection.”

Sleepy Hollow rewarded Borys. Quarterback Devin Lopez dropped back and hit Dionel Infante at the line of scrimmage. Infante immediately flipped the ball to Onwe, who was trailing behind him, and he took off uncontested into the end zone.

“I focused on what I was supposed to do, which was catch the flip,” Onwe said. “It felt great.”

Onwe added his 77-yard run after John Jay closed to within eight points at 37-29. Coming in motion left to right, Onwe took the handoff and catapulted himself through a hole at the Sleepy Hollow 25-yard line and was gone.

“We usually run that play and look to go outside,” Onwe said. “All week in practice we stressed hitting the hole inside. When I looked inside and saw all the blocks were on, I went through it.”

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