The Norwich Purple Tornado football team team faced off against Maine-Endwell for the second time in two weeks. Norwich suffered the 38-7 loss in the semi-finals game. (Submitted Photo)

MAINE-ENDWELL - On Saturday, the Norwich Purple Tornado made the trip to Maine-Endwell to face off against the Spartans for the second time in two weeks. Norwich lost 56-20 in the final regular season game last Friday. This time in the Section IV, Class B semi-finals, the two-time defending state champions won on their home turf 38-7.

"We play to play these teams, especially in big games,” Norwich’s head coach Mike Chrystie said. “We played hard and never gave up. We had a lot of guys step up and we hung together and won the second half.”

Chrystie’s team, who were familiar with the Spartans’ game plan from the past week, didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, but made a few adjustments to give themselves a better feel this time around.
Maine-Endwell had scored all but three points in the first half before kicking a field goal in the third quarter. Norwich added their seven points on the board late in the fourth quarter off a hand-off to Braden Hagenbuch, who carried the ball 10 yards for the score. Norwich’s second half of play excelled with outscoring the Spartans 7-3, but Maine-Endwell had hyped up the pressure and made due with the work already done in the first half.

The Spartans continued to be dominant with their run game, stacking up 418 rushing yards with their overall total of 515 offensive yards, compared to Norwich’s 153.