Sectional redemption: Auburn football beats East Syracuse-Minoa in quarterfinals
AUBURN — After waiting one year and five days, Auburn football has found redemption.
The Maroons' 2023 season came to an end at the hands of East Syracuse-Minoa in the final minutes of the Section III, Class A quarterfinals at Holland Stadium on Oct. 27.
On Friday, No. 4 Auburn repaid the favor on the same field with a 37-12 victory over the No. 5 Spartans in the quarterfinals.
Though the meaning of this season's sectional matchup was much more than payback, head coach Dave Moskov admitted it felt good to exorcise last season's demons.
"Those kids remember that feeling last year, because that was a stunner. It was one of the toughest games I've been associated with, just the way we lost at home for our seniors," he told The Citizen. "And to get them back again, no question that was in our kids' minds throughout the week, just to redeem ourselves and clean up that mess."
Auburn set the tone from the jump when Jae'Ssiah Smith took the opening kickoff to the edge of ESM territory. Several plays later, Aidan Musso rushed 18 yards to the endzone to give the Maroons an 8-0 lead. They carried their 8-point advantage into the second quarter by forcing the Spartans to turn the ball over on downs on both of their first-quarter drives.
At the 9:42 mark in the second, Musso took a five-yard carry for another touchdown to balloon the Maroons' lead to 16.
With ESM threatening at Auburn's 8-yard line on the subsequent drive, its defense once again held strong by forcing another turnover on downs.
However, the Spartans would ensure they went into halftime with points on the board. They connected on a 25-yard passing touchdown with one minute remaining to cut its deficit to 10 at the break.
Despite being fairly sound for the first half, Auburn's defense took a step back on the first drive of the second half. The Maroons were called for five penalties, propelling the Spartans to a six-and-a-half-minute drive that resulted in them trimming Auburn's lead to 4 points off a rushing touchdown.
"The number of penalties we had was just unbelievable," Moskov said. "We flipped the field completely. We set up that touchdown for (ESM) early. (We) came out in the third quarter and started giving up more penalties. We'll look at the film and take a look at some of the calls. The bottom line is we were getting killed with penalties."Now holding just a 4-point advantage, the Maroons were in need of spark. Enter quarterback Matt Smith.
The signal caller took a snap at Auburn's 39-yard line and proceeded to turn on the jets for a 51-yard run to get his team into the red zone. Following the big gain, Alex Chase rushed into the end zone to put the Maroons ahead by 12. Auburn's defense refocused at end the third quarter by not allowing any points, and giving the ball to its offense to open the fourth.
Just one minute into the final quarter, Matt Smith completely shifted the momentum by taking a 47-yard carry to the house to give his team a 30-12 lead.
"(Matt's) just a tremendous athlete," Moskov said. "His attitude is fantastic, he practices like that every day. In practice, when he goes against our defense, that's how he runs. So he works that craft, he works those skills and he gets better every day at it. (He) never takes plays off in practice. When he gets on the field, he's ready, because that's the way he carries himself every single day in practice." With under five minutes remaining in the matchup, Matt Smith and Chase put the final nail in the coffin after the duo connected on a tipped 13-yard pass for the last touchdown of the game. The Maroons will now shift their focus to No. 5-ranked Whitesboro, the No. 1 seed in the sectional tournament. The two teams took the field against one another at Holland Stadium on Oct. 25, where the 8-0 Warriors came away with a 50-6 win. Though Moskov knows his team won't be favored, he hopes that allows Auburn to play more freely. "We're definitely going to have to do some things and loosen some things up. We've got some other stuff that we're going to try and do with them, and just let the kids know we've got to take a shot," he said. "We'll be huge underdogs going into that game, the kids know it, and we're going to just own it and say, 'Let's go in there one and take a shot.' You never know what can happen."Sports reporter Jacob Urish can be reached at or (315) 282-2288.
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