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Despite Loss In The Finals, It Was A Horsemen’s Season To Remember

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Star running back Brayden Richardson was held in check in championship game. (photo by Eoghan Glynn)

December 6, 2025

By Tom Pedulla—

In the end, Sleepy Hollow did not leave the JMA Wireless Dome at Syracuse University with the first state football championship in school history, bowing to high-powered Monroe 34-0 on Dec. 6 after a scoreless first half.

In the end, the Horsemen still returned home with heads held high, knowing they were part of a special team that took the long-suffering program to unimagined heights, knowing they were part of a season that will always be celebrated.

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“I’m so proud of this group and how they fought all year long. They did every single thing we asked of them and more,” said second-year coach Anthony Giuliano. “It’s a really special group of kids.”

It takes a special group to go from last season’s 3-3 mediocrity to this year’s gaudy 12-2 mark. It takes a special group to shed the ghosts of nightmarish seasons’ past by earning the school’s first playoff victory since 2014 and its first Section 1 title since 1978.

“I’m proud of the season we had,” said senior captain Thaddeus Kromelis. “I don’t think many people expected us to go to Syracuse, given the history Sleepy Hollow had. It’s undoubtedly the best season in Sleepy Hollow history.”

“You always wish you could finish the job. It’s in the past now. We’ve got to live with that. Hopefully, future teams will take something from this season and the experience we had.”

Said Thomas Hudson, another senior captain, “I’m so proud of this team. I’ll never forget this season.”

No one will ever forget the 10-game winning streak the Horsemen rode to Syracuse. No one will ever forget their postseason march through Pleasantville, Ardsley and Westlake to Section 1 supremacy or the way they rose up against Saugerties and Glens Falls in the state playoffs to advance to Syracuse.

No one will ever forget the way this team captured the imagination of its fans or the sendoff players received when they boarded their bus to take a shot at a title that was not on anyone’s radar when this dream season began.

Teachers, students and staff lined the hallways to show their support for players who defied naysayers by seemingly doing the impossible.

“The sendoff we got was like something I’ve never seen,” Giuliano said. “We hope the young kids in town saw that and the wow factor will lead them to say, ‘I want that to be me one day.’ Everyone in the district was there to send us off and it was powerful to see.”

Long-term success will depend on the ability to attract and develop more players at the youth level. Only time will tell if this season can have that kind of impact.

As for the championship game, well, Sleepy Hollow ran into a buzzsaw in undefeated Section 5 king Monroe. The Red Jackets closed their season 12-0 to give the City of Rochester its first state title.

“They have athletes all over the field and a lot of size,” said Giuliano. “We didn’t get what we usually get.”

Other teams could not stop or even slow Brayden Richardson, the Horsemen’s dynamite running back. Monroe did. The same speedster who rambled for a Section 1 record 446 yards and five touchdowns in the state semifinal against Glens Falls was consistently met at the line of scrimmage by a horde of Monroe defenders and there was no escaping their sure-handed tackles. Unofficially, Richardson was limited to 47 yards on 18 carries. When quarterback Jeremiah Bowen went to the air, Monroe had answers for that, too.

QB Jeremiah Bowen was unable to get offense on track.

Sleepy Hollow’s defense was superb in keeping the game scoreless in the opening half. The Horsemen generated tremendous pressure on the quarterback and swarmed to the ball on every play, delivering their trademark Hollow hits when they got there.

“In the first half, we just did our jobs. We made tackles. We wrapped up. We got to the quarterback, which is what we needed to win this game,” Hudson said. “In the second half, we just fell flat. We didn’t do our jobs, we didn’t wrap up, we didn’t make tackles.”

The loss in Syracuse notwithstanding, the Horsemen face a promising future. (Phot by Eoghan Quinn)

Great teams can only be held down for so long. Monroe corrected its first-half mistakes and found its groove in erupting for 28 third-quarter points while Sleepy Hollow’s normally prolific offense never got untracked.

There would be no storybook end to a season players and fans will still treasure for the rest of their lives.

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