Section IV Football: Bellis, Tioga Central run away from Trumansburg, 44-28, to reclaim the title

By David Gough, Sample Media Group Sports Editor —

CONKLIN — Up by three scores over Trumansburg nearly halfway through last Saturday’s final quarter, the Tioga Central football team was on the verge of reclaiming the NYSPHSAA Section IV, Class D title for the first time in two seasons.

The Tigers had spent the last 12 months looking forward to just that after seeing their six-year reign of the section come to an end in overtime of last year’s championship game against Delhi.

They’d have to wait a little bit longer for the moment as the late Saturday afternoon title game at Susquehanna Valley High School was put into two separate lightning delays — with heavy rain and hail in the mix — that combined for a stoppage of nearly an hour and a half before the game got going again.

But when the game finally did get going again a little after 6:30 p.m., Tioga Central senior running back Logan Bellis was ready to go, taking the first offensive snap a game-long 55 yards to the house to all but put away the game for good.

“I mostly just wanted the game to be over at that point,” Bellis said. “It was a little frustrating coming back in and out, but we just executed well and got what we needed to do.”

Bellis’ fourth touchdown run of the second half was the highlight of a career-high 305 rushing yards for the senior, and it scored the Tigers’ final points of a 44-28 section-championship win.

It is Tioga Central’s 12th section championship in its 13th section-championship appearance under 16th-year head coach Nick Aiello.

With many of the same characters on this year’s team a part of the only Aiello team to lose in a section championship game just 12 months earlier, this title presents a different kind of meaning for the longtime head coach than the 11 he won between 2011 and 2023.

It was also the 10th straight win for the 2025 Tigers after losing a 9-7 season opener to Windsor.

“Testament to these kids,” Aiello said. “They had a goal in mind, and they knew they had to get better every single day, and they did. That’s why they’re here and that’s why they’re champs.”

The 44-28 score for the game that kicked off at 3 p.m. didn’t show signs of a shootout or a 300-yard night for Bellis early.

Tioga Central (10-1) took a 16-6 lead — two touchdowns to one — into halftime, and both of the Tigers’ touchdowns came from elsewhere.

Once both teams punted away after their first possessions of the afternoon, it was the Dominic Palmer game before it was the Logan Bellis game.

Palmer, a fellow senior who catches more passes than he receives handoffs, concluded an 11-play, 56-yard second drive with a 14-yard run to the left side of the end zone. Bellis added a 2-point run to give the top seed an 8-0 lead with 3:07 left in the first quarter.

Then, on second-and-7 of the ensuing Blue Raiders possession, Palmer sacked quarterback Vincent King for eight yards right before Caden Bradley produced another sack of 12 yards.

“They were getting off the ball, but we were able to get off the ball faster, and I was able to abuse that and get in the backfield and sack the quarterback,” Palmer, who had a number of other pressures throughout, said.

The first part of Saturday’s title game was not all that dissimilar to how the regular-season divisional game played out when the Tigers handed Trumansburg a 24-8 loss on the road, with a 16-0 halftime score.

Tioga Central put itself up 16-0 in Saturday’s first half as well, and it did so in a hurry with a quick strike of a fourth possession.

Bellis, who had 279 yards in Trumansburg in mid-October for his second-best outing of the season at the time, broke out with a 31-yard drive-opening run to the Trumansburg 34. Max Stauder followed with a 34-yard sprint up the middle on the next snap to make it 14-0 2:59 into the second quarter. Another Bellis 2-point run made it 16.

The Blue Raiders then went three-and-out for the fourth straight time to open the game, and things looked to take an even worse turn when King, who was 12-of-22 for 166 yards in the first meeting, suffered a lower-leg injury on the first play of their fifth drive.

But starting running back Aidan Clark-Cabezas took over behind center for the sophomore for the remainder of the game, and the senior just so happened to spark the Trumansburg offense.

Clark-Cabezas, who would finish 12-of-26 for 202 passing yards and ran for 54 of the team’s 82 rushing yards, completed a third-and-15 17-yard touchdown pass to William Brainard to get the Blue Raiders within 16-6, just 24.8 seconds until halftime.

“When their quarterback went down, we had to make adjustments in-game,” Aiello said. “We knew (Clark-Cabezas) could still throw the ball, but then you have a running quarterback back there. So it was a stressful game on top of the lightning delays.”

Trumansburg continued its offensive momentum out of the break as it moved 32 yards to midfield on the second half-opening drive, but a block-in-the-back flag pushed the Blue Raiders to punt.

That punt was then returned 82 yards to the end zone by Kadin Cole, but the touchdown was negated by offsetting penalties, and the official punt gave Tioga Central the ball at its own 18, where Cole started his nixed return.

But the Tigers were still in the end zone in short order as their first snap of the third period was taken 51 yards by Bellis down the right side to the Trumansburg 31. Gavin Albrecht, a receiver, provided a big block early in the run, boxing out a Blue Raider as if he were going for a rebound in basketball.

Bellis acknowledged seeing the block live as he ran past the open space.

“Everyone is great on the team,” Bellis said. “They do their job, looking to block people, going downfield. They’re just great; I can’t ask for a better line in front of me to run behind.”

Stauder, seven rushes for 62 yards, took the next two snaps three and 14 yards before Bellis finished off the drive with three- and 11-yard runs to make it 22-6 with 5:12 until the fourth quarter.

So began the shootout as Trumansburg answered with a seven-play, 56-yard scoring drive ending on an Eamon Herman four-yard touchdown run and a successful 2-pointer to get back within a possession, 22-14 with 2:36 left in the third.

Tioga Central then went nine plays, featuring six runs for 33 yards from Bellis and a third-and-13 14-yard run from quarterback Jackson Bombard to set up back-to-back eight-yard Bellis runs to reach the end zone. A Josh Rought 2-point catch made it 30-14 with 10:06 left in the fourth.

The Tigers then created the most space they had all day on the scoreboard as a four-and-out from Trumansburg turned into a one-play 48-yard run from Bellis to make it 38-14 with 8:45 to play.

Bellis, who missed all of last season after an ACL injury in the first half of the first game, was well on his way to a 224-yard second half and the biggest game of his life as his 25 carries for 305 surpassed his 300 yards against Delhi in September.

“For a senior year after missing his whole junior year, he had a sectional final that he deserved,” Aiello said.

Still, Trumansburg was back to moving the ball. A 44-yard pass to Brainard as the rain started to come down made it 38-20 with 6:57 to go.

That’s when lightning struck a few times. The first strike suspended the game and the second strike extended the suspension just as the teams were ready to resume play. When the game finally resumed an hour and a half after the 44-yard touchdown, an Albrecht pass breakup stopped a 2-point conversion and kept the Tioga lead at three possessions.

And then lightning struck one more time in the form of Bellis’ 55-yarder to make it 44-20 with 6:47 to go, effectively making a one-yard Connor Sherwood touchdown run for the lower seed moot with 2:07 to go.

Bellis surpassed 300 yards with a 23-yard run that sent Tioga Central into victory formation.

The Tigers ran for 438 total yards in the win on 45 attempts. Jayden Duncanson had four touches for 23 yards, Palmer and Shane Platukis both went two for nine, Cole had two for 13, Gage Hopkins had one for two and Bombard, who threw just once for an incompletion, ran twice for 15 yards.

Trumansburg (7-4) totaled 287 yards on 56 plays.

Tioga Central is back in the state tournament for the first time in two years and for the seventh time in the last eight full seasons. It gets Section III champ Lowville in the quarterfinals for a 5 p.m. Friday game at Vestal.

“We’re doing great things and I believe we can keep going as long as we push ourselves,” Palmer said.