Ossining assured us of one thing tonight, with a 22-7 first-round Class A football victory over two-time defending Section 1 champ Harrison.

We will have a new champ in one of the five classes this year. Maybe it will only be one, because dynasties New Rochelle (AA), Rye (B), Dobbs Ferry© and Tuckahoe (D, which only has two schools) remain alive in their tournaments.

But Ossining won the rematch of last year’s Class A championship game, and knocked out the champ, and further showed that this class is totally up for grabs. Ossining, Somers, Fox Lane and Eastchester—all of them victorious today—have even-money chances to bring it home.

“It wasn’t a revenge thing,� Ossining coach Dan Ricci said. “They’re still the section champs, 2006, and we can’t get that back from them. They’re just in our way right now for our goal, for this year, which is a section championship in 2007.�

The players, though, they had some vengeance on their minds.

“All the seniors that graduated last year called probably everybody on the team,� Ossining junior running back James Brudage said. “It was like, ‘Yo, you’ve got to play good; we can’t have this happen twice.’ It felt like a rivalry to me, because I was on the team last year.�

One of the Ossining players who wasn’t on the team last year is Myles Thomas, who had a fabulous game tonight with three interceptions. He had quit playing football after ninth grade and the Ossining-Harrison title game inspired him to return to football “and try and beat these guys,� he said.

I know we’ve said this before, but Class A is the most difficult to win, and its champ will have the most difficult time going on, because of this ridiculous three games in 11 days playoff format that doesn’t happen to any other section in the state.

Section 1 starts its season later than all the other sections, and in order to have a seven-game season and an eight-team playoff, the Thursday-Tuesday-Saturday schedule is the only way. Class AA is getting away from it because it has a bye in the state quarterfinals, so it will play its championship game a week later.

Class AA and A both did it for the last two years. It’s no small coincidence that in the last two years, no Class AA or A team from Section 1 has reached the Carrier Dome for the state championships after emptying their tanks so often in so little time.

“Yeah, I’m glad next year they’re going to get rid of it,� Ricci, who hopes to benefit by having a 42-man roster, said.

Whoever wins Class A will be deserving, albeit exhausted.