Both teams in the “other” Section 1 Class B football semifinal tonight wanted a shot at four-time defending champ Rye in the title game next week at Mahopac.

It will be Sleepy Hollow, with a 21-7 win over Pleasantville in a downpour, which gets that shot.
Sleepy Hollow, which thought it was headed to the Section 1 Class B title game a year ago when it slipped on a banana peel; when it was caught looking past a young but talented Pleasantville team and got erased from the tournament 14-13 in the first round. The Panthers then got squished by Rye on another rainy night, 47-7 on the Garnets’ Nugent Stadium turf.

Pleasantville wanted it, too.

“Oh, yeah,� Pleasantville coach Tony Becerra said. “Not because of what happened against Rye last year when we played them, because we were very young last year and that was to be expected. But we felt we deserved to be in Mahopac as well as anyone. Listening to what’s going on around you, everyone said it’s pretty much Rye and Sleepy’s birthright to be there, and we didn’t pay too much attention to that. We knew how hard we work and we knew we had every right to be there.�

This Sleepy Hollow team is more formidable than the one that came up short last year, more than the one that fell 19-8 to Rye — which was headed to the second of three straight state championship games in Syracuse — in the 2004 title game.

But Rye is still Sleepy’s nemesis. The Horsemen are 7-1, and the one loss is to you-know-who. Yup, Rye, 35-20 in week 3.

“This means everything to us,� said Sleepy Hollow coach Steve Borys. “You couldn’t have written a script any better for us. We have Pleasantville this round and then Rye in the title game.

“That’s what I wanted. Pleasantville ruined us last year and we’ve been thinking about this game for 12 months. Everything we’ve done, every bench press, everything, has been for this game, and I’m glad it worked out this way. And the other team that’s been keeping us down is Rye. To face them again in the title game, what else could you hope for? Another shot at redemption.�

The Hollow has one more step, but it’s like the span of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

The Garnets aren’t only four-time champs — their five-year run coincides with Borys’ tenure as head coach — but they have been dominant. Rye is 54-3 over the five years, with three trips to the Dome, one state title, and 46 consecutive victories over Section 1 teams. Some of its closest games have been in Mahopac, where the sectional titles are decided: 17-7 over Pelham last year, 22-6 over Briarcliff in 2005, 19-8 over Sleepy in ‘04.

The Horsemen never won the championship since Section 1 scrapped the bowl-game format in favor of a tournament.

“I heard,� quarterback Mike Sullivan said. “It would be great to get it done.�

Sleepy had its final appearance in 2004, and one in 1998 (a loss to Harrison), but hasn’t been on top since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when it won bowl games with record-setting running back Harold Gayden, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

This team wants to make its own legacy. But it has an enormous, gigantic opponent that isn’t about to give up its reign easily.