Section 1’s five football champions got off to an awful start tonight in the state semifinals, as both Haldane (Class D) and Ossining (A) were blown out.

Ossining was run off the fast artificial turf by an explosive Lansingburgh, 49-20 in the Class A semi, after Haldane was sent home by Ticonderoga, 35-8 in Class D.

Section 1 has three more reps playing here tomorrow at Kingston’s Dietz Stadium — Dobbs Ferry©, Rye (B) and New Rochelle (AA).

Haldane was the least likely of the teams to get to the Carrier Dome.

It wouldn’t have been considered a miracle, but it sure would have been surprising. Heck, it was pretty stunning to see the Blue Devils one step away from Syracuse.
It just wasn’t impossible because the path wasn’t especially difficult.

Haldane knew from the summer, or from last November, or forever, that it would play Tuckahoe for the Section 1 Class D championship at Mahopac, no matter what it did during the season. It just needed a date and time, because there are only two D football schools in the section.

So the regular season be darned. It was a tough one, against a Class C schedule, in which the Blue Devils began 0-2, then beat Croton and Blind Brook, before losing their last three games. They went into the postseason 2-5.

But in Class D, the record means nothing until the playoffs begin.

One of the ultimate rags-to-riches stories played out just last season, and it played out on the big-schools stage, when upstate Auburn High failed to gain a berth in the Section 3 Class AA playoffs with a 3-3 record.

But Corcoran High was booted from the tournament for using an ineligible player, and Auburn replaced Corcoran.

Then it simply ran the table, reeling off six straight wins, including a classic 27-26 overtime victory over Monroe-Woodbury, the defending champ which had knocked off New Rochelle in the quarterfinals (and plays New Rochelle in a semifinal rematch tomorrow night).