Buffalo’s Zac Boyes captains Cortland to D3 national championship, 1st in school history
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Kenmore West graduate Zac Boyes has quarterbacked SUNY Cortland to its first NCAA Division III football championship in history.
Boyes totaled 472 yards (349 passing, 123 rushing) and threw five touchdown passes in leading Cortland (14-1) to a 38-37 win against defending national champion and No. 1-ranked North Central (14-1) on Friday night in the 50th Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Salem, Virginia.
“To play on this stage, the way we did today against an unbelievable team, I can’t put it into words,” Boyes said in his postgame interview on ESPNU. “We’re national champions baby. I’m just so proud of these guys.”
Boyes at center of undefeated Cortaca matchup at Yankee Stadium
All of Boyes’ scoring passes came during in the second half, a breathtaking back-and-forth with North Central quarterback Luke Lehnen, after Cortland trailed 7-3 at halftime. Lehnen, who accounted for 294 yards (179 passing, 115 rushing) and four touchdowns, won the Gagliardi Trophy as the most outstanding player in NCAA D-III football.
“Zac Boyes should have won the Gagliardi Trophy,” Cortland coach Curt Fitzpatrick, a former St. John Fisher player, said on ESPNU. “I believe he’s the best quarterback in the country.”
“If you’re going to be the guy, you have to come out and beat the guy,” Boyes said. “When the lights are brightest, you have to come out and play your best.”
Selected to D3football.com’s All-America third team in the day, Boyes finished his junior season with 4,794 total yards of offense (4,020 passing, 774 rushing) and 52 touchdowns (44 passing, eight rushing). He is Cortland’s all-time leader in total offense (8,347), passing yards (7,071) and passing touchdowns (73).
Boyes’ father Jerry, the football coach at Buffalo State for 25 seasons, was an All-American quarterback for Cortland’s rival Ithaca, and was the offensive coordinator when the Bombers won the Stagg Bowl in 1979.
Cortland’s starting center Ryan Bitka, a Trench Trophy finalist and Section VI wrestling champion for Amherst, is the son of former Buffalo State assistant and Cortland football alum Terry Bitka, now on staff at Hilbert.
Additional Western New Yorkers on the Red Dragons roster include: Cam Crosier (Kenmore West), Matt Lotter (Fredonia), Sean O’Brien (Jamestown), Steve Otremba (St. Francis), CJ Ozolins (Canisius), Logan Wendt (Lockport), and Aaron Jentz (St. Joe’s).
In its third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance and 12th in history, Cortland advanced past the national quarterfinals for the first time, and became the first team from New York to reach the Stagg Bowl since 1991, when Ithaca won the national title. That was the last time an East Coast team won the championship before Cortland’s triumph on Friday night.
Cortland’s 14 victories are a program record, and it finished the season with 13 consecutive wins. The Red Dragons ended North Central’s 29-game win streak that went back to the 2021 Stagg Bowl. North Central was a near unanimous No. 1 entering the postseason, while Cortland was ranked 11th by D3football.com and 13th by the American Football Coaches Association.
The teams combined for 41 points in the fourth quarter, and Cortland won by stopping North Central on a two-point conversation attempt with 1:20 remaining.
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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here.
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