SUNY Cortland captures its first NCAA Division III football national title with Long Islanders leading the way

The top player in Division III football carried the ball to the left edge. Two former Long Island high school players were there waiting for him.

SUNY Cortland might not have won its first national football title on Friday night without Freeport’s Naz Jean-Lubin and Comsewogue’s Jaden Martinez stopping a two-point conversion run by North Central quarterback Luke Lehnen with 1:20 left.

Powered by 40 former Long Island high school players, the Red Dragons beat defending national champion North Central College, 38-37, in the Stagg Bowl in Salem, Virginia.

“Everyone always says, ‘Long Island strong,’ and we proved it,” Plainedge’s Joe Iadevaio said. “We’re national champions.”

Lehnen won this year’s Gagliardi Award, the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy in D-III football.

“We knew what we were up against,” Iadevaio said.

The night before the Red Dragons improved to 14-1 by winning their final game of the season, Cortland coach Curt Fitzpatrick called Long Island the heartbeat and the pipeline to his football team.

At Salem Stadium, about 500 miles from Nassau County, those Long Island football players represented their hometowns and ensured they’d have a trophy to bring back to them.

Iadevaio, a sophomore wide receiver who won two Long Island titles at Plainedge, scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Wide receiver JJ Laap, who played for Ward Melville, caught a touchdown pass in the third quarter.

Martinez and Jean-Lubin had 10 and five tackles, respectively. Martinez added a sack and a pass breakup.

Lindenhurst’s’ Jack Winey, who led Cortland in tackles this season, had seven tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery against North Central, from Naperville, Illinois. Smithtown East’s Nick Lardaro had two tackles and a sack.

“We have so many guys from Long Island. They’re such a big part of our team,” fourth-year coach Fitzpatrick said before the game.

Cortland hadn’t played for a national football championship before. The Red Dragons were the first team from New York to reach the Stagg Bowl since Ithaca College won the championship in 1991.

North Central won the Stagg Bowl last season and entered the contest with a 14-0 record. It had won 29 straight games entering Friday night.

Cortland held Lehnen and the North Central offense to a touchdown in the first half and the Red Dragons trailed 7-3 at halftime.

The final nine drives of the game, excluding the final possession in which the Red Dragons took a knee to run out the clock, ended in a score. Cortland’s Zac Boyes threw for 349 yards and five touchdowns.

“Our offense was ready to go out there and score again,” Iadevaio said. “We knew we had to score every drive, and we were ready to go out there until the last second.”

Laap, a senior, caught 32 touchdown passes in four years with the Red Dragons, none bigger than the touchdown that put Cortland ahead 17-14 with 6:21 to play in the third quarter.

Iadevaio caught a 9-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter and put Cortland ahead 24-17.

Iadevaio wrapped up the Red Dragons’ next drive with a 10-yard touchdown pass to push the Red Dragons ahead 31-24 with 8:16 to play. Iadevaio finished with eight receptions for 95 yards and two scores.

“My teammates created opportunities for me and I just executed,” he said. “We knew what we had to do. And it showed on the field.”

North Central scored on a two-play possession with less than two minutes remaining. Trailing 38-37, it tried a two-point attempt to take the lead.

They put the ball in the hands of Lehnen, the Gagliardi winner.

Jean-Lubin and Martinez sniffed out the designed quarterback run, shouldering the weight of a small town in Central New York and the pride of a Long Island football community proving itself on a national stage.