Espino saves the day with blocked punt, touchdown and PAT

It was only two points, but Jamar Evans' safety in the fourth quarter sparked Roosevelt's turnaround before Tony Espino's blocked punt gave the Rough Riders a 29-28 come-from-behind win over Sullivan in the waning moments Saturday.

Down 22-7 after halftime Roosevelt started to shutdown Sullivan's spread-offense in the Inter-City North game. Then Evans stuffed a run in the end zone to make the game 22-9, and Roosevelt (2-3, 2-2) began believing the turnaround was legit - in the game and for their season.

"We have nine seniors on the team, they still want the chance to make the playoffs," Roosevelt head coach Nick Diedrich said. "We know some things have to happen to make playoffs, but this keeps our hopes alive."

After pulling even at 22-22 Sullivan (1-4, 1-3) scored again to take a 28-22 lead.

With just 50 seconds left to play in the game Sullivan set up to punt from its own 15-yard line, and Roosevelt knew it needed a special play.

Espino rocketed past the defense and leapt to block the punt and recovered it in the end zone to tie the game once again at 28-28.

Chris Espino stepped onto the field to take aim at the go-ahead extra point, booting it right through the uprights to complete the surprising victory.

"Tony's a senior and we knew that if we lost this game we wouldn't have any chance of making the playoffs," Diedrich said. "And we needed a big play on special teams."

Sullivan took a quick 8-0 lead running out of the shotgun, combined with many missed tackles.

Roosevelt scored to make it 8-7 as Edwin Rodriguez went in on a bootleg run of 10 yards.

That's when the mistakes mounted and Sullivan opened up a 15-point lead at halftime.

"It wasn't dominating, we just had a hard time keeping them contained," Diedrich said. "We knew they weren't bigger or stronger than us at halftime, but they had been making the plays and we missed a lot of opportunities."

The tide turned when Nathan Jimenez intercepted a pass in the third quarter and the defense tightened up.

Evans safety followed soon after, and though the Rough Riders trailed 22-9 there was little doubt they had a chance.

"It kind of set the tone for the game, it was an excellent, hard tackle," Diedrich said. "That got everybody excited and helped regain confidence that we could make the comeback."

In his second game starting quarterback Edwin Rodriguez didn't turned the ball over while effectively running the offense.

Rodriguez scored on a QB sneak behind center Fernando Batista to tie the game at 22-22.

On offense Evans didn't start the game at running back as usual, but bounced back to a big second half.

"Jamar came in and really in the second half ran better than he's run all year," Diedrich said. "He was breaking tackles, and running like he really wanted to win the game."

Roosevelt plays Noble Street, 11 a.m. Saturday at Lane Stadium.

Sullivan will play Kelvyn Park, 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Hanson Stadium.