Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com | Photos from this game

By Greg Thomas 
D3football.com 

SALEM – The list of Division III football teams to win, or even play for, a national championship over the past 25 years has been so exclusive that over time we’ve become accustomed to looking ahead – skipping to the end of the book, as it were – to ponder the forthcoming game between two of the division’s established elites.

Thanks to the early elimination of one of those traditionally expected championship entrants, we already knew that somebody new would challenge for the title and the end of the 2023 Division III football story would not come from the familiar boilerplate. 

Cortland’s story reads more like noir: a series of seemingly unconnected sidebars all converging on this 118th iteration of Cortland football and ultimately in Salem, Virginia. 

• September: Boyes has new goal for Red Dragons
• December: See big, focus small
• December: A mistake, a missed year

Consider the story of the Stagg Bowl’s Most Outstanding Player, Zac Boyes. Boyes has grown up around D-III football as the son of a D-III quarterback, head coach, and athletic director. Boyes’s father, Jerry, quarterbacked Ithaca to appearances in Stagg Bowls II and III, finishing as the national runner-up in each instance. Later, as longtime head coach of Buffalo State, Jerry Boyes led the Bengals to, at that moment, one of the most surprising upset results in the D3football.com era, a 7-6 win over defending champion and national powerhouse UW-Whitewater.

Nine-year old Zac was on the sidelines in Wisconsin on that day in 2012 and the thrill of that moment has been a source of inspiration for him ever since. Father and son shared a special moment on field, bridging a nearly five-decade arc for the Boyes family on D-III football’s largest stage. 

Then you have the story of Cole Burgess, Cortland’s ultra-talented wide receiver who played his best games in 2023 in Cortland’s biggest games. Burgess was forced to take a year away from Cortland, both as a student and a player. Burgess used that year away to train, physically and mentally, and return to the Red Dragons in 2022 a better version of himself.

During his year away, Burgess keeps a journal of his goals and his dreams. One of those goals Burgess wrote in March of 2021 during his time away was that Cortland would be national champions. If not for that year away, Burgess would have exhausted his eligibility after the 2022 season and been unavailable to contribute to this team’s drive to the national championship.

“I put it on my vision board. Years ago, I was never really thinking this was possible,” Burgess said after the game. “I just put everything that I wanted on there. A lot of things have been happening and this is one of them. This is a special moment for me, my whole team, and my coaches. This is amazing for Cortland.”

Even Cortland’s games this season serve as vignettes that ultimately focus the story on the ultimate prize. A fourth quarter fallout against Susquehanna was all too reminiscent of Cortland’s loss in the first round of the 2022 NCAA playoffs – a great offensive showing for 2-3 quarters, only to see the lead vanish late and end with the Red Dragons on the losing end. Finding those challenges was important for head coach Curt Fitzpatrick.

Prior to the game against Susquehanna, Fitzpatrick told D3football.com, “Playing great teams, even in a loss, you're preparing your team to play in November and hopefully into the postseason if we're able to earn that.”

The Red Dragons lost that game on the last play of regulation, but they earned the right to play in the postseason. The lessons learned translated into growth as their story advanced. In the first-round game at Endicott. In a game controlled largely by two talented defenses, Cortland was able to grind its way to a fourth-quarter field goal that gave the Red Dragons a six-point lead with three minutes to play. The additional points forced Endicott to play for a touchdown to win, and the final play of the game resulted in an incomplete pass through the end zone and Cortland’s first road playoff win. 

Against Grove City, Cortland found more fourth-quarter heroics. Trailing, Cortland’s offense rose to the occasion, driving for a go-ahead score and a two-point conversion with 1:23 left. Grove City missed a last-second field-goal attempt, but the narrative had shifted. On the hero’s journey in their own story, Cortland had evolved from a team just missing in the fourth quarter to a team that was closing in the fourth quarter. 

The next chapter saw a revival of the Red Dragon offense in the quarterfinal game at Alma. Cortland went back and forth with the high-scoring Scots through the first two quarters, matching Alma’s five first-half touchdowns with five of its own. The final dagger from the Red Dragons in this game came when Boyes and Burgess connected for a 50-yard touchdown on fourth-and-6 in the fourth quarter. In the hands of other players and from the mind of another coach, the play may have been reckless and opened the door for another fourth-quarter disappointment. In the late stages of the quarterfinals, Cortland had found its final form – an aggressive, confident, and clutch football team undeterred by anybody on the other side of the football. This was now a team that could win a national championship. 

All of the lessons and all of the growth came to fruition Friday night in Salem. Tied with 15 minutes to play, Cortland dominated possession in the fourth quarter and scored three times, the last coming with 1:20 to play. North Central had the answer, but Cortland’s resolve in the final moments and Jaden Martinez’s stop of Luke Lehnen on the decisive two-point try sealed the victory and a national championship for the Red Dragons. 

A season’s worth of seemingly program-defining moments led to that dramatic two-point stand. Moments that Boyes knew his team was ready for. “When you get in close games, you can feel everybody tensing up. In those moments, you really see what you're made of from a personal standpoint. So you just have to love those moments. You have to embrace them, because if not, you're not going to show up. I pride myself on those moments and these guys do too.

The scenes of Cortland’s storybook ending are bright with fireworks in the Salem sky, excitement and exhilaration from players donning championship hats and shirts, and ultimately raising the Walnut & Bronze for the program’s first national championship. If the end of the story is surprising, maybe there’s a lesson to be learned about skimming the beginning and middle of the journey. Cortland always believed this was possible. Their magical ride through the playoffs culminating in a 38-37 win over North Central in Stagg Bowl 50 is the stuff of storybooks – but let’s not call them Cinderella. 

That story didn’t have Dragons.