The Branford Buccaneers and the Lafayette Hornets played with equal grit Friday night as they battled it out for “The Helmet.” Both teams suffered multiple injuries but stood strong regardless, until the Hornets came up short in the final minutes of the game.

And so, for the first time since 2004 and only the third time in the last 20 years, the Buccaneers came out on top with a 32-20 win over the Hornets.

With the Hornet defense getting off to a rocky start Friday night, the Bucs scored quickly in the first quarter on a 39-yard run by Trent Thomson. The Hornets came back with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Nick Bracewell to Brooks Laminack with less than two minutes left in the first.

The Bucs came back early in the second quarter with a five-yard run for a touchdown by Kyle Certain. The kick was blocked. The Hornets picked up a touchdown by Antwan Brown with less than a minute left in the first half.

However, Kyle Certain’s pass to Josh Kirby in the third quarter quickly broke the halftime 13-13 tie, while Perry sat on the sidelines with a sprained ankle.

Brown then made the crowd go wild with an 82-yard kickoff return for a score. The Hornets failed to produce after they got the ball back on a missed 42-yard field goal attempt by Carlos Negrete.

Branford responded with a touchdown by Certain against a Hornet defense that had previously given up an average of less than two touchdowns per game. The Hornets intercepted the ball just before Lafayette sophomore lineman Tyler Brown went down after a hit. The crowd was quiet as Brown lay immobilized for 20 minutes. Brown was alert as he was loaded into an ambulance while his team prayed in a huddle on the field.

After Tyler Brown’s injury, an on-target pass from Bracewell to Antwan Brown, gained 20-plus yards. The Hornets’ chances to score looked hopeful. However, after several incomplete passes, the Hornets failed to score.

Perry sealed the deal with a huge 70-yard sprint for a touchdown.

“I didn’t feel like I did what I was capable of,” said Nick Bracewell. “We played good, although I don’t think we came in ready to play. We were thinking about playoffs, we didn’t focus on Branford.”

Lafayette Coach Joey Pearson gave the Bucs credit for the win.

“Branford played a great game and deserved to win,” said Pearson. “We had some opportunities to win the game, but we could not get them off the field on third downs and didn’t score when we got down in the red zone.”

“In a close game it comes down to a few plays and we just didn’t get it done. We now have to rebound and get ready for a very good Jefferson County team in the first round of the playoffs,” said Pearson.

Branford Coach Bill Wiles was proud of his team’s hard-fought win against what he called a “well coached and classy outfit.”

“I have a lot of respect for coach Pearson and his program,” he said. “We felt like we would get their best effort, so our challenge was to fight back. We did. We battled the whole game.”