Staff photo / Preston Byers McDonald’s Joey Cappuzzello (22) tries to finish a shot while defended by Hillsdale’s Kale Lewis during Saturday’s Division VII, Northeast 1, district final at Mineral Ridge High School.

WEATHERSFIELD — McDonald, after going down 22 points in the third quarter of Saturday’s Division VII, Northeast 1, district final, needed everything to go right in the fourth to complete its improbable comeback. A lot did go right for the Blue Devils, but just not everything, and, as a result, McDonald suffered its second and final loss of the season.

On Saturday at Mineral Ridge, the first-seeded Blue Devils fell 80-70 to No. 5 Jeromesville Hillsdale despite trimming their deficit to as few as seven in the fourth quarter. The Falcons, who coincidentally ended the McDonald football team’s undefeated season in the state semifinals three months ago, successfully stopped the Devils’ rally in the final two minutes.

“They’re pretty good, they really are,” McDonald head coach James Franceschelli said. “Coach [Ben] Ferguson does a great job. We knew this was going to be a battle all night, and we dug ourselves a pretty big hole there, but give our guys some credit there. We cut it to eight a couple times, six maybe once and scored 32 points in the fourth quarter. If we could have done that all along, probably would have finished a little bit better here.”

The teams stayed relatively close to one another in the first quarter, although Hillsdale made three 3-pointers in the period, including two from Lowen Ferguson, who converted six total during the game. The Devils, on the other hand, made just one, courtesy of Joey Cappuzzello, who made a deep shot at the buzzer to pull his team back within two at the end of the quarter.

The Falcons began the second on a 9-2 run, briefly extending their lead to nine before McDonald drained two threes. Much of the scoring, though, came to a halt late in the half, as only three points were scored in the final 1:55 amid increasing physicality and trash talking by both teams. The respective benches and fans also became more animated.

After taking a 32-24 lead into halftime, Hillsdale seemed to put the game away in the third quarter. The Blue Devils scored two of the first three baskets, both in the opening 50 seconds of the period, only for the Falcons to respond with a 10-0 run over a more than two-minute span.

While McDonald ended its cold streak with 4:29 to play in the third, Hillsdale only continued to grow its lead, thanks to seven straight points to end the quarter. With a last-second layup by Hayden McFadden, the Falcons led 60-38 with only eight minutes to play.

“They were getting out and going, and they hit some huge shots. … They shot it better than we’ve seen them shoot it, no doubt about it, but that’s kudos to them. They came ready to play,” Franceschelli said.

Facing certain elimination if things did not radically change, the Blue Devils resorted to a full-court press defense to start the fourth quarter. Within 75 seconds, the deficit was down to 18. But the comeback stalled for several minutes after that; with 4:45 to go, Hillsdale was still leading 64-45.

Then, things clicked into place for McDonald.

Brady Klockner kicked things off with a 3-pointer, which Casey Miller soon followed with a triple of his own, as well as a layup. After a timeout, Miller scored again, cutting the deficit to 13, and following a Falcons turnover in the backcourt, Joshua Krumpak converted a three-point play. This began a run of seven straight for Krumpak, whose 3-pointer after Miller forced a turnover made it a 69-62 game with 2:01 remaining. Noticeably rattled by the fast and physical McDonald defense, Hillsdale spent two consecutive timeouts.

Despite having all the momentum and igniting a loud Blue Devils fan base in the Mineral Ridge gymnasium, McDonald’s comeback slowly fizzled out.

Moments after his string of buckets, Krumpak fouled out. Shortly thereafter, Cappuzzello missed a 3-pointer, and the Blue Devils picked up a critical foul while going for a rebound off a second missed Hillsdale foul shot, giving the Falcons a chance to make up for their misses, which they did. The error was only made worse by a pair of missed free throws by Cappuzzello immediately afterward, effectively ending the game with less than a minute to go.

“We wish we could have went to the press a little bit earlier, but playing seven guys with [Brenden] Emerick down tonight, it just wasn’t feasible to be able to do it the whole game,” Franceschelli said.

Cappuzzello played all 32 minutes Saturday after barely playing at all in the Blue Devils’ district semifinal win vs. Badger because of a lingering elbow issue. Meanwhile, Emerick, a fellow senior starter, did not dress against Hillsdale due to a shoulder injury that had limited him for the last few weeks.

On the night, Krumpak led McDonald with 18 points. Miller added 15, while Zajack and Cappuzello had 12 and 11, respectively. Lowen Ferguson scored a game-high 30 points.

With the loss, McDonald finished the season with a 23-2 record. The Blue Devils won the first 21 games of the year before suffering a 72-48 road loss to Lake Center Christian in their regular-season finale. McDonald then defeated Waterloo and Badger to earn a spot in Saturday’s Northeast 1 district final.

“I’m so proud of our seniors,” Franceschelli said. “What they’ve done for us and this program going forward, it’s remarkable. … I just love those guys, and we’re going to miss them so much. But what they’ve done is set the foundation for the future, so we got to just build on it, keep going here. But man, I love those guys, and I’m going to miss them, there’s no doubt about it.”