Sunday, November 14, 2010

Hoosick Falls falls to Saranac Lake, Saturday's local roundup

Nick St. Denis
For The Record


CLINTONVILLE – Placekicking wasn’t a strong point Saturday during NYSPHSAA Class C football regional action at AuSable Valley.

Oddly enough, one great kick decided the game.

A combined four failed extra points and a blocked field goal led Saranac Lake and Hoosick Falls to overtime, but Saranac Lake’s Forrest Morgan was good on a 34-yarder in the Red Storm’s first and final possession of extra play, leading his team to a 15-12 victory over the Panthers.

"We had discussed potentially doing something different," Saranac Lake coach Eric Bennett said. "But Forrest said, ‘Give it to me, I got it.’ We’ve listened to our players all year, and he won the game for us."

The Red Storm brought the match to overtime when they blocked a short Hoosick Falls field goal attempt with six seconds remaining in the game. Saranac Lake’s Mike Phelan nearly ran the block back for a score, but Randy Tutunjian made a terrific play to get back and tackle Phelan at the 22-yard line.

"He’s only a sophomore and I expect a lot of great things from him in the future," Hoosick Falls Ron Jones said.

The dramatic blocked kick was a climax of Saranac Lake momentum that had been building since Josh Quinn finally got the Red Storm, who were trailing 12-0, on the board on a 20-yard reverse play at 4:02 in the fourth quarter.

The score was set up by good field position thanks to an interception by Brian Fortune – an interception that was long overdue since Saranac Lake dropped three potential picks in the first half.

"They made a couple plays down the stretch, and that was the difference," Jones said. "There were a couple times it looked like we were going to squirt out for a big gain and they made the tackle. They tipped a couple passes where we had room to run afterward, things like that."

Saranac Lake’s Dalton Demarco made another interception on the ensuing drive after Hoosick Falls’ Brad Burns brought a 50-yard kick return to the Red Storm’s 49-yard line, and a 15-yard personal foul penalty by the Panthers put Saranac Lake 28 yards from the end zone.

Morgan wasted no time getting the Red Storm the tying score when he hit CJ Stewart for a scoring strike.

"We went with a sprint out, and the middle of the field was wide open because they knew we were trying to throw to the other side," Morgan said. "CJ Stewart made an unbeliev¬able catch in the back of the end zone."

Hoosick Falls held a halftime lead thanks to a touchdown run and a scoring pass by Panthers quarterback Mike Brewster.

Brewster, who finished the game with a stellar 287 yards through the air, hooked up with receiver Quinn Rasmus on a 32-yard touchdown strike with just over two minutes to go in the second quarter.

"He’s going to be a great college quarterback," Jones said.

The Red Storm continued its trend of offensive possessions in the third quarter – get one or two big first downs but stall and punt around midfield.

Aside from Morgan’s touchdown pass, Hoosick Falls gave up just one other play longer than 15 yards when it surrendered a 43-yard run by Morgan on the Red Storm’s first possession.

Whenever Saranac Lake tried to get its outside run game going, the backs were met by speedy Panthers defenders.

"That’s what their game seems to be, getting around the perimeter," Jones said. "We did a good job stopping that. They made good plays on defense that got them good field position, because we did have them backed up at times."

Morgan had net punts of 57 and 58 in the first half that helped the Red Storm hold their ground in the field-position battle.

Jones said despite the loss, it’s impossible to look at the Panthers’ 2010 campaign negatively.

"Our guys worked so hard in the offseason to get ready for this," he said. "We’re Section II champs. We would’ve liked to have gone further but it is what it is. We’ll go back to the drawing board, get back to work and keep pushing forward.

"We have nine seniors. It’s a really good group and it’s been a lot of fun watching those guys mature and grow up. We’ll have a lot of guys go on to lead successful lives, I think they know an awful lot about competition, being successful and holding your head up."

The Red Storm will face Bronxville in the state semifinals Saturday at noon at Dietz Stadium in Kingston.

Saranac Lake 15, Hoosick Falls 12 (OT)
Hoosick Falls 0 12 0 0 0 – 12
Saranac Lake 0 0 0 12 3 – 15
First quarter
No scoring.
Second quarter
HF- M. Brewster 2 run (pass failed), 0:05.
HF Rasmus 32 pass from M. Brewster (kick missed), 9:48.
Third quarter
No scoring.
Fourth quarter
SL- Quinn 20 run (kick blocked), 4:02.
SL- Stewart 28 pass from Morgan (kick failed), 6:35.
Overtime
SL- Morgan 34 kick.
Individual statistics
Rushing
SL- Morgan 15-102. Quinn 2-20, TD. Ryan 5-17. Stewart 9-13. Madden 2-0. Phelan 2-0. Totals: 35-152, TD.
HF- Burns 15-79. Williams 7-26. M. Brewster 6-13, TD. Totals: 28-118, TD.
Passing
SL- Morgan 4-12-1-41, TD. Monty 0-1-0-0. Totals: 4-13-1-41, TD.
HF- M. Brewster 24-37-2-287, TD.
Receiving
SL- Stewart 1-28, TD. Ryan 1-7. Quinn 2-6. Totals: 4-41, TD.
HF- Rasmus 12-146, TD. Williams 5-70. Mulready 1-30. Tutunjian 3-26. Burns 1-4. M. Brewster 1-(-5). Totals: 24-287, TD.
Interceptions
SL- Fortune, Demarco.
HF- Rasmus.

--

PAWLING -- Rensselaer County High Schools were well represented Saturday in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association cross country meet at Lakeside Park.
Columbia freshmen Kyle Gronostaj finished ninth with a time of 16:18.6 in the Class AA dash. Lansingburgh senior C.J. Sousis placed 22nd in 17:06.2 in the Class B run. In Class D, Berlin’s Lew Palmer came in 33rd with a time of 18:09.8 while team¬mates Alex French was 43rd (18:36.2) and Connor Hoyt was 53rd (18:52.0).
On the girls side, Columbia eight grader Kaylee Scott finished in 50th place with a time of 19:59.7 in the Class AA girls race. Berlin’s Hannah French was 45th in 22:24.7 and Kayleigh Corrado was 48th in 22.27.6 in the Class D run.
Other top finishers in Section II include Saratoga senior Sam Place who finished second in 15:56.7 for the Class AA boys. Burnt Hills senior Otis Ubriaco was third in a time of 16:17.8 in the Class A boys race. Shaker High juniors Christian DeLago was sixth (16:06.8) and Michael Libruk was seventh (16:12.9).
On the girls side, Saratoga’s Keelin Hollowood finished 10th with a time of 18:44.0 in the Class AA girls race. Bishop Gibbons freshmen Tayla Williams was 11th in 19:43.6 in the Class B race. Betsy Edinger finished fourth in 19:24.5 for Greenwich in the Class C dash.

Girls Volleyball
Voorheesville 3, Ausable Valley 0: The 21-0 Lady Blackbirds swept a Class C Regionals match by scores of 25-15, 25-11 and 25-14. Libby Bjork paced Voorheesville with 13 service points and dished out 19 assists while Ellie Wagner smashed 18 digs and added seven points.
Rebecca Bablin finished with nine kills and 13 service points and Jessica Brower chipped in with 15 digs and 13 service points.
Voorheesville advances to the Class C state Final Four at Glens Falls Civic Center on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Football
Moriah 14, Cambridge 6: Nick Gilbo scored on a one yard touchdown run in the first quarter before adding the game winning score from 50 yards out in the second quarter to give Moriah a Class D regional contest victory at Schuylerville High School.
Ryan Mascarenas connected on two extra point kicks in the victory for Moriah. Matt Best put Cambridge on the board with a 40 yard touchdown run late in the game.

Follow OTR: Twitter
Facebook
YouTube Channel
RSS feed for links to blog posts as soon as they are published
Send an email to OTR
High school football central on www.troyrecord.com

Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

The following comments represent views of the individuals making the comments. Comments are screened only to keep out spam and uncivil behavior. All opinions are welcome.

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home