For the second straight year, Saratoga Springs High found themselves at Bob Ford Field at UAlbany for the Class AA football championship. Last year, Troy High denied Terry Jones' Blue Streaks the title on the same field, and under drier conditions than what Saratoga and Shaker endured Friday night.
Shaker hadn't won the AA title since 2012, and were themselves humbled by the Flying Horses two years ago at RPI in what amounted to a de facto home game for Troy, whose campus is just up the street from RPI's East Campus Village Stadium.
Saratoga had lost to Shaker in their regular season meeting on September 14, so the time was nigh for revenge, with so much else on the line. The Blue Streaks won the opening coin toss, and methodically marched down the field, taking up more than half of the first quarter before QB Jake Williams ran it in from about 5 yards out, giving Saratoga an early 7-0 lead.
Shaker, having gone three-and-out on their first possession, answered back on their second drive, which carried over into the second quarter. Logan Souza, the subject of a feature piece in the Albany Times-Union earlier in the day, ran in untouched from about 7 yards to tie the score. However, on the very next play from scrimmage, Saratoga's Ashton Capone broke loose and galloped 58 yards to put the Streaks back in front.
Back came Shaker. With 44 seconds left in the half, Connor McHugh found Raveon Burt all alone at the Saratoga two yard line, and Burt ambled in, leaving the teams even at 14 at the break.
From there, however, it was all Shaker. After a scoreless third quarter, Shane Lavender picked off Williams in the fourth and took it the distance, 83 yards, to give the Blue Bison their first lead of the night. It really was the game winner, as Saratoga couldn't respond, and Souza added his second touchdown later in the period to seal the game, as Shaker wins its second AA title, 28-14.
Come to think of it, Times-Union high school columnist James Allen, calling the game for Spectrum Sports, nearly had the score right in his pre-game prediction. He figured Shaker would net 28 points, so there's that to hang his hat on. Speaking of Spectrum, there was a tech glitch in the broadcast during the third quarter, as for some unknown reason, someone at the studio lost track of the schedule, and tried to bring viewers back to the pre-recorded newscasts. Fortunately, the glitches only lasted a few seconds.
In other action, across the river at Lansingburgh, Cambridge-Salem captured the Class C title by beating Chatham, 41-27. Cambridge won the D title the last two years, and have dominated the lower classes since classification play began 25 years ago.
Two teams have punched their tickets to the state tournaments. Three more will do so by the end of today. The Class D game will be contested at Schuylerville at 1 pm. Then, it'll be a doubleheader at Shenendehowa, with the Class B game (Glens Falls-Cobleskill) at 3, and the Class A game (Burnt Hills-Queensbury) at 7:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment