Looking back at Section 4's impact on the New York high school football state tournament
Heading into the 30th edition of a high school football tournament in New York, Section 4 – with Chenango Forks and Maine-Endwell far out front - has had a substantial presence.
Here, in no particular order, some of the eye-catching playoff storylines that have unfolded from 1993 to the present and concluded with a final chapter in the Carrier Dome-turned-JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse.
Best, relative to competition
In its final four games of 2007, from Section 4’s Class D final through the state-title game, Walton outscored its opponents by an aggregate 210-20. “Tightest squeeze” of the four? That was 52-14 in the quarterfinal against Section 3 champion Onondaga and Latavius Murray, a 2,194-yard rusher that year and presently a member of the Buffalo Bills in his 11th NFL season.
How sound throughout, that 2007 version of “Orange Crush” as known on the home front? For the season, 707 points were scored and 48 permitted. The Warriors punted eight times in 13 games on the path to the sixth unbeaten season of coach Jim Hoover’s 32 years at the helm to that point.
To fairly well sum up the state final, a 64-6 trouncing of Ticonderoga in which Walton kicked off 10 times and did not punt, read the opening paragraph of the following day’s Press & Sun-Bulletin game story: “Before executing its third snap from center, Walton had rung up a yardage total that Ticonderoga wouldn’t surpass until the third-to-last play of the Class D state football championship game.”
Mammoth and mobile up front, deep, disciplined and multi-talented at the ball-handling positions and off the charts defensively, it was a squad led by fullback/linebacker Richard Fletcher. All he did in five playoff games was score 19 touchdowns and eclipse 100 rushing yards in each of the last four.
“We stuck to our basic offense and basic defense, worked on blocking and tackling and everything you need to do – Dad always did that,” Jim Hoover said in December 2007. Dad, of course, was Dick Hoover, who coached Vestal to a 27-season winning percentage of .802.
Said Tank Anderson, Vestal’s head coach at the time, upon completion of that season: “Their offensive-line blocking was the best I think I’ve ever seen.”
Maine-Endwell's 2004 team had a thrilling playoff run
Late-autumn 2004 will remain accentuated in Maine-Endwell football lore regardless of what that squad’s wildly successful successors have accomplished.
The Section 4 final brought a relatively nondescript two-TD victory against Corning East. But thereafter? Thrice the Spartans were tied or trailed with under a minute remaining in the Carrier Dome.
** M-E 27, Whitesboro 20: In a quarterfinal M-E trailed by 20-0 in the third quarter, Shane Connolly’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Shawn Fitchpatrick broke a 20-20 tie with 36 seconds remaining.
** M-E 33, Iroquois 28: Leaning on its No. 2 quarterback and requiring a scoring drive of 80 yards beginning with 2:26 remaining, the Spartans pulled off the highly unexpected. That final M-E possession of the semifinal concluded with Mike Meta rushing 1 yard for the winning points.
“I prepared myself to say (postgame) that I was so proud of my kids because they didn’t quit and it just didn’t happen for us,” said M-E coach Jack Touhey. “But guess what, they fooled me to death, it did happen.”
** M-E 39, Wallkill 36: Connolly-to-Fitchpatrick – sound familiar? – was the answer again, this time a TD connection with 19 seconds remaining to finish a drive that began at the Spartans’ 32-yard line with 2:03 to play.
Connolly, who sustained a torn ACL in the first half of the state semifinal, returned in the second quarter of the final (17-for-24, 308 yards, 3 TDs). In the three intersectional games, he passed for 706 yards on 67-percent accuracy.
Said Touhey, at the time in the first season of his second stint heading Maine-Endwell’s program: “We didn’t have the best players, we had the best team. They didn’t argue, they didn’t cuss, they played together.”
1997 Vestal was (Mike) Young at heart
The Golden Bears followed their leader extraordinaire, Mike Young, to a championship they’d – turns out, realistically and with good reason – targeted since Day 1 of that preseason. After a Week 2 setback dealt on a final-minute field goal by Class B Susquehanna Valley, Vestal strung 11 wins and claimed New York’s Class A championship.
The state quarterfinal brought a 27-20 win over Carthage that required bounce-back from a 13-0 deficit. Key play in that one was a 91-yard Young-to-Jim Jordan scoring pass – estimated to cover 65 yards in the air – 62 seconds before halftime that drew Vestal within 13-12. Young passed for two scores, rushed for another, made a two-point conversion and intercepted two passes.
In a 13-7 semifinal win over Niagara-Wheatfield the following weekend, Young ad-libbed a first-and-goal sneak from the 10-yard line in overtime, gaining 9 yards to set up Craig Johnson’s decisive touchdown.
For Golden closure there came 14-11 success against Queensbury in the title game. Early in the final quarter with Queensbury ahead by 11-6, Young intended to pass on third-and-17 from the 22, but with no receiver available, scrambled for the title-clinching score – and tacked on a 2-point pass to Craig Spencer on “load right, sprint right, double-cross.”
Sophomore linebacker Matt Davis cemented it by intercepting a pass at his team’s 13-yard line with 40 seconds remaining.
Young, starting QB since Game 6 of his sophomore season, that season passed for 1,428 yards and 18 touchdowns, rushed for six TDs and intercepted five passes from his cornerback spot. He was recognized as state Player of the Year and Press & Sun-Bulletin Athlete of the Year.
“Beyond being a great quarterback, he had this inspired look about him. It showed how much he wanted to win, always,” said Vestal center Shai Sahay.
Young: “I just like competing, I guess is what it boils down to. I don’t like someone being better than me at what I’m doing. Basketball or football, just doing my best not to get beat at whatever I’m doing.”
And from Queensbury coach John Irion: “The quarterback is very good, but I think he has a hell of a support staff that helps him out. We’ve gone up against some quarterbacks who were good, but they had no one to help. This guy is surrounded by people who help.”
Maine-Endwell's incredible 2011-2014 run
Maine-Endwell brought a 23-3 state-playoff record into the 2023 season. In fact, 13 of those wins came in succession beginning with the 2011 quarterfinal and extending through the 2015 quarter. Go ahead and take a minute to absorb that nugget.
The Spartans’ overall win streak during that unfathomable 2011-15 journey stands at a state-record 62 games. It started with a 29-0 blanking of Chenango Valley in the 2011 opener and was not snuffed out until a highly uncharacteristic M-E showing in the 2015 state semi, a 43-26 loss to Buffalo South Park in which the Spartans – leaders by 14-0 midway into the first quarter - committed an unsightly pile of turnovers.
During the streak, M-E outscored its opponents by 2,538 to 661 (a 41-11 norm) with 35 of those opponents failing to put up a 10th point. A few especially thrilling playoff contests were included.
2011 semifinal: An outcome predetermined to be inconceivable by most followers statewide brought Maine-Endwell a 19-16 win against top-ranked Rochester Aquinas, with Nick Sorrenti rushing for 114 yards and the Spartans passing twice, punting twice and committing one penalty.
2103 quarterfinal: Consecutive victory No. 36 came by 35-34 against Cazenovia at Union-Endicott. Kyle Gallagher passed to brother Adam for a TD with 4:45 to play, only to have Caz drive 65 yards and score with 1:12 remaining. Caz attempted a 2-point conversion, but the quarterback’s rush was controversially determined to come up a hair short.
Kyle Gallagher rushed for 216 yards that night with M-E’s personnel depleted because of disciplinary action.
2013 final: The 38th consecutive win, 22-21 over Schalmont, was sealed when Kyle Gallagher passed to Darnell Woolfolk for two points following a 79-second, 75-yard drive that concluded with Gallagher passing to Jake Sinicki for 4 yards and a TD. M-E trailed by 14-0 midway through.
In 2022, Maine-Endwell made it two straight state titles and seven for the program overall – one back of the state record – by finishing another unbeaten season with a 26-25 sneak past Pleasantville. And when M-E advances to a state final, call it a deal finished, as in 7-for-7 (2004 to the present).
Blue Devil Dynasty
It was 20 years ago that unbeaten Chenango Forks claimed the program’s first state championship by defeating Rye, 16-0, following back-to-back 12-1, runner-up finishes. The 2003 win, against a Rye squad averaging 32.8 points per game, marked the Blue Devils’ third of five consecutive appearances in the state final.
Coach Kelsey Green said after that Rye game: “I’ll tell you, if (people) walked in the locker room and looked at them, they’d still want to know where the varsity was. I mean, they’re little, tough-nosed. … But they had an inner belief the whole time. They did. They were the ones that, from Day 1, thought they were coming here.”
Forks’ 38-game win streak, starting with its 2003 opener and extending through the 2005 semifinal, is second-longest all-time in Section 4.
That 2003 breakthrough represents the first of Forks’ seven state championships – three in a row concluding with 2015 – to go with six runner-up finishes. The Blue Devils’ state playoff record is 36-12, their victory total and 19 tournament appearances among numerous state records.
The 2015 final was a 42-7 roll over Greenwich, with Cody Lamond rushing for 172 yards and three TDs, and Tony Silvanic rushing for 127 on a day Forks went for 505 yards of offense.
“We always talk about winning our last game, to win the last one in the Dome is so special, it means so much to us,” said Silvanic, whose team outscored its foes by 212-52 in five postseason games.
Forks’ overall record, beginning with the 2001 season (first state-final berth) to the present: 245-27.
Contributors have been numerous, from Matt Faughnan to Jud and Jake DuBois, Isaiah Zimmer, Ryan Bronson and Ryan Ehrets, Hunter Luybli, Jeremiah Allen, Lucas Scott and on and on and on.
Susquehanna Valley 2018-19: Ford-tough champions
The 2018 Susquehanna Valley Sabers aligned for opening-day kickoff two seasons removed from a losing record and with the program’s lone state playoff berth a one-and-done venture 18 years prior.
But there was a whole-lotta different feeling about this SV group, evident from the get-go.
Sure enough, the Sabers delivered on expectations in coach Mike Ford’s sixth season atop the program with a 13-0 record and 614-106 point differential (average 39-point margin) for a Class C state championship.
Following intersectional wins by 36 points and one point, the championship was earned with 27-6 dismissal of Dobbs Ferry. Quarterback and title-game MVP Jared Freije, a week after sitting out the second half with injury, rushed for 104 yards and three TDs.
The finale marked a ninth game an SV opponent produced seven or fewer points.
And how about this for a curtain call: The 2019 Sabers went 13-0 for another state championship.
The quarterfinal and semifinal were, essentially, where the title was earned – angst-filled wins by 44-36 over Lowville and 35-28 over Southwestern. But come the final? It was 22-0 against Gouverneur and the celebration was on.
Gouverneur had scored 42 or better in seven games, but absorbed its first shutout of the season. MVP Logan Haskell rushed for 199 yards and three teammates scored a TD apiece. Coach Ford offered following the Sabers’ fifth shutout of the year: “It’s exhilarating. It’s going to be remembered always.”
Tioga’s Tigers show stuff in finals
Tioga Central’s twice-defending Class D state champions have been a fixture in state playoffs, as in, advancement to semifinals or finals for 10 of 11 years through 2022. The Tigers were state champions in 2015 (12-1), 2021 (12-0) and 2022 (14-0).
Following four consecutive semifinal losses, the 2015 squad defeated Ticonderoga in the title game, 33-26. In the final minute of that one, Jesse Manuel intercepted a pass and scored the decisive TD on a 33-yard rush for the Tigers, who trailed 14-0 early.
Manuel had 215 rushing yards and 52 more on four receptions. He finished the season with a Section 4-record 2,866 rushing yards.
After three successive semifinal losses, the 2021 Tigers rolled through state playoffs: 20-12 over Dolgeville in the quarterfinal, 49-6 over Oakfield-Alabama/Elba in the semi and 27-0 over Moriah in the final.
Last season’s Tioga squad was a 63-20 winner in the state final against Cambridge/Salem, three of its nine touchdowns produced by the defense. It was 35-0 at halftime and 63-6 early in the fourth quarter. Drew Macumber had eight rushes for 101 yards and a 58-yard interception return to set up TD. Caden Bellis passed 6-for-6 for 159 yards. They were part of a team with a mere three seniors on its roster.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Looking back at Section 4's impact on the New York football tournament
