Saturday's NY Section III football playoff football results from Mohawk Valley
Eight Player: West Canada Valley 48, Thousand Islands 6
NEWPORT - West Canada Valley rolled to a 48-6 victory over Thousand Islands Saturday and earned a return to Section III's eight-player football semifinals.
The West Canadians (7-1), seeded third, are two-time finalists who head to the semifinals for the fourth consecutive season. They will meet No. 2 Morrisville-Eaton (7-1), the defending champion and the team that beat them in 20-14 overtime in last year's semifinals at Sauquoit Valley.
Morrisville-Eaton defeated Sauquoit Valley 56-6 Friday.
Saturday's game was much more competitive than the last postseason meeting of West Canada Valley and Thousand Islands (5-4). West Canada Valley scored 94 points in the 2021 quarterfinals on the way to winning its first sectional championship since the 1997 team won a state title in Class D.
Sean Burdick threw three touchdown passes to Camerohn Ludwig Saturday, Ludwig ran for a fourth touchdown, and Burdick ran for two scores in addition to the three he threw for. West Canada Valley scored only once in the first quarter and led 20-0 at halftime before putting up 22 points in the third quarter.
The scoring opened with a 59-yard Burdick-to-Ludwig pass that put the senior receiver over 1,000 receiving yards for the season. John Tubia ran 67 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter, and Burdick threw a short fourth-down pass to Ludwig for another score later in the period.
It was West Canada Valley ball again to start the second half. Starting from midfield, Burdick followed a 20-yard run by Tubia with his own 30-yard dash to the end zone.
Thousand Islands put up its only points two minutes later on a pass from Jackson Ludlow to Jack Lamon.
Burdick spun off a tackler for a one-yard touchdown following a 40-yard pass to Iain Farber, and Ludwig ran 60 yards for a touchdown before the end of the third quarter. Burdick threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Farber in the first minute of the fourth quarter to complete the scoring.
Burdick, a senior in his first year as a starting quarterback, has thrown 21 touchdown passes, 13 of them to Ludwig.West Canada Valley and Morrisville-Eaton will play the second game at Sauquoit Valley Friday, following the first eight-player semifinal between Frankfort-Schuyler and Weedsport.
Class AA: Cicero-North Syracuse 56, Rome Free Academy 24
CICERO - The 2023 season ended with a quarterfinal sectional loss Friday for the Rome Free Academy Black Knights.The Class AA-2 Black Knights (6-3) were beaten 56-24 by Cicero-North Syracuse (8-1), the No. 2 seed and defending champion.
Cicero-North Syracuse took a 14-10 lead in the first quarter then outscored Rome Free Academy 35-7 in the second and third.
Senior quarterback Evan Carlson-Stephenson completed 26 of 42 passes for 301 yards, his fourth 300-yard game of the season, and threw touchdown passes to Jaiden Holmes (7 receptions-81 yards) and Lebron Bowman (6-62). Ricky Fernandez caught six passes for 86 yards, and Salvatore Martelli ran for 106 yards and one touchdown on 13 carries.
Cicero-North Syracuse hosts No. 3 Baldwinsville for Friday semifinal. Baldwinsville defeated Fayetteville-Malius 42-21 Friday.
Class C: Cazenovia 44, Holland Patent 14
MORRISVILLE - Top seed Cazenovia remains unbeaten in Class C following Friday's 44-14 win over the Holland Patent Golden Knights at SUNY-Morrisville.
Cazenovia (8-0) led 41-0 after three quarters and got its scoring started on defense. The Lakers led 7-0 after one quarter thanks to Bryce Enders' interception and 28-yard return for a touchdown. Bobby Livingston and Jack Donlin each ran for a score in the second quarter before Livingston's 11-yard touchdown pass to Donlin put Cazenovia up 28-0 at halftime.
Livingston threw a second touchdown pass to Taven Reilley in the second half, and Christian Schug ran a second interception back. Cobbor Frisbie completed Cazenovia's scoring with his 26-yard fourth-quarter field goal.
Joe Latella ran 44 and 63 yards for the Holland Patent touchdowns. He ran for 108 yards on eight carries for the Golden Knights (3-6).
Livingston and Donlin each ran for 44 yards, and Livingston was 6-for-11 passing for 107.
Cazenovia returns to the SUNY campus Friday for semifinal play against Adirondack.
Class D: Beaver River 30, Westmoreland/Oriskany 0
BEAVER FALLS - Landon Rice ran for two touchdowns and the defense pitched a shutout Friday as the second-seeded Beaver River Beavers advanced in Section III's Class D playoffs with a 30-0 quarterfinal win over Westmoreland/Oriskany.
Rice ran for 110 yards on 14 carries, and Dylan Buckingham added a rushing touchdown for the Beavers (6-3). Quarterback Derick Zehr was 10-for-27 passing for 199 yards and threw one touchdown pass to Josh Bush. Brit Dicob caught 10 passes for 69 yards.
Westmoreland/Oriskany finishes the season at 3-6 after losing five of its last six games.
Beaver River meets No. 3 Dolgeville for a semifinal Saturday at Adirondack High School. Dolgeville's Blue Devils defeated the Beavers in last fall's championship game, and Beaver River was a 13-12 winner when the teams met during the regular season this fall.
Eight Player: Frankfort-Schuyler 68, Syracuse-Bishop Grimes 16
FRANKFORT - Frankfort-Schuyler's unbeaten Maroon Knights trailed for only few moments in the first quarter Friday and the No. 1 seed for Section III's eight-player football playoffs advanced with a 68-16 quarterfinal victory over Bishop Grimes of Syracuse.
The Maroon Knights (7-0) scored first when Lionell Coulthurst ran 45 yards for the first of his four touchdowns in the game. A failed two-point try meant that when Jason Royal scored on a 64-yard pass from Avery Pankow, Pankow's conversion pass gave Bishop Grimes' Cobras (3-4) an 8-6 lead.
The lead would not last long. Coulthurst ran the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown and that put Frankfort Schuyler back in the lead, and the Maroon Knights were far from finished at that point. Quarterback Martino Rocco ran 86 yards for a touchdown when his team got the ball back, and Jerome Bowen's 34-yard touchdown run made it a 26-8 game after one quarter.
Rocco threw touchdown passes to Joshua Stemmer and Bowen in the second quarter, and Coulthurst ran for two more touchdowns in the third, extending the lead to 54-8 before Royal returned a kickoff for a Bishop Grimes score.
Thomas Eck tacked on two late touchdowns for Frankfort-Schuyler, a 37-yard run in the third quarter and an interception return in the fourth.
Rocco was 11-for-20 passing for 147 yards, and ran for a team-high 121 yards on five carries. Coulthurst ran four times for 95 yards, and Bowen nine for 79. Stemmer caught five passes for 96 yards.
On defense, Dennis Waugh recorded six tackles with an interception and a fumble recovery while Philip Tangorra sacked the Conras quarterback twice, and Bowen and Sebastian Veloz shared the team lead with seven tackles and each had one sack.
Frankfort-Schuyler's semifinal opponent in the first game of Friday's doubleheader at Sauquoit Valley will be Weedsport.
Other scores
Class AA
Liverpool 29, Utica-Proctor 26
Class D
Dolgeville 38, Pulaski 8
This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Oct. 28, 2023, Mohawk Valley playoff football results
