Somers football grinds out win over Yorktown, claims Class A North league title
YORKTOWN – If you happen to enjoy frustrating weather and intestinal fortitude, it was your kind of game.
To be polite, the latest chapter in this heated rivalry was a little rough and tumble before Somers powered in for a pair of late touchdowns and hung the first loss of the season on Yorktown.
A noisy 21-7 victory earned the Tuskers the Class A North league title.
“We haven’t played Yorktown in two years, and this is an ongoing rivalry with serious tension,” Tuskers running back Mason Kelly said. “We knew what we were coming into. We knew it was a huge game and there would be chirps everywhere. We knew we had to be men today and we pulled it through.”
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Somers encountered a number of issues that needed to be solved on the fly, like three first-quarter turnovers.
“In between the flags, both sides played a super physical football game,” Tuskers coach Anthony DeMatteo said.
Miguel Iglesias, a wideout, took a handoff and jetted outside the hash marks. He made eye contact with Luca Ploger then set up first-and-goal at the 3 with a 42-yard flip. Mac Sullivan pushed across on the next play and it was a 7-0 lead after Luke Cukaj added the PAT.
Somers was quick to the ball defensively and kept the Huskers off the board until Kaden Gonzalez converted on fourth-and-11, hitting Tyler Galante to set up first-and-goal at the 3. Dylan DelVecchio crashed into the end zone on the next play.
Ronan Forde added the PAT, making it a 7-7 deadlock with 10:31 to go in the opening half.
Yorktown came out and sustained a nine-minute drive but missed a field goal when it stalled. The Tuskers responded with an 11-minute drive and went back on top 14-7 on a short TD burst from James Balancia with 4:05 to play.
"I’m really excited about our defense," Somers defensive end Ryan Cole said. "We’re all working so hard and we had a great practice week. I think our defense is really coming together and our offense, grinding down the clock, that really helped us."
Kelly added a 44-yard touchdown sprint to lock up the win.
What it means
The stakes were high for this one and they could be higher if there is a rematch in the weeks ahead. Somers got a No. 1 seed and will open the playoffs against Pelham, but there are three contenders who believe they can finally send the defending state champions home. Harrison, Mahopac and Yorktown were all very competitive in losses to the Tuskers.
"I had no doubt we could play with Somers," Huskers coach Pantelis Ypsilantis said. "I didn’t need that to be confirmed in this game. I knew my kids were going to fight and play to the whistle and give us everything they had."
Game balls
Somers could've been in an early hole, but the defense was quick to force punts following an interception and mishandled snap that gave the Huskers field position. The Tuskers limited a team averaging 38 points a game to 163 yards and one touchdown.
The officials get a nod here, too, for getting the game under control when things were beginning to overheat.
By the numbers
Yorktown (7-1, 4-1): Kaden Gonzalez completed 9 of 23 passes for 74 yards. ... The Huskers managed just three yards per carry.
Somers (7-1, 5-0): Sullivan completed 2 of 7 passes for 12 yards and threw a pair of interceptions. He also had 60 yards and one touchdown on 12 carries. ... Kelly was bottled up ahead of the final Tuskers drive but finished with 81 yards and one TD on 10 carries. ... Balancia had two carries for nine yards and one touchdown.
They said it
"It's a rivalry," Cole added. "There was a league championship and two home playoff games on the line, so that’s what both sides were playing for. Me, personally, I love this weather. It couldn’t be more of a perfect game, just running the ball, playing hard-nosed defense and going at each other. I loved the physicality."
"We don't have to change anything if we see them again," Ypsilantis said. "We just have to stick with what we’re doing. Our kids are locked in. We just have to remain focused. It’s an emotional game sometimes, but I did my best to try to get the guys to treat this like another game and I’m going to continue to do that."
What's next
Somers is hoping to recover quickly from this one and get ready to host Pelham next week. Yorktown is back at Murphy Field next week, hosting Clarkstown South.
Mike Dougherty covers high school football for The Journal News and lohud.com. Follow along on Twitter/X @hoopsmbd.
Both sides were slowed by adrenaline-fueled penalties.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: lohud high school football: Somers claims Class A North league title
