Leading off today: Senior quarterback Kyle Balmer scored three touchdowns and Maine-Endwell fought off a fourth-quarter rally by Chenango Forks for a 28-21 football victory Saturday in a matchup of Section 4 powers with a combined six state championships since 2011.
Chenango Forks twice had possession in the fourth quarter down by TD but couldn't crack the Spartans defense.
"We definitely controlled the ball, we controlled the whole game, but that's Forks," M-E coach Matt Gallagher told The Press & Sun-Bulletin after his team's 53rd straight win. "They came back. They're not going to give up."
The Spartans scored touchdowns on their opening two drives of 80 and 72 yards consuming a combined 30 plays and ending in Balmer carries.
On the third play of the second half, Forks QB L.J. Watson threw into the left flat, where Michael cut in front of a receiver for the interception and a 42-yard return making the score 21-0.
"I'm playing my assignment," Palmer said. "I have the flats. I saw him go out to the flats, so I made a break and as I made the break, L.J. was throwing the ball and good things happened."
Island clash: Roosevelt beat Lawrence 44-14, ending Long Island's second-longest winning streak. Running back Jude Innocent, who transferred from Brentwood for his senior season, carried 16 times for 302 yards and five touchdowns from 2, 51, 42, 60 and 65 yards out -- four of the scores coming on the first play of a possession.
"A star may have been born today," Roosevelt coach Joe Vito told Newsday following the first meeting ever between two teams with four straight appearances in the Long Island Championship game. "I didn't know exactly what we were getting, and now I have a pretty good idea."
At one point, Innocent scored on three consecutive first-half touches in helping to extinguish Lawrence's 20-game winning streak.
Historic win: Starpoint beat Sweet Home for the first time in school history, going on the road for a 19-13 triumph.
"It was fantastic," Spartans' coach Al Cavagnaro told The Buffalo News. "It was pretty exciting to say the least. My coaches have worked so hard, and seeing their enjoyment, jumping around, was fantastic."
Anthony Robinson (118 yards) scored the winning points on a 5-yard run with 48 seconds left. Sweet Home subsequently moved the ball to the Starpoint 45, but Zach Farell and Sam Wray teamed up on a game-ending sack.
"It was the longest 48 seconds of my life," Cavagnaro said.
Starpoint has been trying to beat Sweet Home, long the dominant Class A program in Section 6, since 2002.
"We can finally match up to their athletes," Cavagnaro said. "They are still a really good team."
Impressive start: Jordan Williams ran 14 times for 105 yards and three touchdowns, including the winning 14-yard carry with :42 left, as St. Anthony's beat host Delbarton (N.J.) 28-21 in the opening game for both.
Friars senior quarterback Tom Walsh was 16 of 29 yards for 242 yards and one score. He drove the Friars 13 plays and 80 yards on their first possession capped by Williams' 2-yard run. To help set the tone, Walsh completed a 3-yard pass to Kwesi Henderson on a fourth-and-1 snap from the St. A's 29.
On the next possession, St. Anthony's drove six plays and 38 yards to a 14-0 lead. Walsh threw a 19-yard TD pass to James Pryor.
That's a gutsy call: Corinth coach Chris Doody gambled big and failed when he opted to go for it on a fake fourth-and-5 punt from his own 12 and less than three minutes to play while leading Hoosic Valley.
But when faced with the prospect of losing a lead they held virtually the entire game, the Tomahawks responded as Nicolas Moses recovered a third-down fumble after Corinth stripped the ball from wingback Dan Joslin.
Corinth picked up one first down and ran out the clock to complete its 39-35 victory.
"To be honest, their offense is tough, and we wanted to keep it away from them," Doody told The Post-Star of the gamble. "We felt if we picked it up on the fake, we could keep away from them."
Doody's argument was that if Hoosic Valley did score a touchdown following the failed fake, his squad could generate one more score of its own -- a not-unreasonable
