Leading off today: After six straight weekends of championship competitions another high school fall sports seasons is in the books after a NYSPHSAA football weekend at th JMA Wireless Dome culminating with Syracuse CBA's wildly entertaining, 41-40 victory over Albany CBA decided by a last-play Hail Mary.
Longtime New York State Sportswriters Association jack of all trades Steve Grandin pulled together these thoughts about the six championship games in Syracuse:
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All in all, Saturday's state championship action at the JMA Wireless Dome was pretty darn exciting. All three games went down to the final minute, and the final game of the day -- Syracuse CBA vs. Albany CBA -- will go down as one of the best games in state football history.
There was one additional game at the Dome on Saturday, when the state regional eight-man championship was moved into inside due to snow at the original site. The two games on Friday weren't nearly as close as the winners, both of which came into the game ranked No. 1 in the state in their classes, proved that, yes, they certainly are the best.
Class AA -- It will be hard to pass the battle of the CBAs (Syracuse vs. Albany) for drama. Both teams, both known as Brothers with the same colors, came into the game undefeated and it wasn't until after the clock hit 0:00 that a winner was determined. With no time left on the clock, Syracuse CBA's Darien Williams, surrounded by a gaggle of defenders, pulled in a Hail Mary pass in the end zone from QB Brayden Smith for a 41-40 victory.
After a scoreless first period, the teams combined for six touchdowns in the second period for a 21-21 deadlock; Albany CBA scored twice in the third period, only to see Syracuse CBA cut the margin to 33-28 one minute into the final frame. They traded touchdowns midway through the fourth quarter, setting the stage for the game-ending heroics.
For the day, the teams combined for a whopping 895 yards, including 358 passing by Albany CBA's Archie Jones. The game will certainly go down in state football history as one of the greatest ever, ranked with the famous Greg Paulus/Syracuse CBA over Ray Rice/New Rochelle Class AA game in 2004.
Class A -- Somers just keeps proving over and over it is the real deal. For the third year in a row, the Tuskers won the state title, this time by a 51-27 margin oin Friday over a very game Whitesboro squad, the same team Somers beat in last year's final.
Somers jumped out to a 30-7 halftime lead (highlighted by a 47-yard field by Gavin Kelly), only to see Whitesboro, behind QB Memphis Ferguson (113 yards rushing and 254 passing), roar back to within 37-27 by the end of the third period.
In the final period, however, Somers shut down Whitesboro, and Mason Kelly (22 carries, 87 yards) and Miguel Iglesias (17 carries, 100 yards) scored touchdowns to ice the game.
For the third year in a row, the Tuskers end the season tied for the No. 1 spot with Garden City in the New York State Sportswriters Association's Class A rankings. Garden City currently has the longest winning streak in the state at 54 games and has a legitimate chance to set the state record next year; unfortunately, due to Long Island scheduling, Garden City cannot play non-league games and only has one game a year against a non-division opponent (in the Long Island championship). It would nice if Somers and Garden City could get together some day and break this ongoing deadlock.
Class B - Port Jervis pulled off Saturday's biggest upset, stunning seven-time state champ Maine-Endwell, 33-26. Port Jervis, which ran up 47 points in its semifinal win over Glens Falls, never trailed but needed a short touchdown run by QB Dylan Fox with 23 seconds remaining for the victory.
Fox threw for 315 yards, many on short flare passes which his receivers turned into big gains; the biggest one was early in the final period, when Anthony Theodore grabbed a short pass, broke two tackles and went 58 yards for a touchdown.
M-E outgained Port Jervis on the ground by a 248-45 margin, with Jaden Branch and Vincent Mancini combining for 209 yards; Fox was Port Jervis' top rusher with 29 yards.
The win was the first state title for Port Jervis, while the loss was only the second in the last for 49 games for M-E, which has reached the last four championship games. Port Jervis ended the season with a 12-1 record, with the only loss coming to ranked Class A Minisink Valley, which ironically is the alum mater of M-E coach Matt Gallagher.
Class C -- In another barn-burner, Schuylerville rallied and then held off Salamanca to win, 26-20. The game's last play had Salamanca on the Schuylerville 8-yard line.
Salamanca led 20-7, thanks to an exciting reverse-field, 28-yard score by Xavier Peters late in the third period, and then 20-14 midway through the final period. Schuylerville's Landen Cumm scored from 44 yards out to tie; however, when the extra point was blocked, Schuylerville kicker Silas Schulte-Lindhorst was injured and taken from the field on a stretcher.
The Horses recovered the ensuing kickoff and Cumm caught a short TD pass with 1:10 remaining. But without a kicker, they were forced to go for two, which Salamanca stopped. Salamanca then quickly drove down the field with a series of passes, including a double pass that took the ball inside the Schuylerville 10, only to end the game with a sack.
It was the first win for Schuylerville in four championship appearances, previously losing to Cazenovia (2015) and Chenango Forks (2019 and 2021). It was also Section 2's first state championship since 2016.
Ironically, Schuylerville's only loss this season came against undefeated Class D Warrensburg/Lake George/Bolton, whose season was ended before sectionals due to an off-field incident involving two players.
Class D - Clymer/Sherman/Panama lived up to expectations, running past Burke Catholic. CSP had previously won its state playoff games by 48-14 over Avon and 43-14 over Dolgeville, so its championship score of 46-7 was not much different.
CSP's high-powered passing attack is simply too much for small school opponents, with all-state QB Tate Catanese finding a trio of talented receivers -- Bryce Hinsdale (who recently became the state's all-time leader in receptions), Alex Barmore, and Cameron Brink -- open on a regular basis.
Burke Catholic, in the state finals for the first time, had to endure two nail-biting wins -- 3-0 over Tuckahoe and 25-18 in overtime over Greenwich -- to reach the Dome.
Interesting facts:
(1) Since 2011, only one eastern team has won a Class D title -- Cambridge did it twice, in 2015 and 2016, immediately before CSP won back-to-back titles.
(2) The average score for the last five Class D championship games has been 49-9.
Eight-Man - Perhaps still stinging from last year's epic 107-64 loss to Pembroke, Frankfort-Schuyler completed a steam-rolling season with an impressive 70-28 win over Moravia.
For the year, F-S's closest game was a 26-point win and, in 10 of its 13 games, they scored 40 or more points, eight times over 50. The combination of QB Martino Rocco and RB Lionell Coulthurst ran wild for the F-S; unfortunately, we don't have their statistics since the NYSPHSAA deemed that a regional championship (not enough sections play eight-man, so it's not a state championship) wasn't statistics-worthy.
On the other hand, the NYSPHSAA did a great job moving the game from snowy Moravia, where it was scheduled to be played on Friday afternoon, to the Dome at 8 a.m. Saturday. A logistical item the association deftly handled was narrowing the Dome field in a short period of time (eight-man games are played on a field about 10 yards narrower than usual football). Moravia, which lost in last year's regional final, was hindered by ineligible downfield penalties that wiped out two touchdowns that might have kept the game closer.
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While working as a freelance columnist for the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton I compiled a list of 10 memorable NYSPHSAA games in the 25-year history of the championships.
I haven't looked back to see which contests since would merit spots on the list, and I'm admittedly re-thinking the order of some of the games I did list.
That being said, I concur with Steve that Saturday night's CBA vs. CBA clash
would rate a high spot on any list.
