The Daniel and Michelle Larkin Family - Shane's 2008 Football Season
 

Horses blank Corinth 21-0
By Bill Toscano
Special to The Post-Star
Saturday, September 6, 2008 1:46 AM EDT
SCHUYLERVILLE - There was good news in the bad news Friday night for the Schuylerville football team. And, in many ways, it was all bad news for the rest of Class C North.

The bad news for the Black Horses was that they could get nothing going in the first half, and quarterback Austin Bateman completed only two passes, both late in the game when the outcome was already decided.

Oh, and then there were the seven penalties for 50 yards.

The good news was the outcome, a 21-0 victory over a tough Corinth team in the teams' season-opener.

The other good news was that junior Brad Lyon scored on a 14-yard run less than four minutes into the first half and scored again four minutes later on a fumble recovery. Also, the Black Horses' defense, often overlooked last year because of the gaudy offense, stifled the Tomahawks, who showed some signs that they will be a team to de dealt with in Class C.

"It's good to know that my backs have my back," said Bateman, who quietly described his own performance as "poor," but who put in a tremendous effort on defense, ran the ball effectively, coped well with a series of high snaps and had one potential touchdown pass dropped. For the most part, he got good protection from his offensive line, whih was anchored by senior Greg Peterson.

The Horses' struggles in the first half belonged to the whole team and probably were based in first-night jitters and a little overconfidence.

"The intensity wasn't there in the first half," head coach Greg O'Connor said. "The first game of the season is always tough. There's so much excitement in school. It's like the kids were playing their third game of the day."

Senior cornerback Claeton Corsetti, who picked off a pass that might well have gone for a touchdown, agreed with his coach. "We didn't know what to expect. They came with 'our' intensity. We didn't expect that."

Senior Shane Larkin, who rumbled four yards for the Horses' third touchdown, just a minute into the fourth quarter, felt the same way.

"We got over our heads about it. We were almost too high. Too fired up," he said.

Corinth coach Jeff Higgins, whose team's only regular-season losses a year ago came to Schuylerville and Cambridge, said a series of mistakes cost his team dearly in the first half.

"We had a pass overthrown, we had one dropped, and we had a couple where the receiver slowed up. Then there was the block punt," 
Higgins said. "To Schuylerville's credit, they have the experience, they have the toughness, and they have the speed. That all showed through. But we will come together quickly this year."

The Schuylerville coaches clearly got their messages across at halftime, because Lyon took the second-half kickoff back 32 yards, and six plays later, after Bateman gained 10 yards despite a high snap, Lyon went 14 yards on a delayed draw, and despite Dan Ladd missing wide right, the Horses were ahead.

"That was huge, huge," O'Connor said. "We took control of the game and seized the momentum."

Neither team did anything on its next possession, but the help of a booming kick, backed by the wind, the Tomahawks had the ball on their own 4. On the first play, a Corinth running back went up the middle, the ball popped loose and Lyon returned it 11 years for the score. Larkin scored on the two-point conversion, and the lead was 14-0.

"I was lucky on that fumble," Lyon said.

After Josh Stone partly blocked a punt, Schuylerville went 44 yards in eight plays, with Larkin bursting in from four yards out and Ladd adding a PAT for a 21-0 lead. On that series, Josh Stone recovered a fumble by Lyon.

The Horses got the ball back immediately. After Ladd's kickoff went out of bounds, Corinth asked for a re-kick, which was high and short and recovered by Steve Backus. The Horses got to the 1-yard line, but after a penalty, they lost the ball to a fumble recovered by Shawn Delancey.

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