The Daniel and Michelle Larkin Family - Shane's 2008 Football Season
 
09/21/2008
Offensive line opens up holes for Black Horses
By: BRENDAN O'MEARA , The Saratogian  
SCHUYLERVILLE - The Granville Golden Horde was green with grass stains after they were stampeded by the Schuylerville Black Horses in Class C action Saturday afternoon, 53-8, at Granville High School.

The offensive output for the Black Horses (3-0) was unmatched all game as they pounded out 365 yards on the ground with Shane Larkin leading the way with 130 yards on 17 carries and one touchdown.

Schuylerville quarterback Austin Bateman had another career day with four rushing touchdowns, 94 yards on the ground and 112 yards through the air.

This was, without question, the most dominant attack through Schuylerville's three games thus far.

"The balance is only going to help us," said Black Horses' head coach Greg O'Connor. "We're clicking. Two weeks in a row we've played 48 minutes. We're clicking on all cylinders from the first whistle."

Granville had trouble on both sides of the ball dealing with the pressure in the trenches. As a result, Granville quarterback Andy Dirga (7-of-13, 71 yards, 2 INT, TD) had an uncomfortable day throwing the football. He was even sacked on the first play from scrimmage by Duke Ekblom.

And it was the offensive line that made Schuylerville's visit to Granville an easy one.

"Our offensive line has been good all year," Larkin said, who capped off his day with a 24-yard gain. "They blocked the best this season yet."

"They make the backs look good," O'Connor said. "They're good backs and they appreciate it and work hard. The offensive line works hard."

Schuylerville's Brad Lyon tallied 69 yards on the ground and returned an interception back 40 yards for a touchdown.

"At school, we've been working hard every week, getting stuff done," Larkin said. "The next game is the most important. It doesn't matter if they're the best or the worst team in the league."

The Black Horses racked up 477 yards of total offense and held Granville to just 96 total yards - only 25 of those rushing.

"We've got to play mistake-free football," said Granville head coach Mario Torres, whose team turned the ball over three times. "We didn't 
protect the ball, we didn't execute and we didn't win the line of scrimmage. We'll look to go 1-0 against Mechanicville next week."

Granville (1-2) didn't register a first down until the beginning of the fourth quarter en route to just three. Granville, at last, got on the board with 13 seconds to play in the game when Dirga rolled right and threw a 23-yard pass to Greg Gould for the score. After the conversion, it was 53-8.

The Black Horses had 24 first downs, were 3-for-8 on third downs and a perfect 4-for-4 on fourth down.

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