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

Patriots go for two points, lose by one 22-21
By MIKE ZUMMO, The Leader-Herald
POSTED: September 27, 2008
The Leader-Herald/Bill Trojan
BROADALBIN - Cody Menge plunged into the end zone with 1:26 left in Friday night's game, leaving Broad-albin-Perth coach Rick Snyder with a decision to make with his Patriots trailing by one.

Go for the tie with an extra-point kick, or go for the win with a two-point conversion.

After the touchdown, Snyder took off his headset while his assistants discussed it amongst themselves. After the Patriots went to the line with the kicking team on the field, kicker Corey Caswell called a timeout.

"We called the timeout and then something snapped in me that we were going to go for two because if we don't make it and we lose, you just have to talk the kids out of it," Snyder said. "It doesn't really matter right now. If we win, we get tons of momentum, but for me it was a no-
brainer. I would do it again and the play was there."

Caswell took the snap and threw a screen pass over the Schuylerville pass rush for Dominic Butler. However, Schuylerville's Brad Lyon stopped Butler a yard short of the end zone giving the Class C North leading Black Horses a 22-21 non-league victory.

"I thought he was going to walk in," Schuylerville coach Greg O'Connor said. "He had three kids right in front of him. My kid just made a heck of a play. He got through, made the tackle and I can't say enough about Brad Lyon."

The Patriots (1-3 overall) fell just short of winning for the second straight week as Nathaniel Akey couldn't pull down a pass in the end zone, which would have given the Patriots a victory last week against Cobleskill-Richmondville.

"This is a heartbreaker right now, but we would have done the same thing at the end," Snyder said. "I'm confident that play was there. You might get some naysayers there, but if we win, we have tons of momentum. If we lose, it really doesn't matter."

The Patriots will return to Class B West play next Friday when they travel to Knox Field to play the Johnstown Sir Bills, who suffered a 39-0 

The Patriots appeared to get off to a good start when Akey returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown, but the play was called back because of block in the back penalty.

Instead of six points, the Patriots faced a first down on the Black Horses' 29-yard line and things continued to fall apart from there. Caswell and Shane Hathaway couldn't connect on a toss resulting in a fumble. Caswell tracked down the loose ball, but the Patriots lost 16 yards.

Two plays later, another Broadalbin-Perth fumble was picked up by Schuylerville's Josh Stone and returned 50 yards for a touchdown giving the Black Horses (4-0 overall) a 6-0 lead.

On Schuylerville's next drive, Lyon's 60-yard touchdown run and his two-point run gave the Black Horses a 14-0 lead.

"We just can't put ourselves in there with all those mental mistakes," Snyder said. "Guys making a block in the back and the roughing the kicker down here. Plays being made after the play when it doesn't matter."

The Patriots got on the board when Caswell hit Akey over the middle for a 66-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown cutting the lead in half.

Broadalbin-Perth had a chance to even things up on its next possession as Caswell and Akey hooked up for a pass to the Schuylerville 7, but an illegal man downfield penalty brought the play back and after an incompletion, the Patriots punted it away.

Schuylerville took over on its own 8-yard line, but a long run by quarterback Austin Bateman brought the ball to the Patriots' 28 setting up a 3-yard scoring run by Shane Larkin. The Black Horses missed the extra point, but a roughing the kicker penalty gave the Black Horses another shot and Larkin punched in the two-point conversion giving Schuylerville a 22-7 lead.

The Patriots bottled up the Black Horses in the second half, while they mounted their comeback.

Caswell scored on a 1-yard run and hit Akey with a two-point pass to pull the Patriots to within seven points.

The Black Horses got some momentum when Bateman ran for 23 yards on a fake punt, but the Patriots' Andy Weeden recovered a fumble giving the Patriots the ball back. Later in the game, he stopped Bateman after a bad snap on the next punt, setting up the Patriots' final score with 3:18 left to go in the game.

"They play with no tight end and we put [Weeden] on the line of scrimmage as an outside linebacker," Snyder said. "He's an awful tough assignment for anyone."

Caswell scrambled for 15 yards and Menge brought the ball to the 2 before punching it in.

"They gave us all we could handle," O'Connor said. "They were much faster than we thought and they gave us a lot of trouble in that second half. We couldn't get anything going offensively and we tried everything."

Schuylerville 22, Broadalbin-Perth 21

Schuylerville 14 8 0 0 - 22

Broadalbin-Perth 0 7 8 6 - 21

First Quarter

S - Stone 59 fumble return (kick failed), 10:10

S - Lyon 60 run (Lyon run), 7:31

Second Quarter

BP - Akey 66 pass from Caswell (Caswell kick), 8:13

S - Larkin 3 run (Larkin run), :39

Third Quarter

BP - Caswell 1 run (Akey pass from Caswell), 3:50

Fourth Quarter

BP - Menge 2 run (pass failed), 1:26

HOME  | MENU