| COLONIE
— There is an old saying in sports: Offense
sells tickets but defense wins championships.
Many in the large crowd may have
come to see the potent Schuylerville offense in
the Class C Super Bowl, but what they witnessed
was a dominating performance by the Watervliet
defense that nailed down the Cannoneers' eighth
Section II championship with a 10-6 win Friday
night at CBA's Evelyn Puleo Stadium.
Dom Diaz' one-yard run late in
the first quarter and Caleb Gleason's 25-yard
field goal midway through the second quarter were
all the points Watervliet (8-2) would need as the
Cannoneers' defense effectively shut down the
vaunted Black Horses' running game to pull off the
upset.
Schuylerville (9-1) entered the
contest averaging 45 points per game but never was
able to get its offense untracked. The Black
Horses came into the game as the fourth-ranked
Class C team in the state.
Watervliet held Schuylerville's
offense to 12 yards on 12 plays in the first half.
Of the game's first 24 minutes, Schuylerville had
the ball for a total of 5 minutes, 55 seconds.
"They are the best running
team in Section II," Watervliet coach Erick
Bernard said. "Our kids stepped up tonight.
They have such a great offense, we just had to
control the clock and control the ball."
When the Black Horses did have
the ball, the Cannoneers' defensive front, led by
Jeremy Lamarche, Joe Hughes, Justin Chludzinski
and Justin Oravsky, kept the Schuylerville running
game under wraps.
Watervliet held the highly
touted Black Horses' rushing attack to 105 yards
on 33 carries in winning the Class C title for the
first time since 1997.
"This is the greatest
moment of my life," Lamarche said. "The
coaches draw up the game plan, and we execute
it."
Schuylerville finally was able
to move the ball in the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Austin Bateman scored on a three-yard
run with 8:10 to play to cut the deficit to 10-6.
Although Schuylerville was able to score, the
11-play, 38-yard drive took 4:40.
After forcing a Watervliet punt,
Schuylerville took over the ball at its own
18-yard line with just less than four minutes left
in the fourth quarter. With the ball at midfield,
Bateman's second-down pass was intercepted by Tom
Ebenhoch at Watervliet's 15-yard line with 33
seconds left.
Watervliet quarterback Chris
Hughes took a knee on the next snap and ran out
the clock.
"They controlled the line
of scrimmage," Schuylerville coach Greg
O'Connor said.
"They had the ball the
whole first half. They outplayed us and outhustled
us."
Hughes led Watervliet with 50
yards rushing on eight carries and connected on 12
of 19 passes for 109 yards. More importantly, he
directed the patient offensive plan that
controlled the ball.
"This is an awesome
feeling. Our defense is the best," Hughes
said. "They are the fourth-ranked team in the
state and our guys shut them down. I practice
against them every day, they make me a better
player just practicing against them."
Sean Martin, a local freelance
writer, is a frequent contributor to the Times
Union. |
