by Steve Bradley
The evening began with a nice tribute to longtime Hoosick Falls Panther football supporter and all around good guy, Brian Hall. Brian loved his Panther football. If he nicked himself, he bled Panther blue. Friend and fellow 1980 graduate Nancy Fabiano spoke about her friend and balloons were set free in Brian’s memory. Brian passed away recently from natural causes. He was 54.
Then the game began. What a difference a week makes.
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In Friday’s game against Broadalbin-Perth, the Panthers came out and roared. After a somewhat lackluster performance in the previous game against Lake George, the team came out and made it clear from beginning to end who was in charge.
After weeks of making adjustments for out of action players, the Panthers were at full strength. With those important players back, the Panthers defense was dominating and the offense was crisp. You could actually hear the difference in the hitting, Panther pads were popping on both sides of the ball. The Panthers racked up 435 offensive yards, 300 coming from the ground attack. Senior Noah LaBarge led the ground game with 129 yards on 22 carries and Alex Mendez added 103 on twelve carries. The defense stepped up by stopping everything B-P did, only giving up four first downs.
The Panthers grabbed a 13 point lead by the end of the first quarter. LaBarge scored on a 14 yard scamper on the Panthers first drive and Noah Conety kicked the extra point.On the next possession, Mendez tacked on another TD with a 15 yard run.
The Patriots put their lone score on the board early in the second quarter with a one yard dive. The extra point attempt was no good. This put points on both sides of the board at 13 – 6 Panthers.
That was the end of any hope the Patriots had of leaving HFCS with a win.
Scoring on every first half possession, the Panthers shredded the Patriots defense for the remainder of the second quarter, scoring 21 more points to put the game out of reach by halftime. The second quarter onslaught saw the Panther offense firing on all cylinders.
LaBarge scored from three yards out and Mendez added two points with a PAT run. Mendez went in on the ground from the one yard line for his third touchdown with Conety adding the single point kick. Quarterback Wyatt Cushman went in from three yards out to top off the first half scoring. The Panthers lead reached 34 – 6 at the halftime break.
The second half was highlighted by a third quarter Mendez run from eight yards out. The extra point kick was no good.
Head coach Ron Jones substituted liberally throughout the second half. For much of the fourth quarter the clock was allowed to run nonstop.
On offense, Wyatt Whitman threw for 127 yards, connecting on 7 of 11 passes, for 18.1 yard per completion. Connor McCart had four catches for 54 yards with Wyatt Whitman making one catch for a nice 39 yard gain. On the defensive side of the ball, McCart and Evan Hand had eight total tackles apiece, with Hand getting a sack for good measure. The team was penalized three times for 13 yards.
This Saturday the team travels to Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School in Troy to take on Holy Trinity (1-2). Game time is 2 pm. Holy Trinity was formed when Catholic Central, Bishop Gibbons and Saratoga Central Catholic joined football teams together for the 2014 season.
In other C North division play, Greenwich (4-0) downed Lake George (0-4), 54 – 0; Hoosic Valley (2-2) defeated Watervliet, 43 – 14; Corinth (3-1) defeated Granville (0-4), 52 – 0.[/private]