By JUSTIN PORRECA
News Editor
With both offenses firing out of the gate with explosive scoring drives, it came down to which defense could make the necessary adjustments to stop the scoring onslaught, the Shenendehowa Plainsmen did exactly that, plowing past the Albany High Falcons, 50-20, Friday night.
Both offenses came out firing on all cylinders; with both teams producing quick, quality scoring drives in the first half. The defenses, in the first half, looked porous and were, schematically, out executed.
“We came out in the first quarter, second quarter, first half it was the best football we’ve played all season long,” said coach Joey DiPiazza. “In the second half, it was on us as coaches. We needed to do a better job in my mind as far as putting our kids in positions to be successful.”
With their no-huddle offense, Shenendehowa wasted little time attacking the Albany High defense, gassing them in the process.
The Plainsmen drove down the field in 2:58 and finished the drive with running back, Carl Fiore, plunging into the end zone for a two-yard touchdown.
Albany High quickly answered the Plainsmen fast-paced, high energy scoring drive with a three-play, 64-yard scoring drive of their own, capped off by a Noah John 61-yard passing touchdown to running back Ky’Ere Tillery, who started the game lined up as the second wide receiver opposite number one option, Jarrell Chaney.
“We work on it in practice, everyday, so I was expecting it, it was nothing new,” Tillery said.
Shenendehowa’s ensuing posession, after the Albany High touchdown, came to a screeching halt after a bad snap out of the shotgun, to quarterback Michael Spulnick, went over his and was recovered by the Falcons.
Albany High capitalized on the Plainsmen turnover, pouncing on their mental mistake.
The Falcons continued their aerial assault on the Shenendehowa defense, with another passing touchdown from John to Tillery for 37 yards, putting them up 14-7 in the first quarter.
Undeterred by the mental mistake, the Plainsmen offense marched down the field on their next drive, capping it off with another Fiore touchdown, this one from 22 yards out, tying the game at 14 going into the second quarter.
Shenendehowa forced Albany to punt on their next drive and went right back to work on offense to take the lead.
On a crucial 4th and 7 at the 21-yard line, the Plainsmen elected to keep it on the ground with the shifty tailback, Fiore, who weaved his way through a plethora of Falcon arm-tackles on his way to a 21-yard touchdown.
“I give all the credit to the lineman. Again, like last week, huge holes, great running lanes and we got the job done,” Fiore said.
With the score, 21-14, Shenendehowa held the lead from this point on—never looking back.
The Falcons scored once more before the half, thanks to a 63-yard strike from John to tight end Geo Williams that set up a 4-yard Tillery rushing touchdown.
A missed extra-point made the score 21-20 going into the half, with both teams needing to make drastic defensive adjustments.
A sense of jubilation was painted on the faces of the Falcon players going into the half after their dominant offensive performance and their high chances of potentially upsetting the 2014 Section II Class AA champions.
The Plainsmen and Falcons combined for 514 yards on offense in the first half—but the second half told a different story.
Inclement weather, poor tackling and mental mistakes dictated the second half of play for Albany High.
The Falcons offense and defense slowly unraveled and looked in disarray for the remaining 24 minutes of play.
John was 3-4 for 161 yards and had two touchdowns in the first half. In the second half, he was 1-6, for -3 yards and was inaccurate, failed to read the field and go through his progressions.
Albany High punted on their first three drives of the second half, putting together little-to-nothing offensively.
On offense, Shenendehowa continued to run roughshod on the Falcons anemic defense.
The Plainsmen put the ball in the gut of their bruising tailback, Nicholas Cosgrove, who scored twice, once from 8 yards and the second touchdown from 10 yards away, increasing the lead, 35-20.
Only down two scores going into the fourth quarter, a comeback was feasible for the Falcons, but they proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot.
Backed up at their 1-yard line, on first down, DiPiazza called a toss to Tillery that was sniffed out by the Plainsmen defense and stopped for a loss and a safety.
Down 17, the Falcons offensive and defensive woes continued and the intensity and energy they came out with in the first half had dissipated by this point.
On Shenendehowa’s ensuing drive after the safety, it took one play to push the ball down field. Running back, Richard Drum, slipped through a slew of Falcon arm-tackles en route to a 67-yard touchdown, making it 43-20 with 10:33 left in the fourth quarter.
Albany High’s issues were in all three phases Friday night, not just on offense and defense.
For the second week in a row, special teams dropped the ball—this time in the punt game.
After the Plainsmen touchdown, the Falcons were forced to punt on the subsequent drive. Punter, Syeed Holtzclaw bobbled the snap in the end zone and Shenendehowa defensive end, Michael Jeffers, recovered the botched snap for a touchdown.
The Jeffers score capped of an electric second half for the Plainsmen and secured them their third win of the season.
The Shenendehowa defense shutout the Falcons in the second half and held them to 41 yards.
“We had to do a couple things because they were running the ball fairly effectively in the first half, they had the big play over the top, so we made some personnel adjustments in the secondary,” said coach Brian Clawson. “We went to some double coverage in the secondary and we went to a five-man front defensively, which shutdown their run, so in combining all of those adjustments, our team came out and played great defense in the second half.”
Chaney, Albany High’s standout wide receiver, was shutdown by the Shenendehowa secondary. The 6’1” junior was held catch-less and was only targeted twice, both times coming in the third quarter.
The Falcons workhorse back, Tillery, had 164 all-purpose yards. He had 95 yards receiving, 69 yards on the ground and three touchdowns.
Plainsmen tailback and player of the game, Fiore, collected 145 yards on the ground and three touchdowns.
Regardless of his team’s second half success, Clawson wants his ball club to come out with that same intensity and effort for all four quarters and will look to work on that this week in practice.
“There’s little things we need to work on. We need to put two halves together number one, that’s the big thing,” he said. “We were 21-20 in the first half and the second half we shut them out, so we got to be ready to play early and maintain that effort for all four quarters.”
As for DiPiazza and the Falcons, this week’s practice will revolve around cleaning up issues in all three phases of the game—and most importantly showing up to practice to improve.
“Show up and get better, that’s the key this week,” DiPiazza said. “Show up and get better at what you’re doing, to be better today than you were yesterday and we keep seeing that—we keep seeing that with some of our guys and we’ll see what happens at the end of next week.”
The Falcons (0-6) are home next week and are unveiling their new turf field against former Albany High coach, Joe Burke and Christian Brothers Academy. As for the Plainsmen (3-3), they’re on the road against the Guilderland High Dutchmen.
“What we’re excited about—how can you not get up this week for our game, opening up—having our first home game, debuting our new state of the art facilities, so it’s going to be a fun week of practice for us,” DiPiazza said.
