GUILDERLAND — Pop, bang, crash.

Those were the sounds that were heard as Guilderland High School’s football team announced its presence as a team to watch on Friday night.

The Dutchmen beat Troy, 13-0, in front of a large home crowd on Pop Warner Night at Guilderland High School.

The Dutch are 2-0 for the first time since 1999.
"This is the biggest win the program has had," said Guilderland Head Coach Dan Penna. "I hate to compare to other programs. Coach [Pete] Schwan brought this team from one or two wins to the .500 mark. I want to take the program to the next step. I am happy with the win. It definitely puts us where we want to be as a program."

The Dutchmen beat traditional power Troy at its own game — hard hitting.
"It was a great football game," Penna said. "It’s a lot of fun to be in a football game like that. We had some mistakes and we turned the ball over. We a lot of opportunities to give them the knockout punch. But we’re a young team; we are learning how to win."
"It was a rough game," said Guilderland’s Kyle Hussey. "It was a very physical game."
"They had some big guys out there," added teammate Nick Zanotta. "But we did know what to expect."

Guilderland’s defense was stout throughout, holding Troy scoreless and containing Mike Krogh, one of Section II’s best running backs. The Dutchmen held Krogh to 63 yards but he was the main offense for the Flying Horses. Troy only got 72 yards of total offense.

Guilderland moved the ball only slightly better and had a couple of turnovers that might have caused them some early points.

Dutch quarterback Greg Barcomb threw an interception on his team’s first possession. Anthony Testo made the pick at the Guilderland 48-yard line and returned it to the 44.

But to the Dutch’s credit, the defense held, sparked by a big quarterback sack by Kyle Hussey.

The first quarter ended in a 0-0 tie and it remained that way early in the second quarter after Guilderland’s Nick Zanotta missed a 40-yard field goal.

Touchdown

The Dutchmen got on the scoreboard later in the second frame.

After a Troy punt, the Dutchmen got the ball on their own 46-yard line.

On the next play, junior Paul Booker took a handoff from Drew Smith. He ran to the left side, busted through the line and then fended off the attempts of would-be Troy tacklers for a 54-yard touchdown run.

Zanotta kicked the extra point to give the Dutchmen a 7-0 lead with 7:04 left in the second stanza.

The Dutch scored their second touchdown with 1:25 left in the third quarter.

Smith made a spectacular run after appearing he was going to get sacked. Smith broke a couple of tackles and ran to his right. Then he ran down the right side toward the end zone and near the goal line; he hurdled a couple of Troy defenders to reach the end zone.

The extra-point kick missed but the Dutch had a 13-0 lead.
"It was the whole team," Hussey said. "We kept it together. We had all the pieces working and the runs we got from Smith and Booker were key."
"They came out and they wanted to punch us in the mouth," Zanotta said of Troy’s physical style of play. "We took some shots and we gave them some shots. We went back and forth all game."

"More fresh bodies"

The Dutch shut down Troy in the final quarter to hold onto the lead.

The Guilderland players looked to have more energy in the final quarter and Troy players were looking tired.
"We had more fresh bodies," Penna said. "We were able to wear them down in the fourth quarter."
"We’re a fourth-quarter team," Zanotta said. "That is how we play."

Donovan Lloyd recovered a fumble after a hit by Jarrell Gatterson deep in Troy’s territory in the second quarter. But the Dutch couldn’t take advantage and turned the ball over on downs four plays later.

Penna added that his players had to overcome a lot during the week.
"We were able to maintain our focus," he said. "We had a lot of distractions. This was the WTEN game of the week, it was the first week of school, and it was Pop Warner Night and we had a good crowd."

Penna credited Zanotta’s punting in the second half as being important to winning the game.
"Zanotta was the player of the game," Penna said. "His punting was a lot of the difference. It was a field-position game."

Next up for Guilderland will be a trip to East Greenbush to take on Columbia High School, which also won its first two games.
"Troy’s over," Hussey said. "We are now looking toward Columbia. We won’t be satisfied until we are 9-0."
We are gaining respect," Zanotta added. "We’ve got some work to do to prepare for Columbia."