VOORHEESVILLE — The curse of the Panthers continues to haunt Voorheesville.

Over the past two years, the Blackbirds have just four losses. Three of them have come from their rivals from Columbia County.

Chatham came into Voorheesville Saturday and ruined homecoming as the Panthers won 42-21.
"I think we came out distracted," said Voorheesville Coach Joe Sapienza. "With all the festivities, I don’t believe our thinking was clear. But at certain times during the game, we had the momentum and controlled the game."

Chatham was led by their talented quarterback Zach Kraham who ran for one touchdown and threw three others.

Kraham gave his team a 7-0 lead on a seven-yard run after leading the Panthers down the field on their opening drive.

After Voorheesville turned the ball over on downs, Kraham finished off a seven-play drive with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Drew Doty.

Sean Kenny kicked both extra points and Chatham led, 14-0, with 2:24 left in the first quarter.

Chatham made the score 21-0 with seven minutes left in the second quarter.

Voorheesville punted and Chatham got the ball back on Blackbirds’ 49-yard line.

Again, seven plays later, Kraham hooked up with Parker Niles for an 18-yard touchdown pass.

Voorheesville finally got on the board late in the half.

The Blackbirds started at their own 20-yard line and marched the ball up the field. Behind quarterback Jay Conde, the Birds took 13 plays to score.

Conde completed passes to Evan Christner, Chris Massaroni, Jordan Murphy, and Christner again, before connecting with Murphy for a four-yard touchdown pass.

The Blackbirds were forced to go to the air as Chatham was keying on running back Pat Jones. Jones was missing his backfield mate Adam Duncan, who is out for the rest of the season with a broken foot.

Lee Fenner kicked the extra point to cut the lead to 14 points, 21-7, with 1:08 left until halftime.

The Blackbirds got the ball back on a fumble by Kraham, which was recovered by Christner.

Voorheesville took over at Chatham’s 23-yard line, but Conde was intercepted in the end zone and Chatham held its lead at the break.

"Not focused"

The team traded punts to start the second half, and Voorheesville came back on its second possession of the third stanza.

Voorheesville started on its own 21-yard line and advanced up the field. Jones was able to get free for some yards and, after a 25-yard run, was hit late and picked up a 15-yard penalty.

That put the ball on the Chatham nine-yard line.

Jones scored on the next play and Fenner kicked the extra point to pull the Blackbirds within one touchdown, 21-14, with 4:19 left in the third frame.

But Chatham answered as Kraham found John Kinnicut in the end zone for a touchdown. With Kenny’s extra-point, Chatham led, 28-14.

The back-breaker for the Blackbirds came on their next possession.

A third down pass by Conde was intercepted by Chatham’s Alex Kellard-Ashe who caught the ball at the Voorheesville 30-yard line and took the ball all the way to the end zone for a touchdown.

With the extra point, the Panthers led, 35-14, with 1:06 left in the third quarter.
"Jay slightly under-threw it," Sapienza said. "He rolled the dice to get a jump on the ball and it worked for them."

Chatham added a touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to go up 42-14 with 8:42 left in the contest.

Voorheesville got one more score as it put together an impressive drive.

Conde capped the 10-play, 80-yard drive with a two-yard run into the end zone.

The big play of the drive was a 42-yard pass play from Conde to Christner that put the ball on the Chatham two-yard line.

But Chatham ran out the clock, forcing the Blackbirds to have to re-group for next week’s game at home against Catholic Central High School of Troy.
"Too many times we were not prepared and not focused for the play," Sapienza said of his team.

"Very up and down"

But some of that credit has to go to Kraham, and his ability to run the team in his fourth year on the varsity team.

Kraham finished the game, completing eight passes for 150 yards and the three touchdowns. He also rushed for 49 yards on 16 carries.
"Kraham does such a good job," Sapienza said. "He’s calling the plays at the line of scrimmage. He is seeing what the defensive call is and he is making a call. And they are executing it."

For the Blackbirds, Conde completed 11 passes out of 33 attempts for 153 yards, though he had two interceptions. Christner made four catches for 88 yards.

Jones rushed 19 times for 70 yards. Conde picked up 43 yards on four rushes for the Birds.

Sapienza said playing without Duncan hurt his team but was not the biggest reason why Voorheesville lost, although the Blackbirds lose two spots — on offense and defense — on the field without Duncan.
"On the very first play of the game," Sapienza said, "they ran right where he would be. And on offense, it hurt us because he is our blitz protector. He picks up pressure and that is what hurt us."

Sapienza said that his team has been focused since the third week of practices, but too much was going on around his players this week and Chatham is too good of a team to get a quick jump on you.
"There’s a lot going on around you," Sapienza said. "And you lose sight that the ball is being kicked off and you have to be ready to play. The last five minutes of the half, I thought we dominated on both sides of the ball.
"Our play was very up and down," Sapienza said. "We did some great things and we did some terrible things."

The Blackbirds are now 4-1 and have two games left in the regular season. Voorheesville is assured of a playoff spot, but is looking for positioning within its division. Four teams in the division have just one loss — Chatham, Voorheesville, Watervliet, and Coxsackie-Athens.

The Blackbirds play Catholic Central at home on Saturday then travel to Coxsackie for a Saturday night game in Greene County to close out the regular season.
"Every week is a dog fight," Sapienza said. "Every quarter and every possession becomes that more significant. What we have to learn, what the Voorheesville Blackbirds have to learn, is that every possession is important. I hope this puts it into prespective."