Sports Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, September 13, 2007
Dutchmen hit first and hardest in win
By Tim Matteson
GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland football team showed its toughness on Saturday.
The Dutchmen were matched up with a strong, Queensbury team and showed they can pack a wallop as they beat the Spartans, 27-6, and moved to 2-0 for the second consecutive year.
"It was a hard-hitting game," said Guilderland Coach Dan Penna at practice this week. "We knew, coming in, that Queensbury would be a challenge. They have strong kids, big kids.
"We were outsized on the lines," Penna added. "The kids came in with playoff-caliber intensity and never let up. Well except, for the third quarter."
Queensbury got its lone score in the third quarter to make the game close before Guilderland scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to put the game away.
"In the trenches"
"We played a solid all-around game," said senior Nick Ranalli. "The defense showed what we got. I think we showed that our defense is one of the top ones in the section right now."
Senior quarterback Drew Smith scored on a two-yard run in the first quarter to cap a nice drive on the Dutch’s first possession of the game.
E.J. Genzano kicked the extra point to make the score 7-0 in favor of the Dutchmen.
The Dutch took a 13-0 lead in the second quarter on a 18-yard run by Paul Booker. The two-point conversion attempt failed. But Guilderland had a two-score lead after scoring on its first two possessions.
"We got the ball and drove down field," Penna said. "It was highlighted by a great run by Paul Booker. We came out and knew they had an updated defensive scheme from last year that was more conflicting to our offense. We were able to solve it on the first few plays of the game."
The first play on offense for the Dutchmen was a 49-yard option run by Smith.
"I was pleased with the way we came out," Penna added. "We moved the ball up the field on offense. We had great blocks on the offensive line. We won the game in the trenches."
The Dutch came out flat in the third quarter. They committed some mental mistakes that led to the Queensbury touchdown, a one-yard run by Dominic Marino.
"I’m disappointed with the effort," Penna said. "For the second week in a row, we had a lackluster performance at the beginning of the third. We had several penalties on short-yardage situations. They had a third-and-one and we jump offsides. They had a fourth-and-two and we had a penalty that kept the drive alive.
"The kids understand that they need to get better," Penna added. "They are working to get better and play four quarters of football."
Marino’s touchdown capped a 14-play, 51-yard drive that was set up by good field position.
Queensbury got the ball back in the fourth quarter and decided to go for a first down on fourth-and-one from the their own 28-yard line.
The ball was fumbled and recovered by linebacker Paul Malamood — his second recovery in the quarter. Penna said that they wouldn’t have gotten the first down anyway.
On the next play, Booker ran for 27 yards into the end zone for a touchdown. Smith ran in for a two-point conversion and the Dutchmen had a 21-6 lead.
Later in the quarter, Smith scored on a 60-yard run to cap the scoring.
"We forced them to punt it and, on the next play, Drew saw an opening in the middle," Penna said. "He called his own number and told the offensive line he was going and they opened a huge hole up the middle."
Smith finished with 144 yards rushing on 12 carries. Booker ran for 133 yards on 10 carries.
Smith completed just one pass for four yards in the game.
"We need to work on our passing game," Booker said.
"Starting to click"
"I feel we have a more solid offense than at this point last year," Ranalli said. "We are close to being perfect."
Penna said he saw improvements from the opening-season 20-0 win over Albany.
"I felt, overall, that everything is starting to click," the coach said. "The offense, I was really pleased with that. And we had a team defensive scheme. Certain players made a lot of tackles. And certain players had to take on the blocking of Queensbury. He held them to an average of three-yards per carry on the ground. The kids really bought into the defensive scheme."
The linebacking trio of Malamood, Pete Stanish, and Booker, each had over 25 tackles in the contest, Penna said.
"With the double-wing offense," Penna said of Queensbury’s offense, "we had guys taking on blocks from both backs and the offensive line. That allowed our linebackers to scrape and make tackles."
Penna credited the defensive line of ends Devan Van Auken and Joe Cardillo along with tackles Mike Kennedy, T.J. Jasenski, and Rolando Andres for following their assignments and being big keys of the defense.
"The defensive line stepped up big time," Malamood said.
"This is the best all-around team we’ve had since I’ve been here," said Cardillo, a senior.
Penna also praised his offensive line of Van Auken, Mike Ward, Andres, Ray Callanan, and Paul Sheehan for doing a good job on offense.
"Coach [John] Winters and Coach [Bill] Schewe did a great job of getting the guys ready, physically and mentally," Penna said. "They made big holes for the backs.
"Our offensive line is getting overlooked," Penna added. "They executed well and stayed on their blocks. They are evolving into one of the better O-lines we could have had here in the last 10 years."
"The offensive stepped up," Malamood added. "We executed perfectly for three or four plays in a row. Then we get a couple of plays stuffed. We need to work on our consistency."
"It was a dog fight," Ranalli said of Saturday’s game. "I’m glad we threw the first punch. We were able to stop them and beat them physically and with everything else."
The Dutchmen will try to build on their success on Friday night when they host Bethlehem. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m.
"I feel with the guys that we have that we can’t lose," Cardillo said. "We have too much talent to lose."
Blackbirds fly high in Tamarac
By Tim Matteson
VOORHEESVILLE — If Voorheesville Coach Joe Sapienza was displeased with his team’s season-opening win last week, Friday’s win brought a smile to his face.
The Blackbirds controlled the game in all facets and beat host Tamarac, 35-0, under the lights last Friday.
"We played very well," Sapienza said on Monday. "It was significantly better than the first game."
Sapienza said that his team controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball in a dominating performance.
"We exectued very well on offense," the coach said, praising quarterback Jay Conde. "Jay had a good game passing the ball. He completed passes to every skill position player. We were very balanced with the run and the pass. Jay was good at taking what the defense was giving us. We were patient on offense."
Conde had an excellent game, completing 10 passes for 112 yards and he threw his first touchdown pass of the season.
The senior connected with classmate Evan Christner from eight yards out in the first quarter for a score. Lee Fenner kicked the extra point to give the Blackbirds a 7-0 lead.
Voorheesville added another touchdown in the opening stanza as senior fullback Adam Duncan scored from one yard out. Fenner made the extra point and Voorheesville led 14-0.
In the second quarter, lineman Dan Flynn sacked the Tamarac quarterback in the end zone for a safety. It was the only score of the quarter for both teams.
"Our defense was really aggressive," Sapienza said. "We were solid. We didn’t let them get into any field position too often."
In the third quarter, Duncan scored his second touchdown of the game. This time, he ran from 11 yards out to give the Birds a 22-0 lead.
Senior running back Pat Jones scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. He scored on runs of 17 yards and 56 yards in the frame. Fenner connected on the point after the final touchdown to round out the scoring.
Jones finished the contest with 148 yards rushing on 19 carries. Duncan added 70 yards on 13 carries.
Conde completed passes to Duncan, Chris Massaroni, Christner, Jordan Murphy, Brad Donaldson, and Jimmy Carroll.
Voorheesville forced Tamarac to commit five turnovers in the contest.
"A test of wills"
"We made significant improvement," Sapienza said. "Sean Fitzmaurice and Dan Flynn dominated. Our defensive line dominated the line of scrimmage. We didn’t give their offense anything."
The Birds were also able to move the ball against the Bengals, even though Tamarac stacked the line of scrimmage to prevent the run.
"They had nine guys at the line of scrimmage, keying on Pat and Adam," Sapienza said. "Jay had 141 yards passing. He kept their defense off balance. Every skill player caught a ball. Jay completed passes to both our split ends, fullback, and tailback. That put a lot of pressure on their defense."
It was a hot night on Friday, and Sapienza said that more focus on conditioning helped his team.
"It was a test of wills," Sapienza said. "We worked a lot on conditioning last week, and we will work a lot on it this week. I’m sure we’ll be in better shape as the season goes on. We did a little extra and you could see the difference in the fourth quarter. We were pretty fresh."
The Blackbirds will have to continue to work as they will have a big test on Saturday. The Birds will host fellow unbeaten and long-time rival Watervliet at Thomas Buckley Field in Voorheesville.
Kick-off for the contest is at 1:30.
"There are three teams that are 2-0 in our division," Sapienza said. "Us and Watervliet are two of them. So for positioning, this is a pretty significant game. It is always a rivalry and, with both teams being 2-0, that makes it more special."
Bulldogs taking steps in improvement
By Tim Matteson
BERNE — There is still some work to do, but, based on Monday’s effort, it will be a better season than last year for the Berne-Knox-Westerlo boys’ soccer team.
The Bulldogs are trying to bounce back from a dismal 2006 campaign and showed good signs in a 4-3 overtime loss to Duanesburg on Monday afternoon in Berne.
"We have to keep working harder," BKW Coach Jim Gillis said after the game. "This team has a lot of possibilities. People have to remember that this team went 1-15-1 last year."
Gillis has a lot of new players on the varsity team. Again, he is faced with not having a junior varsity team as in the past few years. He also has a few seniors who have never played before.
"We have 22 on the team," Gillis said. "We have three seniors that have never played before. We have one that hasn’t played since modified"They are athletes but they have to keep processing and understanding the game."
Tough start
The Bulldogs battled back on Monday after playing a sloppy first half of soccer. They gave up two goals on defensive breakdowns to trail 2-1 at halftime.
The first Duanesburg goal came with about six minutes left in the opening half.
Kyle Boyd scored after getting to a loose ball that was misplayed and placed a good shot in the upper half of the goal to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
BKW got the goal back less than two minutes later.
Brazilian exchange student Igor Silva knotted up the game after making some nice moves past a couple of Duanesburg defenders. Silva knocked a shot by Duanesburg goalie Zack Edwards.
Though they were not credited with assists, Keith Cunningham and Greg Mulson helped set up the play with nice passes that got the ball to Silva.
As bad as Duanesburg’s first goal was for BKW, the second one was even worse.
A lack of communication led to a miss clear for the Bulldogs and the Eagles capitalized as Mike Gwiazdowski tallied to give the Eagles the lead again.
"Talking is the simpliest thing in a game to do," Gillis said. "Dave White is a quiet kid and Greg Hannay is a quiet kid. I don’t care what sport it is, to be a good team you have to have communication to help one another."
Frantic finale
The BKW players stepped up their play in the second half and evened the game with 15:18 left in regulation play.
Cunningham scored after getting a ball that came from over the top of the Duanesburg defense. Cunningham got to the ball, and lifted it over Edwards who came out of goal to try and knock the ball away from Cunningham.
BKW took the lead after Edwards was called for a pushing foul in the penalty area.
The Bulldogs were awarded a penalty kick and Silva converted the kick from the eight-meter mark. BKW led, 3-2, with 6:13 left in the second half.
In the final frantic minutes, Duanesburg tied the score.
Nick Shiavone headed the ball into the goal off a corner kick with 1:30 left.
Regulation play ended with the scored tied, 3-3, and overtime was needed to decide the outcome.
The teams played a scoreless 10 minutes in the first overtime period so the game went into a second extra frame.
Matt St. John ended the game and gave Duanesburg the win with a shot from outside the box that went to the far post, past the outstretched hand of Hannay.
Hannay made 20 saves for BKW and Edwards had 11 stops for the Eagles.
The Eagles out-shot the Bulldogs, 32-16, in the contest.
"Growing pains"
"In the first 10 minutes, they were in their offensive zone a lot," Gillis said of Duanesburg. "I felt a couple of times we unraveled out near midfield and we didn’t hit the ball. They came right back after we got back into the game. But we’ve never been in a situation like that in the past couple of years."
Gillis has some young players in the back and that led to a lot of the early mistakes.
"John Tambasco is a sophomore and he’s my stopper," the coach said. "He works hard. Ryan LaBelle is a sophomore and he is also starting. I was playing Brandon Galgay, a freshman, in the back late in the game. Our goalie is a junior. We’re going to have some growing pains."
But Gillis has already seen things his Bulldogs’ have improved.
"We’ve already scored more goals as a team than we did last year," he said. "Igor has helped with that. We need to work on little things like diagonal runs"I’m not unhappy with our work rate. We need to make better decisions."
Monday’s game was the first Western Athletic Conference South Division game for the Bulldogs. They opened the season last Wednesday with a loss to Saratoga Catholic and split two games in the Fort Plain Tournament over the weekend.
"We’re in a game and we won a game the other day," Gillis said. "The Fort Plain game we were not in. We need to go out and compete. We have a win and a loss in overtime. But it’s hard to give up a goal with a minute-and-a-half left."
Irwin, Ensslin win at Deer Memorial Run
GUILDERLAND — It was a large turnout and a big celebration.
About 148 people came out for the biggest Brenda Deer Memorial Walk and Run this Saturday at the Guilderland YMCA.
This year marked the fifth-year anniversary for the event, held in honor of a young mother who was killed by a drunk driver while jogging near her home in 2000. For the second straight year, the weather was nice.
The nice temperature led to many race-day registrations.
The race was won by Robert Irwin of Guilderland. The 34-year-old chiropractor completed the course in 19 minutes flat. Christine Ensslin, 34, of Altamont was the first female finisher. She had a time of 23:03.
Norris Pearson, 41, of Troy was second in the men’s division in 19:19. Rob Picotte, 54, of Slingerlands, was third in 20:36.
Teresa Martin-Berra, 39, of Slingerlands finished second in the female division with a time of 23:14. Julieanne Scanlan, 31, of Schoharie rounded out the top three in the women’s division with a time of 23:16.
Race director Derrick Raeder of the Guilderland YMCA thanked all the race’s sponsors, which include WeatherGuard Roofing, Pine Bush Girls’ Softball, Levonian Brothers, Robinson’s Ace Hardware, the Guilderland Police Department, and bounces by Sun Shine.
Raeder also said that an event like the Deer run could not be possible without the help and hard work of volunteers.
"We had over 30 people helping us out," he said, "and that is huge in being able to do something like this."
The event is named after Brenda Deer who was a Guilderland resident and avid runner. She was a teacher’s aide for six years at the Guilderland Elementary School and a mother of three children.
Deer was killed in 2000 when a drunk driver struck her as she was running with her husband on Route 155. Deer’s morning runs with her husband were a part of her daily routine.
Proceeds from the event will be donated to the YMCA Reach Out For Youth Campaign, benefiting the Circle of Champs Program that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for children ages 5 to 15, who have been touched by a life-threatening illness.
Age-group results
Nicholas Earl, 11, of Rexford was the top finisher in the male 1-to-14 age group. Brian Deer, 14, of Milford, Mass. was second and Dan Gerety, 14, of Guilderland was third.
Jenny Kelly, 13, of Greenfield Center, was the top female runner in the group. Kerry Gerety, 8, of Guilderland was second and Shannon Gerety, 10, of Guilderland was third.
The 15-to-19 age group was won by Kile Wujciak, 18, of Corinth. Zachary Cowles, 17, of Corinth was second and Ronald Bovee, 15, of Corinth was third.
Lily Rowem, 17, of Altamont was the top female in the group. Jordan Mary Madison, 15, of Corinth was second and Danielle Koster, 18, of Corinth was third.
Matthew Toper, 23, of Guilderland topped the 20-to-24 age category. In the female group, Alicia Ventresca, 24, of Ballston Lake was first. Bridget Kerling, 24, of Slingerlands was second, and Maureen Pelletier, 24, of East Berne was third.
Chris Winslow, 28, of Guilderland was first in the 25-to-29 age group. John Deer, 25, of Albany was second and Dan Messier, 27, of Albany was third.
Kari Deer, 28, of Albany was first in the female age group. Eileen Dunn, 25, of Guilderland was second and Kate Tymeson, 29, of Waterford was third.
Chris Scanlan, 32, of Schoharie won the male 30-to-34 age group. Mike Tymeson, 33, of Waterford was second and Kevin McKay, 33, of Albany was third.
Kelly Tynan, 34, of Schenectady was first in the female group. Marcy Raeder, 31, of Schenectady was second, and Victoria Wagner, 33, of Altamont was third.
Rob Sheftel, 38, of Troy was first in the 35-to-39 age group. Jonathan Bright, 37, of Slingerlands was second and David Shumpert, 36, of Clifton Park was third.
Stacie Masullo, 39, of Altamont was first in the female category. Joanne Dingwall, 35, of Schenectady was second and Karen Cusato, 39, of Schenectady was third.
The male 40-to-44 age category was won by Richard Witaker, 42, of Ballston Spa. Terry Seery, 43, of Altamont was second and Mike Brooks, 42, of Slingerlands was third.
Evelyn Deer, 43, of Milford, Mass. topped the female group. Bridgette Chozbajia, 41, of Schenctady was second and Judy Seery, 41, of Altamont was third.
Julius Pasquariello, 47, of Rotterdam topped the male 45-to-49 age group. Frank Deer, 45, of Milford, Mass. was second and Randy Goldberg, 48, of Schenectady was third.
Kathleen Goldberg, 48, of Schenectady was the top female in the group. Susan Sikule, 48, of Altamont was second and Cameron McLean, 49, of Albany was third.
William Teetz, 54, of Johnstown won the male 50-to-54 age group. John Mounteer, 53, of Altamont was second and Frank Fazio, 53, of Albany was third.
Kathy Dillinger, 50, of Guilderland was the first female finisher in the group. Barbara Sorrell, 50, of Delmar was second and Margaret Pangman, 50, of Cobleskill was third.
Tom McGuirk, 55, of Slingerlands topped the male 55-to-99 age group. Paul Forbes, 57, of Colonie was second and Greg Rickes, 57, of Latham was third.
Phyllis Fox, 55, of Loudonville was the first female in the group. Alice Carpenter, 57, of Delmar was second and Nancy Johnston, 61, of Ballston Lake was third.