VOORHEESVILLE — The Voorheesville football team put itself in a hole it couldn’t get out of in Saturday’s Class C semifinal game.

The Schuylerville Black Horses came to Thomas Buckley Field and rolled to an early lead. Taking advantage of big plays, they beat the Blackbirds, 34-17, to end Voorheesville’s season.
"Offensively and defensively, I felt that we matched up," said Voorheesville Coach Joe Sapienza. "What Schuylerville has done all year has capitalized on turnovers and special teams. That’s the story of their season and why they have been successful."

Schuylerville wrote another chapter in that story as it got two punt returns for touchdowns from Mike DeGregory and an interception return for a touchdown.
"I told the kids I thought we played better than them," Sapienza said. "They pulled away at the end, but it was a game."

Despite the miscues, the Blackbirds only trailed by four points, 21-17 early in the third quarter.

P.J. Hognestad capped a drive with a three-yard run for a touchdown that cut the lead to four points.

The drive began when Nick Duncan intercepted a pass at the Voorheesville 43-yard line.

Justin Lupien had two long runs — the second put the ball on the 16-yard line. Quarterback Andy Catellier completed a pass to Duncan that moved the ball to the five-yard line.

Two plays later, Hognestad scored his touchdown.

But a blocked punt late in the third quarter led to Schuylerville’s next touchdown.

Duncan went to punt the ball but it was blocked and recovered at the 40-yard line.

Nine plays later, Zac Kozersky scored from 15 yards out. The snap on the extra point was fumbled but the Black Horses led, 27-17.

Punting problems

Voorheesville had more punting problems on its next possesion. This time DeGregory fielded the kick at his own 40-yard line and ran through the Voorheesville coverage for a touchdown. DeGregory kicked the extra point to give his team a 34-17 lead.

DeGregory returned a punt for a score in the first quarter. He caught the punt on his own 47-yard line and sprinted to the end zone for the score to give the Horses an early lead.

Voorheesville responded with a field goal with 20 seconds left in the first quarter.

Matt Miller connected on a 27-yard kick to cut the lead to four points, 7-3.

Voorheesville looked to catch a break on the ensuing kick-off.

DeGregory fielded the kick-off at his own 17 and returned it to the 40-yard line, but a hit by Charlie McGrail caused a fumble that was recovered by teammate Rob Selby.

But it took Schuylerville three plays to reverse the momentum.

Catellier was intercepted by Tim Case, who returned the ball 40 yards for a touchdown.

DeGregory added the extra point to put the Black Horses up by a score of 14-3 with 11:04 left in the second quarter.

Schuylerville built on its lead with a touchdown with 3:59 left in the first half.

DeGregory ran from 12 yards out and then added the extra point to make the score 21-3. The score came after a fumble by Voorheesville at the Schuylerville 30-yard line.

Voorheesville cut into the lead just before halftime.

Blackbird Stephen Cardinal intercepted a pass at the Schuylerville 35-yard line and returned it to the 16.

Catellier completed a pass to Tim Robinson for six yards and, two plays later, Catellier ran for three yards to set up a fourth down and one yard to go for a first down.

Catellier ran around the right side of the line and into the end zone for the score.

Catellier then completed a pass to Nick Klapp for the two-point conversion and the Birds trailed by just 10 points, 21-11, with 46 seconds left until halftime.

The Blackbirds would score on their first possession of the second half but not again as the Black Horses advanced to the Section II Class C title game.

Catellier finished the game with 11 completions on 26 attempts for 134 yards. Duncan made six catches for 102 yards.

Lupien, who left the game with a back injury late in the game, carried the ball four times for 50 yards.

McGrail had two fumble recoveries for the Birds and Duncan had two interceptions.
"I told them that this is one of the finest group of gentlemen that I’ve ever been associated with," Sapienza said. "Andy’s been on the varsity since the last game of his freshman year. There have been guys on the team since they were sophomores.
"When you are playing playoff football," he added, "you can’t go in a hole and then have to work on getting out of it. And we did."

The pads will be put away for another year, but Sapienza said he hopes the loss will resonate with his younger players as they will prepare for next fall.
"We’ll start back up soon," the coach said. "We’ll be in the gym real soon. "I think the kids learned how to win," Sapienza added. "We had success and they got excited by that."