New York rolls past PA in Big 30 Charities Classic, evens up all-time series

By SPENCER BATES

BRADFORD, PA — For the first time in a decade, New York has gone back-to-back with wins over Pennsylvania in the Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic.

This year, the Empire State rolled to a massive 56-0 shutout that evened up the all-time series between them and their Keystone State rivals at 26 apiece.

Prior to just the second practice he had with his roster of all-stars, New York and Salamanca head coach Chad Bartoszek made it clear that the goal was to put on a show.

Consider that goal accomplished.

Bartoszek’s New York squad was flying all over the field in the win. Dazzling darts were thrown by both quarterbacks Maddox Isaac (Salamanca) and Isaac Towne (Franklinville/Ellicottville). Randolph running backs Connor Braley and Domanik Clark did what they do best and speared the ball up the gut of the PA defense and F/E’s Bretton Blecha had an incredibly efficient and productive evening at wide receiver.

But a shutout is not captured without solid defense. And from the game’s first kick, New York was ruthless in shutting down the Pennsylvania attack.

“We were not producing during practice, I’m going to tell you that right now. Now I know why, because our defense was fantastic,” Bartoszek said. “Some of those things just weren’t hitting (in practice) because our defense was that good. … So, I was a little skeptical coming in. I’m thinking, we’re going to have to find ways (to win). The formula for success is there, you still need to run the ball, you still need the formation, but man, it helps when you can go up top to kids like Blecha and Cory (Holleran). It’s fun for the fans to have a game like that.”

Salamanca’s Maddox Isaac (10) celebrates after scoring a touchdown for New York during the annual Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic. (Hunter O. Lyle)

The New York squad that Bartoszek had brought together looked less like a team of players that had just met two weeks ago, and more like a well-oiled machine that struggled to put one foot out of line. In his final huddle breakdown following the victory, Bartoszek used the term “family.” A fitting descriptor for the environment he and his staff had helped foster.

Granted, he admitted, the attitudes and nature of the players he had at his disposal helped significantly.

“I think if you go across the board and look at our New York side, we just got good kids, and they’re well coached,” Bartoszek said. “It didn’t take a ton of over-coaching. We told them what to do, they’re not going to do it perfect, but they picked up on it. They bought in and that was the fun part, just seeing how other programs operate. … Some teams hit more than we hit, some teams hit less. Some teams run things a certain way. We tried to simplify it and really attack what we’re good at and I think tonight we were balanced well.”

With how effective New York was throughout the affair, its first drive of the night was an outlier as a fumble recovered by PA ended the drive after the second play from scrimmage.

From then on, it was smooth sailing.

F/E’s Towne opened the scoring on the night in the first quarter with a five-yard rush, set up via a 47-yard catch by his former high school teammate Blecha. That reception wound up being the first of four that saw Blecha enter halftime with 138 yards and a touchdown.

Salamanca’s Isaac followed in Towne’s footsteps and punched one in himself on New York’s next drive. Bartoszek’s bunch nearly made it three scores in three drives, but a fumble on PA’s six-yard line put a momentary halt on the momentum of this year’s home side.

But Blecha got New York right back on the path to success with a 49-yard touchdown catch the very next drive. Towne scored his second of the day with a 10-yard rush and New York closed out the first half of action with a 37-yard dime from Isaac to Randolph’s Braley as time expired.

On top of all the scoring, New York did not miss an extra-point or two-point conversion all night, which contributed to the 36-0 scoreline at the intermission.

New York’s Cory Holleran (3) shakes off a defender and turns upfield during New York’s blowout win over Pennsylvania in the Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic. (Hunter O. Lyle)

Things only continued to go NY’s way after the break. But much like how it started the first half, a fumble in a critical position cut its initial drive short — this time turning the ball over at the Pennsylvania one-yard line. However, New York’s defense was rewarded for their efforts, as their pressure forced a PA safety on its first play after the turnover.

The only other third-quarter score was a 35-yard field goal from Pioneer’s Logan Fleischman. Two more scores, made in Randolph — a 20-yard TD run from Clark and a 12-yard TD run from Braley — rounded out the scoring for New York as its defense put the exclamation point on the win with a shutout-sealing interception with mere seconds left on the clock.

One of the brightest stars for Pennsylvania was Ridgway’s Rocco Delhunty, whose sheer size at 6-1, 225lbs made him a force that New York had to commit numbers to in order to stop him from breaking off chunks of yardage. And even if NY did get a body on him, there was still no guarantee he was going down.

Pennsylvania quarterback Colby Barr (10) gets off a pass before taking a hit. (Hunter O. Lyle)

For Otto-Eldred and PA head coach Troy Cook, coming out on the losing side of things by such a margin was not something he envisioned for his team. But if there is one thing that he hopes his players take away from their experience in the Classic, it is not the final scoreline, but the opportunity they had to turn enemies into friends and represent their high school programs one last time.

“Hopefully they made some relationships that they can take with them,” Cook said. “I know we’ve had some experiences the last couple weeks that we’ll definitely remember for a long time. So, in the end, that’s what it’s all about. Nobody likes to come out on the losing end like that. … But you can’t take anything away from the guys, they came out here and they played their tails off. They gave us everything they had. I’m just really proud of the effort that they put in.”

Bartoszek agreed with Cook on that front.

“You see a couple guys from programs that hadn’t had success in the last few years, and man, they were beaming when they came out with a big win,” Bartoszek said. “Some of those kids haven’t had wins like that, or many wins at all. For the rest of those guys, in the programs that have been successful, these kids are now making friends with foes. And just the way Cory broke the huddle: ‘Man, we used to hate each other.’ It was just really cool.”

New York successfully defended their title as reigning Big 30 Charities Classic Champions and earned the label of home team for next year’s event, a game that is set to tilt the all-time series scale.

AT BRADFORD

New York: 14 22 5 15 — 56

Pennsylvania: 0 0 0 0 — 0

First Quarter:

New York — Towne 5 run; Fleischman extra-point good, 7-0

New York — Isaac 3 run; Fleischman extra-point good, 14-0

Second Quarter:

New York — Blecha 49 pass from Isaac; Fleischman extra-point good, 21-0

New York — Towne 10 run; Fleischman extra-point good, 28-0

New York — Braley 37 pass from Isaac; Isaac to Holleran two-point conversion good, 36-0

Third Quarter:

New York — Barr (PA) safety, 38-0