Last-minute interception ends Salamanca’s playoff streak
By HUNTER O. LYLE
SALAMANCA, NY – Having eight minutes left to salvage their season, the Salamanca football team was making up for lost time. After falling behind by three scores through the opening half, the Warriors were finally finding production. Dominant production.
Through the first 16 minutes of the second half, they had suffocated Portville/Cuba-Rushford/Bolivar-Richburg into silence, seizing the engine of a team that scored nearly every time they touched the ball. Salamanca’s own offense was breaking through, finding successive touchdowns to bring the game to a one-score affair. And a clutch interception gave them a chance at redemption.
Battling the clock as well as their playoff-hopeful visitors, the Warriors rolled on, streaking down the field to find a perch just beyond mid-field with under a minute left.
However, one final breakdown dashed their hopes and broke their heart. Giving the ball away just a mere 20-yards away from the endzone, Salamanca’s comeback evaporated, instead leaving them with an eliminating 20-12 loss.
“You can get down a little bit, but getting down 20 is hard to overcome,” said Salamanca head coach Chad Bartoszek. “We just got too far behind the scoreboard. You can’t give them 20 and expect to come back.”
Although the Warriors were in full control through the final two halves, the first two were all Portville, and the main source of Salamanca’s pain came largely from one man: Hayden Schappacher.
Returning to the Panthers for his junior year, Schappacher, or ‘Schapp’ as he’s referred to on the sidelines, was the tip of the spear. Initially the team’s leading receiver, Schappacher quickly evolved to be the team’s leading running back before eventually taking the role under center following an early-season injury to original QB1, Peyton Carter.
Despite the change, Schappacher took it in stride, entering the final week of the regular season with six passing completions on 13 attempts, 163 yards through the air and one touchdown. All to go with his 654 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns.
“It all started in week two at Gowanda. We were down, (Carter) hurt his hand and we went to Schapp who was our backup, and he was just at a different speed and it was just a huge threat for us,” said Portville/C-R/B-R head coach Josh Brooks. “Schapp has just a different speed when he’s got the ball in his hand and he’s going to keep getting the ball.”
Right from the start, Schappacher made his presence known. Playing in tandem with his backfield counterpart Liam Taylor, the duo continuously found yardage in chunks. Mashing through contact, breaking through gaps and keeping the clock running, the Panthers’ ground gainers marched down field and into the endzone on each of their first three possessions. Schappacher scored the first of the night on a 22-yard carry, Taylor scored the next on a two-yard dive before Schappacher once again crossed the plane, carrying the ball three yards to put Portville up 20-0. By the end of the half, Schappacher had amassed 128 rushing yards on 13 carries while Taylor had 97 yards on 20 carries.
Meanwhile, Salamanca was subdued. In the same timeframe that the Panthers were running up the score, the Warriors recorded just two first downs as they were continuously ground to a halt.
“At halftime we were just looking to stem the tide. It was about playing football again. You have to give Portville credit for their physicality that first half, which is something we pride ourselves on but over the course of the season we’ve struggled with it,” said Bartoszek. “And there wasn’t a ton to change or mix up, they were just coming right at us. When you’re losing those little battles, it makes it difficult.”
But what emerged from the Red and Grey locker room was a different team entirely.
Although they were snubbed out once again on their first drive of the second half, the Warriors would not let another drive go in vain. After forcing the Panthers to their first three-and-out of the night with back-to-back tackles for loss, Salamanca found a spark on a 45-yard pass from Ethan Baxter to Payton Maybee on second-and-18. Perched on the Panthers’ 37-yard-line, they used the momentum to continue the drive down field, ultimately finding the endzone on fourth-and-four off another pass to Maybee, this time for 31 yards.
Portville began to recollect themselves, moving the chains twice on their next possession, but a costly bad snap forced them to punt on fourth-and-33. Salamanca’s spark then turned to flame as they crossed 67 yards – including a miraculous catch on a batted pass – ultimately seeing Clinton Northrup rip down a reception over a Panther defender in the endzone.
With just under eight minutes to go, Salamanca had trimmed the deficit to just eight.
“People talk about momentum. In the NFL and in college football, it doesn’t impact professionals. At the high school level, you get a little momentum going, your kids have confidence and then things start to open up,” said Bartoszek. “We couldn’t run anything (in the first half) because we had no momentum. When you start to put together first downs, now you can take a shot here or there and that’s the part of the game that opens things up.”
The flame then turned to a blaze when Portville, having secured a position just 37 yards away from what would have been their drought-ending drive, went for it on fourth-and-9. A pass sent downrange missed its mark, instead being picked off by Maybee. With just under three minutes to go, the Warriors began the creeping once again.
Converting three first downs in the next two minutes, the endzone sat just 47 yards away. Brought to this spot largely off the success of their passing game, Salamanca leaned on it again, airing it out for a deep shot to the right sideline. However, instead of another successful reception, the shot went long and as a result, found the hands of Portville’s star.
Coming down with the interception, Schappacher snuffed out the Warriors’ flame and with a pair of knees, the Panthers had secured their win as well as their spot in the Section VI Class C playoffs.
“I’m proud of everyone for stepping up. Finding ways to win, it’s not ideal to have it that close in the fourth quarter but they’re high school kids,” said Brooks, whose team will earn either the second, third or fourth seed in Class C South. “They don’t always get that kind of experience. We’re going to be in some tight games in the playoffs, so we’ll take the good experience and the win. Thank goodness.”
For Portville, Schappacher ended with 173 rushing yards on 21 touches, while throwing for 41 yards on a 1-for-3 night. Salamanca was led by Baxter’s 153 passing yards, completing 10 of his 15 attempts (66.6 percent) for two touchdowns. Maybee finished with 78 yards and a score while Remy Follman came away with 38 receiving yards and a touchdown as well.
Although Portville will now await the final seeding in the upcoming postseason, when the Warriors walked off the field, it was for the final time.
“It’s a weird feeling. We’ve been in the playoffs every year really (since 2020). We’ve been a playoff team every year so it’s not a conversation I’m used to. I know there’s a lot of good out there, it’s just hard to see it right now,” said Bartoszek. “The message to the guys was that they played ‘Salamanca football.’ That means they stuck together, they never gave in. You never saw the scores really get out of hand, even when we were down we fought back. I’m just proud of our guys.
“It’s football. It rips your heart out.”
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