By HUNTER O. LYLE
lyleoleanstar@gmail.com
PITTFORD, NY – Despite giving up the most points in any of their three postseason contests, the Salamanca football team continued their prolific season to protect their Far West Regional throne, beating East Rochester/Gananda, 42-20.
A week after securing back-to-back Section VI Class C championships with a win over Portville at Highmark Field, the Warriors faced a new challenger in their defense of their Regional title: the Bombers. Similar to Salamanca, ER/G came in with an unbroken hot streak, tallying eight straight wins after their loss in Week 1 that took them past Le Roy/Caledonia-Mumford in the Section V finals. With offense being their main weapon, the biggest tool in their arsenal was quarterback Ben Newman.
“It was difficult (to prepare for Newman.) He’s fantastic,” said Salamanca head coach Chad Bartoszek. “He’s efficient. He finds the windows. You don’t see a lot of high school quarterbacks that find the windows on slant windows and sit windows like he does.”
Whatever the Warriors worked on in practice paid off, however, as they blew up the Bombers backfield numerous times in the opening drive to force a three-and-out. After booting ER/G off the field in just over two minutes, the Warriors kickstarted their offense.
Led by quarterback Maddox Isaac, who picked up 34 rushing yards and 37 passing yards to open the game, Salamanca marched down the field for their first score of the afternoon. Standing on the six-yard-line, the final blow of the drive came from Xavier Peters before a pass to Payton Bradley on the two-point conversion put the Warriors up 8-0.
The Bombers would earn a first down on their subsequent drive, but still couldn’t find ways to poke holes in the Warriors defense. After four snaps, which included a Peters tackle for loss and unsuccessful fourth-and-four attempt immediately after, Salamanca once again had the ball. Sticking with the run game, a combination of carries from Peters and Corey Holleran put them in the red zone before the latter rushed in for an 11-yard score. At the end of the first quarter, Salamanca was already up 16-0.
Getting the ball around mid-field, the Bombers tried to strong-arm the passing game. While they desperately tried to find receivers downfield, the Warriors’ secondary refused to let anything through. After collecting a total of just 19 yards, ER/G’s offense was once again sent to the sidelines.
However, following one more score from the Warriors – Quinten Brown broke the plain with a one yard rush to put Salamanca up 22-0 – the Bombers finally broke through.
On the first two snaps of their fourth possession, ER/G found daylight with two carries that produced 26 yards to put them just short of the 50. A short gain through the air put them at mid-field before Cadearrell Smith Jr. burst through the trenches and into open field, scoring the Bombers’ first touchdown after a 50-yard dash.
From there, it seemed as if ER/G had woken up. Despite allowing another first-half score from the Warriors – Peters tallied his second touchdown off a 22-yard run – the Bombers would retaliate right after. Then, they would finally find success on defense, forcing the Warriors off the field in a three-and-out.
With under three minutes left before the break, ER/G was standing on Salamanca’s doorstep. However, a big sack from Bradley killed their momentum and having used all three of their timeouts already, the Bombers were unable to get one last snap off. The Warriors had once again held them off, albeit narrowly, and entered halftime up 28-14.
Following the intermission, the Warriors aimed to squash any momentum left over from the Bombers late-quarter run. Having that in mind, it took three snaps to make their way into the endzone once again. After two short gains put Salamanca on ER/G’s 27 yard-line, Peters would carry the ball the rest of the way for his third touchdown.
“It was a weird feeling. Coming out of the half we were up 14 and it seemed like we were down, ” said Bartoszek. “Our guys didn’t have the same mojo they had coming into the game but that drive, that touchdown really sparked something.”
Being down 36-14, however, would not damper ER/G’s spirits. If anything, it continued to motivate them. Although it was sloppy – the Bombers came away with a few close calls including a fumble they managed to recover – ER/G took the ball 55-yards into Warriors territory and tacked on another six points.
The Bombers were starting to pick up steam, but while they were able to find their groove on offense, they still had no answer for Salamanca’s offense. Using the Man of the Hour, the Warriors gave the ball to Peters, who picked up 65 yards as he tallied his fourth score of the night, widening the margin on the scoreboard to 22.
“He showed a lot of heart and determination today in terms of just grinding it out,” said Bartoszek. “He’s got some explosive shiftiness inside the tacklebox which was huge because these guys like to spill you. He had a heck of a game and tonight was a night where we needed him to grind it out.”
Fighting wear and tear and worsening field conditions with bitter rain and wind, both teams dug in, battling out the remainder of the contest on defense. The Bombers found ways to plug up Salamanca’s run game, forcing a fumble which they recovered and a punt. The Warriors, and more specifically Holleran, came away with two interceptions as ER/G searched for some last-minute long-balls.
As Holleran rose up to pick off the final interception, he came back down to Earth with just seconds left on the clock and not long after, the Warriors rejoiced. They had successfully defended their Far-West Regional title and punched their ticket to the New York State Final Four.
“That was a good game. It was a tough game,” said Bartoszek. “It was a tough offense to deal with on their end. They had a lot of good things going but – I don’t know how many rushing yards we had tonight – but we were running the ball really well. Our offensive line was controlling it up front and they did a good job.”
Peters ended with 239 rushing yards on 22 carries, reaching the end zone four times as the Warriors posted 40-plus points for the fourth time this postseason. Isaac ran for 115 yards on 10 carries, also throwing for 40 yards on 4-for-6 attempts. Holleran was targeted once, leading the run-heavy Warriors in receiving yards with just 25. On defense, Holleran also led in tackles, finishing with 12, eight of which were unassisted.
Up next, Salamanca will face what Bartoszek called a ‘monster’ in the post game huddle. Their next opponent will be Section IV champions, Chenango Forks (10-1). That game will take place next Saturday.
“We know we’re running into a storied program. I think a lot of people penciled in Waverly after we faced them last year,” said Bartoszek, “but I know that Chenango has been the top dog over there. We got to see them a little bit and we’ve got our hands full and it’s going to be a different kind of ball game.”
