By SPENCER BATES
EDEN — Who would blink first?
That was the big question as the No. 6 seed Portville/Cuba-Rushford/Bolivar-Richburg and No. 3 seed Eden/North Collins football teams exchanged blow after blow in the Section 6 Class C Quarterfinal.
It was a true war of attrition between two sides with fairly opposite offensive philosophies. The Raiders relied heavily on their air attack behind quarterback Brady Waring, who led all of Section 6 with 2,142 yards and 34 touchdown passes through the regular season. On the other side of the ball, the Panthers continued to put faith in its no-nonsense ground-and-pound rush game headed by Jake Zeigler who tallied 1,038 yards through the first eight weeks of the season.
It was officially win-or-go-home time and neither side wanted to do the latter, resulting in a back-and-forth game that saw no consecutive scores until there was less than three minutes on the clock. Unfortunately for the Panthers, those back-to-back scores went against them, leading to a 43-28 loss.
Still, Portville head coach Josh Brooks had nothing but praise for his team for the way they battled until the very last second of the season.
“After last week’s win against (Clymer/Sherman/Panama), we saw how resilient these kids have been all year,” Brooks said. “We showed it again tonight. … We don’t quit. We kept answering the call the whole first half. We knew it was just going to come down to who can get the first stop. We score a long touchdown, it gets called back on a hold that was way behind the play, which was frustrating, but I guess it’s part of the game. … It was a heck of a run. To get where we were being so banged up. I don’t think people really understand that we were down our starting quarterback the last three weeks. The kids stepped up. We have a lot of great kids with a lot of great character.”
E/NC’s Waring had a stellar night, adding five more passing touchdowns — four of which were reeled in by Silas Nellis — to his season tally and tacking on a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter which all but sealed the win. Of course for Brooks, this came as no surprise. He and his staff knew an aerial attack was inevitable, it was just a matter of whether or not they could stop it.
“It wasn’t any secret what they were going to try to do, but to try to simulate that speed of the quarterback, and the two Nellis brothers, it’s really hard to do in practice,” Brooks said. “And those kids are even better than I originally thought. They had great wheels, they go up and get the ball, they made some huge plays. It was coming and we still couldn’t stop it. It’s frustrating.”
But luckily Portville had a work horse of its own it was able to lean on. Jake Zeigler racked up 182 rushing yards for the Panthers on the night, finding the endzone once. Kingston Loucks and Adam Roe combined for 92 rush yards and a touchdown apiece behind Zeigler.
“Jake, what a great kid,” Brooks said. “Every single time we talk to him after he’s had a great game, he automatically gives credit to his linemen and his teammates. Our kids have nothing to be ashamed of. The effort was there, we just didn’t make enough plays and (Eden) did.”
The season may have ended earlier than Portville may have hoped it did, but that does not take away from the effort that went into bringing this new three-school merger together. What started with a 1-2 record with two shutouts through three games, ended with pushing the section’s No. 3 seed to the absolute brink.
“I’m proud of our staff and the players to be able to work together from three different school districts, put pride aside, work together and do what’s best for the team,” Brooks said. “I think that’s why the kids were able to, every time we could get an opportunity, take advantage of it and step up for their teammates, especially in the first year with the three-team merger. It’s a huge step in the right direction.”
Brooks made it a point to praise the seniors he had on his team this year, acknowledging their growth on and off the field and saying how excited he is to see what is in store for them down the road.
“It means a lot just to see these kids who, they don’t really understand it yet, but they’re just getting ready for their adult lives,” Brooks said. “Their ability to come together and work together, be resilient, and work as a team to achieve something is just going to set them up for success. I can’t wait to see the future for all these graduating seniors.”
The Portville/Cuba-Rushford/Bolivar-Richburg football team officially finished the season with a 5-4 record.
AT EDEN
Eden/North Collins: 6 16 14 7 — 43
Portville/C-R/B-R: 7 15 6 0 — 28
First Quarter:
E/NC — S. Nellis 25 pass from Waring; two-point attempt no good, 6-0
P/C-R/B-R — Zeigler 30 run; extra point attempt good, 7-6
Second Quarter:
E/NC — S. Nellis 31 pass from Waring; two-point attempt good, 14-7
P/C-R/B-R — Loucks 51 run; extra point attempt good, 14-14
E/NC — S. Nellis 26 pass from Waring; two-point attempt good, 22-14
P/C-R/B-R — Roe 19 pass from Carter; two-point attempt good, 22-22
Third Quarter:
E/NC — S. Nellis 24 pass from Waring; two-point attempt no good, 28-22
P/C-R/B-R — Roe 9 run; extra-point attempt no good, 28-28
E/NC — Taylor 5 pass from Waring; two-point attempt good, 36-28
Fourth Quarter:
E/NC — Waring 1 run; extra-point attempt good, 43-28
——
Team Statistics:
Eden/North Collins:
First Downs: 16
Rushes-Yards: 24-139
Passing Yards: 261
Comp-Att.-Int.: 22-30-0
Total Offense: 400
Fumbles-Lost: 1-0
Penalties-Yards: 9-88
Punts-Avg.: 0-0
Total Plays: 54
——
Portville/C-R/B-R:
First Downs: 10
Rushes-Yards: 34-264
Passing Yards: 23
Comp-Att.-Int.: 2-3-0
Total Offense: 287
Fumbles-Lost: 4-1
Penalties-Yards: 6-60
Punts-Avg.: 0-0
Total Plays: 37
