Salamanca implodes in season-opening loss to Griffins

By HUNTER O. LYLE

lyleoleanstar@gmail.com

SALAMANCA, NY – Entering the season on the heels of significant roster turnover, the Salamanca football team knew there would be a learning curve. What they might not have expected, however, is that the tough lessons would come so early, so catastrophically and on so many fronts. 

Fighting against themselves as much as the Griffins, if not more, the Warriors watched as their early foundation collapsed in the form of a 40-25 Week One loss to Springville. 

“This is football and Springville came ready to play. It wasn’t that we were overlooking them at all, I think just a lot of things went wrong tonight on top of a lot of mistakes in the football world,” said Salamanca head coach Chad Bartoszek. “It just slipped away and the wheels fell off.”  

Losing the majority of their yard-gainers from a year ago, Salamanca knew the bulk of the offensive load would fall upon Conner Seeley and Quinten Brown. And through the early goings, the duo delivered. Alternating between the pair, the Warriors broke tackles and chunked out the distance to the endzone, with Conner Seeley completing the drive with a 50-yard carry down the right side for six points. 

With their defense pumping the brakes thereafter, stumping Springville just 18-yards away from a retaliatory score, the Warriors looked poised to keep their foot on the gas. But instead, they began to falter.

First came the flags, which halted Salamanca into an immediate three-and-out. Then, Brown went down with an injury that relegated him to the sidelines. Left to carry the load in the interim, the Griffins quickly began honing in on Seeley and cutting off the run game.

“We came in with an identity that we had to run the football and that changed quickly after Quinten went down. Everyone had to move around,” said Bartoszek. “(Springville) was able to load the box. Things started to move when we spread them out a little, but that wasn’t our plan. Our plan was to move the ball with physicality and speed, which we have, and Springville tightened up.”  

While the Warriors began to pivot to the air with some success, seeing rookie quarterback Jayden Romero get his first taste of varsity production, they were unable to cross the field once again. And as their offense sputtered, the Griffins found their counter. With just over four minutes remaining in the half, they bruised their way down the field by way of their own grit-and-grind running back, Grant Michalski, punching in their first touchdown of the night. After forcing a Warrior fumble, they doubled down, taking a 14-7 lead in a three-and-a-half minute span.

Although Salamanca responded, finally unlocking their offense with a flurry of long gains from Seeley – a 19-yard run, a 33-yard reception and finally a 24-yard scoring rush – they missed out on the game-tying point after attempt, failing to get off the kick due to a bad snap.

Coming out of the break, however, that narrow, one-point deficit quickly expanded as Salamanca began to fall apart. 

The turmoil began in an instant, with Springville taking their first snap 66-yards across the green and into the endzone, pulling away 20-13. Two plays later, on Salamanca’s initial drive of the third quarter, a bad handoff produced the team’s second fumble of the game and a subsequent fourth Griffin turnover in the aftermath. Another three-and-out for the Warriors gave Springville real estate just 35-yards away from the endzone before the trouble culminated in a brawl and ejection. 

“We had a personal foul that’s bugging me. We had a play that we’re not used to here that’s really sitting with me right now,” said Bartoszek. “We’re going to address that, obviously.”

Moved to the seven-yard line as a result, Springville tacked on another score, pulling away 34-13. 

Staring at an uphill battle with still a quarter-and-a-half to go, Salamanca had some ground to make up. Unfortunately for the Warriors, it would take them another two possessions to break through again and while they repeated the feat in the fourth, the final outcome was inevitable. After a game where everything fell against them, the Warriors walked off the field in defeat.

Seeley ended with three touchdowns in the loss, while Cameron Bowser came away with one reception in the endzone. Next week, Salamanca travels to face Southwestern/Frewsburg at 7 p.m.

“Job number one starts tomorrow. We’re going to rehab in the pool, we’re going to watch film. We’ve got to get mentally and physically more disciplined, across the board,” said Bartoszek. “We’ve got a tough league ahead of us and Springville just opened our eyes a little bit.”