Salamanca Warriors changing their mindset, build around rookie QB

Taking to the gridiron after the first big personnel change, the Warriors came out to a hot 4-0 start in 2025. However, they then ran into trouble, ending the season 1-4 with a first round exit in the Class C playoffs. Their efforts were made possible in large part by a class of 12 seniors, a group that included their Big 30 All-Star quarterback Payton Bradley, who threw for 1,057 yards and rushed for 465 for a combined total of 20 touchdowns, receiver Waylon Dowdy, who picked up a team-high 324 receiving yards and four touchdowns and back Jesse Hill, who ran for 234 yards and one touchdown.

“When you have an explosive team that can score at any time, like we’ve had in the past, there’s a certain mentality of ‘it doesn’t matter what happens, we’re going to figure it out.’ And we made mistakes then, but we could cover them up because we were really talented. Last year, some of those mistakes started to show themselves,” said Salamanca head coach Chad Bartoszek. “I think, coming into this year, we’re changing a bit of our mindset of who we are.”

Despite the losses, Salamanca returns some solid pieces to build around. Rookie quarterback Jayden Romero, who played the position last year as a part of the junior varsity squad, will have experienced targets down range in Cameron Bowser (junior, 319 receiving yards, four touchdowns) and Remy Follman (junior, 123 receiving yards) and Conner Seeley (549 rushing yards, four touchdowns) to hand the ball off to in the backfield.

Salamanca opens their season on Friday against Springville at home. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.

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Allegany building confidence, learning to win

While the Panthers, Huskies and Warriors are resorting to youth, Allegany-Limestone/Hinsdale is seeing the seeds planted last year start to bud.

Following a brief two-year stint in eight-on-eight play, the Gators returned to the big stage last season, taking their place in the eleven-man Section VI Class D pool. Running into a steep learning curve, the results were stark but educational.

“Every kid on our roster last year, whether they were a senior or a sophomore, that was their first opportunity playing varsity eleven-man football. We kind of expected to take our lumps last year,” said Allegany-Limestone head coach Marcus Grove, whose team finished 0-9. “The biggest thing for us last year was improving week by week, trying to get better week by week,” said Grove. “I feel that the majority of our guys bought into that message and understood that, while the record kind of stunk, all we were trying to do was get better week by week.”

As the Gators look to raise their watermark, they do so with the majority of last year’s core. Returning the lion’s share of offense, A-L will see sophomore Tayden Margeson (585 yards, two touchdowns) back under center, receivers Ryan Callen (371 rushing yards, one touchdown) and Greg Peck (277 yards, one touchdown) down range and Aidan Coulter (320 rushing yards) in the back field.

Returning under their home lights this Friday against Cardinal O’Hara, the Gators are ready and prepared to weather the storm. With that being said, the main goal once again this season is internal.

“Our messaging all off season has been, ‘we know how to lose, now let’s go learn how to win.’ I think that kind of speaks to how all the guys are carrying themselves. You can see more of a collective buy in this year,” said Grove. “For us, it’s really trying to build confidence in our guys and having them understand that they can go out and do this. They’ve put in the work all offseason to go out and make something special happen.”

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