Tigers(x2) and Blue Devils take home Section Titles

Three games left on the Section IV Finals schedule for Saturday, none disappointed.  Class D started off the day with a bang as Tioga blasted Unatego 80-53.  Class C followed with a Chenango Forks 49-15 victory over Waverly.  The night concluded with the Union-Endicott Tigers holding off the rival Vestal Golden Bears for the 20-14 win.

The Class D Shootout, as it were, saw Tioga take a 59-12 lead into the locker room.  Finals MVP Jesse Manuel led the first half attack with 16 carries, 217 yards, and three touchdowns but he and the rest of the first stringers for the Tigers did not see any action in the second half.  Meanwhile, quarterback Ryan Vergason threw the ball once.  One complete pass for 28 yards.  Outside of Manuel's running game, the rest of the Tigers ran the ball  41 times for 405 yards and six touchdowns.  That's a total running game of 57 carries, 622 yards and nine TDs.  But that's not the most impressive stat of the day.

The Unatego Spartans came out guns a-blazing in the second half.  Offensive Player of the game, Spartans QB, Josh Feyerabend set the NYS single game record for passing yards.  His 29-40, 581 yard, 7 TD performance stole the record away from CBA's Greg Paulus who went 30-50 with 543 yards.  Feyerabend also came up just one TD shy of the record 8 set by St. Joseph's Gary Castine.  Feyerabend joins 8 other NYS QBs to throw for 7 TDs in one game.

The Tigers follow their third straight section title with a Regional matchup agianst Herkimer at 7:00 on Friday at U-E's Ty Cobb Stadium.

For the Chenango Forks Blue Devils, it's their second straight Class C title, and 4th in 5 years (with 2013 opponent Waverly taking 2011 honors).  Including their previous seasons in Class B, Forks has won Section titles in 11 of the last 13 seasons.  Saturday's 49-15 victory over the Wolverines was highlighted by the play of Finals MVP Isaiah Zimmer.  Zimmer's four TDs came on 25 carries and 219 yards rushing.  The Blue Devils have successfully integrated a solid passing game over the last few seasons, but Saturday, Head Coach Dave Hogan said the ground game was working too well to throw the ball.  A classic case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."  JC Sweeney picked up just seven yards passing on one completion and four attempts.  Ryan Bronson was named Offensive Player of the Game, Mike Zurenda, Defensive Player of the Game.

Chenango Forks draws the winner of Immaculate Heart and General Brown (those two play Sunday at the Carrier Dome).  Blue Devils regional game is at noon on Saturday at U-E.

The nightcap featured two bitter rivals, the U-E Tigers and the Vestal Golden Bears in a rematch of last year's Class A Finals.  The Tigers got the best of that one, 27-3 but this year, it would be a little closer.

Trailing 20-14 late in the 4th quarter, the Golden Bears forced a fumble and took over possession.  On 4th down, QB Nick Wegmann took off scrambling, gained significant yardage, but fell mere inches shy of the first down line.  From there, the Tigers took over possession and just needed to take a knee to make it back-to-back titles in Class A.

Sammy Davis led the Tigers on the ground with 20 carries, 122 yards, and 1 TD.  Joey Orlando 8-16 with 123 yards and two interceptions.

The Tigers next opponent, Carthage, scored it's last TD with 21 seconds left to beat Indian River 21-20 for the Section III Class A Title.

U-E and Carthage battle it out at 7:00 Friday night at Vestal (U-E is not allowed to play on its home field).

Friday night's winners, Elmira (AA) and M-E (B) also now know when their next game is, but only Elmira knows who it's against.  Elmira will play CBA at 3:00 Saturday at U-E.  M-E gets the winner of Cazenovia and Oneida (Sunday), that game at 6:00 Saturday at U-E.