NORWICH – In the span of three weeks, Norwich has gone from a winless club struggling to score points, to a team that is now one win from a Section IV division championship.
The Tornado had what was by far their best offensive performance of the season, and they held Oneonta to 20 points below its season scoring average in a 30-14 win on homecoming weekend here Friday night.
The brothers Hotaling, Christian and Mackay, each rushed for 123 yards, the first time in the modern era that brothers at Norwich had 100-plus rushing days in the same game.
Christian, the senior, had a deju vu moment in the latter stages of the fourth quarter, and the resulting action was nothing short of satisfying redemption. Returning to the action for the first time since week two, Hotaling barreled for a 16-yard TD run that upped the Norwich lead to 23-14. Halfway through the run, Oneonta defensive back, Ian Clemons, came up to make a hit that was low and hard on Hotaling. Hotaling literally ran over Clemons on his way to paydirt.
Earlier this season, Hotaling was in the midst of a long run against Owego, but after getting hit low by an Indians’ back, he fumbled the ball away.
“I was playing with a broken finger the first couple of weeks, and that one time I fumbled, the guy came up and hit me on the finger,” Hotaling recalled. “My fingers are protected now, and I just wanted to take (Clemons) on.”
Hotaling’s bull-like running was part of a banner Norwich day in which it rushed for 374 yards and finished with 429 total yards of offense. “We were able to do what we wanted to do, and not be dictated by what they were doing to us,” said Norwich coach John Martinson. “We were able to pick and choose.”
What Norwich picked was typically some sort of inside run behind an improving offensive line. Considering Oneonta and Norwich have mirror-image offenses, Friday’s offensive output was eye-opening to say the least.
“I know everything they’re going to run, and they know everything we’re going to run,” Martinson said. “As Joe Paterno says, it’s not the X’s and the O’s, it’s the Jimmys and the Joes that win games. To put up this many points against their defense is something special.”
Norwich capitalized on an Oneonta fumble in the first quarter to put its first points on the board. Tyler Hoffman recovered a Bryce Wooden fumble at the NHS 31 to stall a promising ‘Jackets drive.
Christian Hotaling, on his first carry in three weeks, ran for 26 yards, and younger brother Mackay, a sophomore, did the rest bouncing off a would-be tackler for a 40-yard TD run.
Norwich used 7 1/2 minutes of possession time to march 63 yards for score number two. On fourth down from the Oneonta 18, Seth Thomsen lofted a jump ball pass to Andrew Austin, who outwrestled the ‘Jackets’ Logan Pondolfino for six more points.
Oneonta regrouped late in the half as Doug DiMartin hit a seam in the NHS defense racing 58 yards for the score closing the halftime gap to 14-8.
Oneonta drove inside Norwich’s five in the third quarter, but on a fourth-and-two from the Norwich five, DiMartin was stopped a yard short.
On the second play of the fourth quarter, Norwich’s Josh Favolaro gave Norwich some breathing room connecting on a 32-yard field goal. The score was set up by Mackay Hotaling’s 39-yard run on a third-and-12 from the one, then Christian Hotaling’s 50-yard run on the subsequent play.
Utilizing the pass with great success, Oneonta drove for its second and last score. Dan Broe found Michael Gilmore on a 33-yard pass, and later, Zach Vaccaro scored from the one-yard line as the visitors drew within three points.
The Hotalings, along with Thomsen and Tyler Hoffman, chewed up time and yardage leading to Christian Hotaling’s impressive score. Thomsen added a 77-yard TD run – a keeper up the middle – to cap Norwich’s day.
“We’ve talked to the team about four steps (four division games), and we just completed the third step,” Martinson said, who pointed out that step four is next week against Chenango Valley. “This was a critical game for us. If we lost, we would have needed to rely on someone to beat someone else.”
Norwich (3-0, 3-3) will host Chenango Valley on Friday, and it will also recognize its senior football players and cheerleaders before the 7 p.m. scheduled start.
Score by quarters
On. 0 8 0 6–14
NHS 7 7 0 16–30
Scoring Summary
