NORWICH – Chenango Valley shot itself in the foot turning the ball over three times in the first half – twice when it was deep in Norwich territory. The Tornado’s opportunistic defense came up big for two quarters, but fortunately, the Warriors had another leg to stand on in the second half.
CV avenged a division loss to Norwich last year that eliminated it from the playoffs, and blanked the purple and white hosts on Friday, 12-0.
Quarterback Kevin Cox, sacked by Norwich four times in the first half – losing two fumbles as well – had TD runs of 17 and 42 yards in the second half to account for his team’s scoring.
“I think both teams kind of sputtered offensively in the first half, and both teams were playing pretty good defense,” said CV coach Jay Hope. “It was a case where we had to figure things out and settle ourselves down. Once we got settled, we started to run some of our stuff, and the kids got off the ball well.”
Adam Greene gave the Warriors the initial spark to start the second half. He took the opening kickoff, and nearly broke a long gainer taking it 31 yards to the Norwich 47. Unlike the first half when it stalled inside the Norwich 20 two times, CV executed its offense flawlessly. Cox found Conor Mahoney on a nine-yard pass, Greene scooted 13 yards on an outside sweep, and another Cox to Mahoney pass yielded 20 yards to the Norwich 17. In a precursor of future success, Cox kept the ball on option keeper, shed at least two tacklers, and scored the game’s first points.
Early in the fourth quarter, Greene took the ball for successive first-down runs to the Norwich 42. The next call had the Norwich defense completely fooled. Cox extended the ball out to fullback Joshua Kiltz, who hit the line and was buried by several Norwich defenders. What the Norwich didn’t see was the sleight of hand by Cox, who pulled the ball back in, and then slipped outside on the right. Not one Norwich player was within Cox’s view, who rambled untouched for the score.
“We saw some things in the first half, and we thought (Norwich’s defense) was kind of overreacting to our dive stuff,” Hope said of the second Cox score. “Kiltz has had some big games for us, and we thought they would try to take him away. It’s hard to stop that style of offense if you’re taking away one part, and not paying attention to another.”
Norwich’s offense had its best drive of the game following Chenango Valley’s first score of the third period. The Tornado executed three straight first downs, and reached the CV 13 with a fourth-and-three. Norwich was whistled for a false start penalty, and Josh Favaloro’s fourth-down halfback option pass just sailed over the extended reach of NHS receiver Jon Foulds. Norwich penetrated CV territory again in the fourth quarter, but another five-yard false-start penalty hampered the effort, and quarterback Seth Thomsen was sacked on fourth down.
“They executed their option on offense well, and they were getting the corner on the sweeps,” said Norwich coach John Martinson. “They were stretching the defense, and started to open it up throwing some split end screens. They had our linebackers all over the place.”
Norwich, coming off its season-best offensive performance against Susquehanna Valley, put up 239 yards of offense against a stingy Warriors defense that recorded a shutout on the Purple’s home field. “We made too many errors, and you can’t do that against a good football team,” Martinson said. “We had opportunities to score, and that offsides penalty on fourth and 2 1/2 really hurt us in the third quarter.”
On defense, at least, Norwich had an answer every time CV threatened in the opening two quarters. Norwich’s Josh Favolaro had his punt blocked late in the first quarter, and the Warriors were situated at the Norwich nine. Two plays later, Norwich junior lineman Kegan Levesque sacked Cox and forced a fumble that was recovered by NHS senior Tyler Hoffman.
Levesque came up big again with under four minutes to play in the first half. A Greene 21-yard run was aided by a 15-yard Norwich personal foul penalty. Two plays after that, Levesque had another sack/forced fumble of Cox, this time the loose ball was pounced on by senior Teddy Jerome.
Although this contest gave Norwich its first division loss, the Tornado are far from out of the playoffs, and this coming Friday, NHS’s senior players will be recognized before the start of the non-division game against Johnson City.
“The goal next week is to win for the seniors,” Martinson said. “It’s senior night and our last game at home, then we get back into the division. The kids have to understand that we still have a lot to play for.”
Score by quarters
CVall 0 0 6 6–12
