As of Thursday evening, Norwich’s home game with Owego tonight was postponed. A make-up date is pending, said head coach John Martinson. “It’s all dependent upon Owego’s ability to get safe transportation,” the Norwich coach said.
Martinson said that Norwich may reschedule the game to either Saturday, Sunday or Monday night, and we will proceed with our weekly game previews under the presumption that ever game will be played.
When the Tornado do tee it up for kickoff against the Indians, it will be an opportunity to avenge last year’s Section IV Class B playoff loss. Owego dominated the Tornado winning by four touchdown in a game where Norwich was never really in it after the opening quarter. “Teams usually get better as the season goes on, and I was not pleased with last year’s game,” Martinson said of his playoff loss. “We’re trying to focus more on ourselves and play Norwich football instead of worry about the other team.”
From a defensive standpoint, last week’s NHS win over Sus Valley was vintage Norwich. The Purple defenders recorded eight tackles for a loss led by Kegan Levesque and first-year starting linebacker, Jaden MacRabie. Norwich’s offense also put three touchdowns on the board. Last season, Norwich had just two contests where it scored as many as three touchdowns in a game. “We only scored six points in our first game last year, so from that standpoint, we’re ahead of where we were last year on offense,” Martinson said. “However, looking at film, we still have some work to do.”
Owego dropped its opening game to Union-Endicott in a non-league game. The Tigers are led by strong-armed quarterback Nick Larrabee, who threw three TD passes against the Tornado in a 32-6 win. Also back this year are key returning backs Derek Knapp and Dylan Angulus. “Owego is all about misdirection, and they played well against us last year,” Martinson said.
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UV-Edmeston coach Brian Banks had technical difficulties last weekend, ill-timed injuries, and his opening game against Bainbridge-Guilford was the first time his players hit someone other than a teammate in practice.
Banks said his headsets during the game were not working, and his scout that video-taped this week’s opponent, Oxford, was given a corrupted disk that proved worthless. To top it all off, two starting linemen suffered injuries last week, and two more are out for this weekend’s scheduled game with Oxford.
UV-Edmeston and Oxford will not play this evening due to the school cancellation at Oxford, but that game may be moved to Saturday night. When the game is played makes little difference to Banks, who said he knows very little about the Oxford team since his scouting film was destroyed. “We don’t have much to go on, but we know we have to stop Wonka (Paul),” Banks said. “They like to run and throw the ball, that type of stuff we know. We’ll just have to play it by ear. I’ve never had to face Oxford (as a coach), and it’s not like we’re playing Delhi or Walton, who have got their set ways.”
Banks said that for much of last week’s game, he was continually making adjustments. After a strong start, B-G dominated the middle periods and the first part of the fourth quarter. At that point, Banks said his offense began to click with quarterback Brandon Miles throwing a pair of touchdown passes.
“We kind of figured out what to do on offense, but it was a too late,” Banks said. “We have athleticim but we’re still young. We have a lot of guys that had not seen the speed and strength of the varsity game. It was a real eye-opener for those kids. With a game under their belt, they know more what to expect.”
Note: Oxford’s athletics department said the reschedule date for the UV-Edmeston game is undetermined. Please check the Oxford school website at www.oxac.org and click on the athletics link.
Elsewhere this weekend:
