Football
Norwich 14, Owego 7
OWEGO – A last-second defensive stand allowed Norwich to preserve its first win of the season, Friday night at Owego.
Norwich’s second touchdown of the game, a five-yard TD run from Grant Brightman in the second quarter, stood up throughout the second half and into the waning seconds of the fourth.
Owego, directed by quarterback Brandon Morris, reached Norwich’s five-yard line with 11 seconds left, and was faced with a fourth-and-two. “It was the last play from scrimmage, and we didn’t even think they would get the play off,” said Norwich fourth-year head coach John Martinson.
Morris dropped back to pass, and under tremendous pressure from the NHS front, was sacked by junior Ryan Hayes to end the game.
“We had some outstanding play on defense from Ryan, Matt Burke, Matt Lippa, and Storm Cook,” Martinson said, who also noted Brightman’s team-high nine tackles. “Our guys did a great job staying at home and doing their jobs. Really, at the end of the game, you don’t want to be on defense and holding your breath. But we had kids step up.
Norwich overcame four turnovers – two fumbles and two interceptions – by taking advantage of some early scoring opportunities. Brightman received the opening kickoff – a short squib kick to the 25 – picked up a block from Burke, and raced 75 yards untouched for the opening touchdown.
Zach House squirted 30 yards through the NHS defense to tie the game on a TD run before the Tornado regained the lead following a big play on special teams.
On fourth down, House, the punter, was sacked for a six-yard loss by Hayes and Lippa on the Owego 37. Brightman burst for 26 yards on first down, and two plays later moved the Tornado in front.
Brightman finished with 118 yards rushing, and the Tornado running game averaged 5.4 yards per carry. “It was our first win and it was an ugly win,” Martinson said. “Sometimes that first win is the toughest. We’re thankful to have that, we just need to correct some of those mistakes.”
Norwich plays its home opener Friday against Sidney.
JV notes: Norwich’s junior varsity evened its mark at 1-1 beating Owego 21-7. Matthew Craig had two runs, and Jacob Perrone rushed for 88 yards and a score. Perrone, Sam Barber, Dan Conant, and Nick Murphy led the NHS junior varsity defense, said head coach Kurt Edwards.
Score by quarters
NHS 7 7 0 0–14
Owg 7 0 0 0–7
Scoring Summary
N: Grant Brightman 75 kickoff return (Zan Stewart kick)
O: Zach House 30 run (Wolfe kick)
N: Brightman 5 run (Stewart kick)
Team Summary
N O
First downs 11 14
Rushes-yds 37-200 44-129
Passing yds 0 83
Comp-att-int 0-5-2 6-13-0
Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-1
Sacks-yds 4-25 0-0
Punts-avg 3-32 6-26.7
Penalties-yds 6-45 3-20
Time of Poss. 20:07 27:53
Individual Statistics
Rushing: (N) Grant Brightman, 18-118; Kyle Edwards, 14-80; Keagan Franklin, 3-2; Michael Sutton, 2-0. (O) Zach House, 19-85; Dylan Angulas, 10-46; Dan Wolfe, 7-19; Brandon Morris, 8 - (-21).
Passing: (N) Sutton, 0-5-2, 0 yds; (O) Morris, 6-13-0, 83 yds.
Receiving: (O) Dylan Angulas, 3-20; Zach House, 2-48; Zach Thomas, 1-15.
Greene 43, Walton 16
GREENE – The three-decade wait is over.
The Trojans slayed yet another dragon Friday night in large part due to the biggest game of quarterback Joe Beckwith’s career.
Beckwith threw three TD passes and ran for another as Greene beat Walton for the first time in at least 25 seasons. The win comes a year removed from Greene’s victory over Chenango Forks, another team that long held dominance over the Trojans.
“It’s been a long time (since we’ve beat Walton),” said Greene coach Tim Paske. “A lot of people in the community commented to me that this gets the monkey off our backs. It feels good for (some of) the community members because they could never beat Walton when they played.”
Just like last week, Greene was ignited by a special teams touchdown. Lane Whittaker returned a Walton punt 65 yards to paydirt to open the scoring. Whittaker went up the sideline untouched, and actually had an escort of teammates into the endzone. “Two weeks in a row. How about that?” Paske said of the his club’s third special teams score in two games. “If teams kick it deep, with the guys we have back there, we feel we have the
opportunity to score. Our team has really bought into the special part of special teams.”
Beckwith helped Greene extend its lead to 27-8 by halftime running for a 13-yard TD, then throwing TD tosses of 32 and 45 yards to Whittaker. Beckwith, who finished 4-for-6 for 173 yards, had a 63-yard TD hookup with Jeremy Flohr in the third extend the lead to four touchdowns. All three TD passes were on the same play, Paske said. “We wanted to make sure the pass plays we called were the ones Joe was confident in,” Paske said. “The ones we ran in the game were the ones we practiced, and he put them all on the money.”
Walton’s Mike Beers had two one-yard TD runs, but aside from one long first-down run from Trevor Spencer, the Greene defense held Walton’s punishing ground game in check. “Our defense did some bending, but we didn’t break,” Paske said. “We did a nice job of getting guys to the football.”
The Greene running game actually matched Walton’s 226-yard total. Mike Beckwith led the way with 90 yards on 14 carries.
Greene (2-0) plays at Dryden Friday.
Score by quarters
Walt. 0 8 0 8–16
Greene 8 19 8 8–43
Scoring summary
G: Lane Whittaker 65 punt return (Dan Treadwell pass from Joe Beckwith)
G: Joe Beckwith 13 run (run failed)
G: Whittaker 32 pass from Beckwith (pass failed)
W: Mike Beers 1 run (Beers run)
G: Whittaker 43 pass from Beckwith (Alex Csigi kick)
G: Jeremy Flohr 63 pass from Beckwith (Mike Beckwith run)
W: Beers 1 run (Austin Kilmer run)
