NEW BERLIN - Unadilla Valley coach Mark Segina described his team’s opening game of the season as a series of “near misses” and “almosts.”

The Storm were afflicted with inopportune mistakes at critical junctures, and Moravia’s ground attack picked up steam with each successive quarter in a 33-6 victory Friday.

Devils sophomore Jared Lyon ran for three touchdowns and a game-high 157 yards, and junior fullback Bryant Hough had 88 yards and two rushing scores. After a stifling defensive stop for UV on the opening possession of the game, one that forced a punt, Moravia put points on the board the rest of the way with the exception of two lost fumbles and a game-ending kneel-down. “I think we did some good things, and there is a lot of stuff we need to improve on,” Segina said. “I’ll break this down on film and try to clean it up. We did have some positive things, but every time the momentum started to shift, we had a penalty...but that’s football, and sometimes the breaks don’t go your way.”

Moravia took advantage of UV’s first big mistake – a 15-yard penalty – to extend its first scoring drive. Hough converted a fourth-and-one, and Lyon scored the first of his touchdowns racing 19 yards on a sweep to the right.

The Storm drove to midfield on its next sequence, but failed to convert a fourth-and-short of their own. On the very next play, Hough dashed 50 yards up the middle on a quick-hitter for the visitor’s second TD of the day.

The Storm seemed to stem that momentum when quarterback Lance Gage hit Ryan Postma on a would-be 70-yard TD pass. Behind Postma, though, UV was whistled for a penalty to nullify the score. It was one of two offensive touchdowns the Storm scored that were wiped away by penalty.

Segina said those scores would have made the final outcome look a lot more pleasant. “Those touchdowns getting called back, they could have been big momentum changers,” Segina said. “We would establish some good things, but we just seemed to have a breakdown.”

Moravia added to its lead by halftime with Hough ripping off a 27-yard jaunt, and Lyon scoring on a 10-yard run to make it 20-0.

UV avoided a shutout in the fourth quarter thanks to its defense. Down 27-0, junior Alex Avolio stripped the ball from Moravia quarterback Cole Johnson, and took it back 18 yards for UV’s lone points of the night. True to its resolve, Moravia fired back with a TD on the subsequent possession with Lyon capping a three-TD rushing night on a 58-yard scamper.

Avolio, in his first game as a running back, led the Storm offense with 83 yards rushing. Gage, playing his first varsity game at quarterback, went 9-for-15 and 78 yards.

Summary

Score by Quarters

Mor. 12 8 7 6–33

UV 0 0 0 6–6

Scoring Summary

M: Jared Lyon 19 run (pass failed)

M: Bryant Hough 50 run (run failed)