Evening Sun Report
Football
Norwich 35, Windsor 20
NORWICH – Norwich’s offense scored at least four touchdowns for the third straight week, and it made homecoming weekend a memorable event as the Tornado captured their third straight victory Friday evening.
Leading by just two points at halftime, 14-12, a pair of third-quarter touchdowns allowed the host club to gain some breathing room against the physical Black Knights.
“I thought Windsor came right at us and was the more physical team in the first half,” said Norwich coach Mike Chrystie. “They punched us in the mouth, but our offense was able to keep pace, and I think we started to wear them down in the second half.”
Norwich’s balance of running and passing was at its best. Behind the line of Cole Brightman, Brad Chesebro, Ryan Hayes, Jamison Luke and Adrian Hoffman, the Tornado ran for 318 yards. Quarterback Mike Sutton threw for 111 yards, and senior Jaden MacRabie had five catches for a career-high 102 yards.
Norwich shook off Windsor’s physical play, and punched right back scoring on its first drive of the second half. Michael Oralls, who ran for 104 yards, scored on a 33-yard touchdown drive. Following a defensive stop, Norwich found the endzone again, this time a 29-yard TD pass from Sutton to MacRabie. It was the second TD connection for the senior duo, and the first one gave Norwich a two-point lead at halftime.
What Chrystie noted was Norwich’s ability to respond to any momentum swing in Windsor’s favor. “The good thing for us was that every time Windsor scored, we came right back on the next possession and scored a touchdown,” the NHS coach said. “That says a lot about our ability to respond to adversity.”
Norwich had three other backs run for at least 50 yards. Sutton had 86 yards and 36-yard first-quarter score, Matt Burke dashed 70 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to finish with 72, and senior Keagan Franklin had 56 yards rushing.
“Windsor did a good job of containing Oralls, so we pulled the ball out (of the option) more than we have been doing,” Chrystie said. “It was good to see guys like Keagan, Matt, and Jaden get more touches. If one guy is taken away, we do have other options.”
Norwich puts its three-game winning streak on the line this Saturday when it travels to two-time defending state champion Maine-Endwell. The Spartans extended their winning streak to 29 games this past Saturday with a 39-3 win over Johnson City. “We’ll see how far we have come this weekend,” Chrystie said.
Score by quarters
Wind 6 6 0 8–20
Nor. 7 7 14 7–35
Scoring Summary
First quarter
W: Darick Bartlow 2 run (pass failed)
N: Michael Sutton 36 run (Zan Stewart kick)
Second quarter
N: Jaden MacRabie 15 pass from Sutton (Stewart kick)
W: Josh Cady 75 run (pass failed)
Third quarter
N-Mike Oralls 33 run (Stewart kick)
N- Jaden MacRabie 29 pass from Sutton (Stewart kick)
Fourth quarter
W-Calvin Whalen 3 run (Mike Niggli pass from Cady)
N- Matt Burke 70 run (Stewart kick)
Team Summary
W N
First downs 17 19
Rushes-yds 44-207 41-318
Passing yds 152 111
Comp-att-int 11-16-0 7-10-0
Punts-avg 3-28.7 2-33.5
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties-yds 6-40 5-30
Individual Statistics
Rushing (W) Josh Cady 13-108, Trevor Hawk 1-5, Calvin Whalen 7-19, Darick Bartlow 22-75. (N) Michael Oralls, 15-104, Mike Sutton, 10-86; Matt Burke 6-72, Keegan Franklin 10-56.
Passing : (W) Josh Cady 11-16-0, 152 yds. (N) Michael Sutton 7-10-0-111, 2 TDs.
Receiving: (W) Cory Hagerman 1-13, Mike Niggli 6-101, Trevor Hawk 2-27, Frank Martino 2-11. (N) Jaden MacRabie 5-102, Matt Burke 1-6, Keegan Franklin 1-3.
Oxford 26, Candor 14
OXFORD – Oxford subscribed to the adage “the best defense is a good offense,” particularly in the second half of Friday’s victory over visiting Candor.
It was the Blackhawks’ first win in four outings this season, and 61 rushing plays for 336 yards was the key component in that victory. “We just hammered them up front,” said Oxford coach Ray Dayton.
Candor stunned Oxford early with a pair of first-quarter touchdowns, the first of those a 54-yard dash by Dylan Bean. The Indians used the big play to set up Freedom Boda’s eight-yard score giving Candor a 14-6 lead after one period.
From there, it was Nik Hansen, Nick Neer, and Bryan Simpson gaining the lion’s share of the yards for Oxford. Hansen had a first-quarter touchdown and finished with 41 carries for 156 yards. Neer had 71 yards rushing and scored on runs of four and 38 yards in the second and third quarter respectively. Neer’s second score snapped a 14-14 tie, and quarterback Angelo Gonzalez added insurance in the fourth hitting paydirt from two yards out.
Neer finished with 71 yards rushing and Simpson had 69. “We gave up some big plays early, but we settled down and made some good adjustments,” Dayton said. “All of our backs ran it well.”
Oxford plays defending Section IV Class D champion Tioga this week.
Score by quarters
Can. 14 0 0 0–14
Oxfd. 6 8 6 6–26
Scoring Summary
O: Nik Hansen 1 run (run failed)
C : Dylan Bean 54 run (kick failed)
C: Freedom Boda 8 run (Bode run)
Second quarter
O: Nick Neer 4 run (Neer run)
Third quarter
O: Neer 38 run (run failed)
Fourth quarter
O: Angelo Gonzales 2 run (run failed)
Individual statistics
Rushing: (C) Dylan Bean 10-94, Freedom Boda 15-93. Oxford, Bryan Simpson 7-69, Joe Jackson 5-20, Angelo Gonzales 4-20, Nick Neer 11-71, Nik Hansen 41-156.
Passing: (C) Josh Wilcox 3-12-1-20. Oxford, Mike Gonzales 0-1-0, Trenton Lyons 0-1-0, Nick Neer, 0-1-0, Angelo Gonzales 4-9-1-76 yds.
Receiving: (C) Dylan Bean 2-12, David Crow 1-8. (O) Cameron Heggie 4-76.
Unatego 35, Bainbridge-Guilford 20
OTEGO – Bainbridge-Guilford produced one of its best offensive performances of the season Friday night, but was unable to keep pace with the Spartans’ big-play offense to fall to 0-4 on the season.
Unatego quarterback Josh Feyerabend, who is just a sophomore, had TD runs of 50 and 31 yards. Feyerabend also threw a 48-yard TD pass to Tanner Winchester to make it a 35-13 game in the third quarter.
