Football

Norwich 49, Chittenango 20

CHITTENANGO – No echoes from the past were heard at Chittenango Friday night.

The Bears defeated Norwich 21 years ago in the first year of the statewide football tournament, but have not seen the Purple Tornado since that Nov. 93 day. They may not want to dip into the Tornado waters again anytime soon.

"I think the pieces are starting to come together and people are fitting into their roles," said Norwich coach Mike Chrystie after his club's second straight win.

After stopping Norwich on its opening possession, NHS was uncontainable until the reserves and second-stringers took the field full-time.

Cole Rifanburg threw three TD passes and Mike Oralls rushed for 158 yards and a career-high four touchdowns as Norwich led 36-0 at the half with a safety thrown into the mix.

"Michael ran it very hard and he looked like a man among boys," Chrystie said. "Everyone was clicking offensively, and we also created a number of turnovers."

Cole Rifanburg hooked up with older brother Tristan Rifanburg on a 25-yard scoring pass to start the game, and added TD tosses of six and five yards to Zan Stewart.

Oralls’ TD runs covered 14, 27, 23, and two yards.

Matt Parrella had two interceptions and Everett Thompson also picked off a pass. Chittenango did not get a whiff of the end zone until late in the third quarter when the game's outcome was no longer an issue.

With two wins under its belt and a homecoming game against Chenango Valley this Friday, the Norwich fortunes are clearly looking brighter than they did two weeks ago.

"We knew we had to weather the storm the first three weeks and come out of it a better football team," Chrystie said. "We feel like we're right there and back in the race for a playoff spot."

Score by quarters

Norw. 20 16 13 0–49

Chitt. 0 0 6 14–20

Scoring Summary

First quarter

N: Cole Rifanburg 25 pass to Tristan Rifanburg (Zan Stewart kick)

N: Rifanburg 6 pass to Stewart (Stewart kick)

N: Mike Oralls 14 run (kick failed)

Second quarter

N: Oralls 27 run (Stewart kick)

N: Safety, Chittenango back tackled in endzone

N: Rifanburg 5 pass to Stewart (Stewart kick)

Third quarter

N: Oralls 23 run (kick failed)

N: Oralls 2 run (Stewart kick)

C: Michael Addison 7 run ( pass failed)

Fourth quarter

C: Addison 2 run ( Theodore-Gondeck pass to Wyatt Myers)

C: Justin Theodore-Gondeck 33 pass to Matt Millman (kick failed)

Individual Statistics

Rushing: (N) Mike Oralls, 13-158; Nick Murphy, 4-48; Cole Rifanburg, 6-17, Alec Weaver, 4-16; Tristan Rifanburg, 4-15; Randy Stokes, 5-12; Jordan Vinal, 1-4. (C) Michael Addison, 20-89; Antonio Cutrie, 5-26; Anthony Lozipone, 2-7; Daniel Brazeau, 1-4; Hunter Hendrix, 1-4; J. Theodore-Gondeck, 3-(-5); Joshua Diable, 7-(-6).

Passing: (N) Cole Rifanburg 6-9-0, 108 yds, 3 TDs; (C) J. Theodore-Gondeck, 5-20-3, 68 yds, TD.

Receiving: (N) Zan Stewart, 4-70; Tristan Rifanburg, 2-38. (C) Duncan Smith, 4-35; Matt Millman, 1-33.

Sherburne-Earlville 42, Mount Markham 25

SHERBURNE – In its final regular season home game, Sherburne-Earlville kept its hopes of a third straight postseason appearance alive rushing for over 400 yards in Friday’s win over Mount Markham.

With both clubs entering the game with one division loss apiece, the contest served as an elimination game in terms of postseason aspirations. “We have to look at every remaining game as a playoff game; we can’t afford a loss,” said S-E coach Mike Jasper.

Garrett DuVall put S-E on the board with his first scoring run of the season, and Matt Hull had TD dashes of 44 and 33 yards in the second quarter.

Still, the Mustangs hung tight. Kyle Yager busted a long run in the first quarter to set up a one-yard TD run, and Yager returned a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown after Hull’s second TD run to make it a 20-13 game at halftime.

“We made some mistakes that kind of bit us, but they really only drove it on us once in the game,” Jasper said.

Hull, Ronnie Price, and Cody Marango added scoring runs in the second half. Hull finished with 146 yards rushing, Brodie Roebuck had 96, and DuVall 72.

Mount Markham had another kickoff return for a touchdown that ended the game’s scoring. “We had an opportunity to play or dominate the game better than we did, and we kept giving them chances to stay in the game,” Jasper said.

That said, the S-E stable of skill players is making life difficult for opponents. “The offensive line is doing its job, and when you have that many people that can run it, that’s a problem for defenses,” Jasper said.

S-E (4-1) is at Frankfort-Schuyler this week.

Score by quarters

MM 0 13 6 6–25

S-E 7 13 8 14–42

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

SE: Garrett Duvall 3 run (Duvall kick).

Second quarter

MM: Kyle Yager 1 run (kick blocked).

SE: Matt Hull 44 run (Duvall kick).

SE: Matt Hull 33 run (kick failed)

MM: Kyle Yager 85 kick return (Dillon Bleaking kick).

Third quarter