BINGHAMTON – Scoring in the fourth quarter only, Harpursville-Afton ends their season with a 6-3 record, losing to the three seed Tioga Tigers Saturday afternoon.
Hornets stand-out running back scored on a three yard run late in the fourth to avoid the 35 point shut-out sset up by the Tigers. Wilson tacked on the two-point conversion, punching it on the run.
Wilson finished the afternoon with 20 carries for 115 yards.
Harpursville-Afton added on the final touchdown in the contest when the Hornets blocked Tioga’s punt and Brock Weist fell on it in the end-zone. This time, the two-point converstion failed, giving the Hornets the last 14 points of the game.
Tioga kicked off their scoring when they ate up the first seven minutes of the clock with a 82 yard drive that ended with Trey Floyd catching an eight yard pass from the Tigers quarterback Connor Hutchinson. Tanner Hollenbeck came on for the extra-point field goal attempt and sent it through the uprights, giving his team an early 7-0 lead.
The Hornets were knocking on the door, attempting to answer when they drove down the field for 53 yards. Going for it from the Tigers five yardline on fourth-and-goal, Wilson’s number was called. But Max Johnson of Tioga refused to give up the score, tackling Wilson at the two.
After forcing Tioga to punt on a three-and-out drive, Harpursville-Afton took over to begin its second possession of the game. The Tigers defense caused all plays to have negative yards, included Floyd sacking the Hornets quarterback Greg Akulis for a loss of nine yards.
Harpursville-Afton came out to punt the ball away but Hutchinson blocked the punt and Scott Siberski recovered the ball at the Hornets 16, creating prime field position for the Tigers to punch in another score. Floyd scored his second of the day from one yard out and Hollenbeck tacked on the extra point, allowing Tioga to take a 14-0 lead in the second quarter.
Hutchinson and Floyd connected for another score with 13.4 seconds left in the half but not before a fake punt on fourth-and-six that picked up 21 yards and the first down.
Coming out of the half, Harpursville-Afton started with the ball after deferring the coin toss to start, but couldn’t get anything started and punting the ball to Tioga after another three-and-out.
The Hornets defense forced a turnover on downs after Hutchinson’s fourth-and-nine pass that was intended for John Worthing fell incomplete. Harpursville-Afton carried momentum of the stop into their next drive when Akulis connected with Hunter Sakowsky for 36 yards.