SAUQUOIT — Sauquoit Valley’s Red Hawks made their defensive stand at the start of the fourth quarter and their offense extended the lead from there in a 41-20 high school football victory over West Canada Valley on Friday, Oct. 10.
The meeting of teams coming off Week 5 losses was tied at 6 after the first quarter and 14 at halftime. A successful two-point conversion was the difference in a 22-20 Sauquoit Valley lead at the end of the third quarter, but the fourth started with the West Canada Valley offense on the Red Hawks’ 8-yard line.
“We didn’t pound that one in,” West Canada Valley coach Todd Hobin said. “I think that changed the momentum.”
Tyler Dibble took the ball to start the fourth quarter and ran it to the 2. He was stopped again on third down with his elbow on the goal line. The ball was initially spotted with its nose on the red field hockey end line, which runs along the goal line, before being repositioned about a foot away.
The ball got loose in the backfield on fourth down, and the Nighthawks were stopped.
“That one would have helped,” Hobin added.
The Nighthawks (4-2, 2-1 8 South East), who had been unbeaten through four games, would not score after that. Sauquoit Valley worked its way the length of the field and scored, and the Red Hawks (4-2, 2-1 8 South East) would add two more touchdowns.
Rocco Femia’s 70-yard touchdown run extended the Sauquoit Valley lead to 28-20 and, after a fourth-down stop by his team’s defense, Femia ran 36 yards for another touchdown when he took a direct snap in a wildcat formation after quarterback Colten Larsen lost his helmet on a run and was sent to the sideline for one play.
The Red Hawks got the ball back one minute later when Levi Vaber intercepted a pass, and Patrick Jones raced 70 yards for a touchdown on the next play.
“When you get a turnover, a takeaway, you want to capitalize,” Sauquoit Valley coach Drake Carnot said.
Sauquoit Valley scored first midway through the first quarter, and West Canada Valley tied the game with a Samuel Stewart-to-Owen Baslow touchdown pass in the last minute of the opening period.
The Nighthawks went up 14-6 on a 10-yard Dibble touchdown run and Baslow’s conversion run. Larsen countered with a 1-yard touchdown, and Femia ran in the conversion to tie the score with 35 seconds left in the first half.
“When it was 14-14 at halftime, we told the kids it was going to be a four-quarter fight,” Carnot said. “It was still that way after the first drive of the third quarter, then we scored and we looked ready to roll.
West Canada Valley went up 20-14 on 37-yard touchdown run by Baslow on the opening drive of the second half. Femia ran three yards on a sweep to the right side to tie the score, then cut inside to the right on his two-point run that gave the Red Hawks a two-point lead late in the third quarter.
West Canada Valley, which was beaten 26-14 by Cooperstown one week ago, had last lost back-to-back games during the 2018 season. The Nighthawks played without four injured starters Friday and dressed just 14 players, two more than the minimum required for eight-player competition.
“We’re very banged up,” Hobin acknowledged. “With four starters on the sideline, everybody has to contribute.”
West Canada Valley returns home for an Oct. 17 game against 5-1 Waterville, a 26-19 winner Friday over Cooperstown. Sauquoit Valley plays at New York Mills on Oct. 18.
Elsewhere Friday:
This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Goal line stand sparks Sauquoit Valley win, and other area high school football scores
Reporting by Jon Rathbun, Herkimer Times Telegram / Times Telegram
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
