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| Whoo hoo! It's Football Season!! | Click the photo to view it larger |
... and the HS Football season is underway!! Valley's Varsity Squad hosted cross county rival Tioga today at the Birdcage and ... lost. Had the game ended at halftime ... the Cardinals would have won - but as everyone knows games don't end at the half.
Valley lost the coin toss but got first crack at offense as Tioga opted to defer its winning possession till after the half. This would prove to be a premonition in hindsight - but back to present tense. Valley senior, team captain and QB, Vinnie Darpino wasted zero time with the opportunity and immediately electrified a well attended home opener and got everyone in the house cheering when he zigged and zagged his way through Tioga's D on the very first play of the game and grabbed a real quick 6 points. The PAT was no go -- with less than a minute into this one the Cardinals were up 6-0.
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| Valley's Darpino got loose on the opening play and put Valley up on the board early | Click the photo to view it larger |
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| The home side of the crowd was stoked with the early score | Click the photo to view it larger |
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I'm rusty having not followed any football to this point in the year -- I'll have to get back into practice of keeping track of the game so from here on out .. pretty much just synopsis and opinion. )
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| Tioga Tigers Jesse Manuel runs the ball during the Tigers victory over hosting Newark Valley | Click the photo to view it larger |
Tioga really hurt themselves pretty badly on their opening possession with nervous twitches on the line that kept drawing false start flags ... they literally went backwards by about 25 - maybe even 30 yards. Ouch. Mistakes and inconsistent play would hamper the Tigers throughout the half and the hosting Cardinals would capitalize on this. Early in the 2nd quarter Tioga ( I'm thinking the #7 of Jesse Manuel ) found the end zone and tied it up 6 all. The PAT was no go. Headed into the half and with time running down on the clock, Valley was driving and senior Blake Novi wound up with the ball. I don't think he got in - I think he came up just a yard or so short (?) - but anyway - Valley did score one more time taking it to a 12-6 lead going into the half. PAT was no go - this was not a day for field goal kickers ...
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| Valley senior Blake Novi dives for the end zone in a scoring drive for Valley | Click the photo to view it larger |
... until the start of the 2nd half. As mentioned earlier - Tioga won the coin toss but deferred on the opening possession until the 2nd half. Less than 2 minutes into the 3rd they scored paydirt AND did convert on the PAT. Tioga went up 13-12 and would never look back. Tioga's game really opened up in the 2nd half of this one and they simply out played the hosting Cardinals. They demonstrated a depth at running backs with a burly senior #3 Brad Jump, and the aforementioned #7 of Manuel. Thier O line created lanes that these two exploited on a number of times. The tigers QB, senior #2 Sam Burn - well - he burned the Cardinals on a few plays as well.
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| Tioga senior and QB, Sam Burn and the rest of the Tiger's team really came to life and played well in the 2nd half | Click the photo to view it larger |
This was a game of tides ... the Newark Valley Cardinals rode the tide in the first half, the visiting Tioga Tigers rode it for the 2nd half. They rolled too winning this one going away 25-12 in the end. Congrats to the Tigers on their season opening win in, what can be a tough place to win in, Valley's Birdcage. Hopefully NV will grow and learn from this tough loss and use the experience and knowledge gained as they stay home and host Elmira Notre Dame next week.
There is a full gallery of game day photo's available at the galleries right here.
***** GO VALLEY!!! *****
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