NV Varsity Football at Owego

The Newark Valley Cardinals Varsity football team travelled down route 38 to take on the hosting Owego Indians in a little localized rivalry.  Valley was coming off of a tough loss to Chenango Forks the previous week and were looking to avenge that loss.  Owego was celebrating it's homecoming, had the home field advantage, and this was a "Friday Night Under The Lights!" affair.  The Indians were equally stoked for the matchup.  The first half of this game was a really good one too!  Both teams scored a couple of times and both teams held the lead for a while as well.  Going into the half Owego was clinging onto a single point lead of 13-12.  This was shaping up to be a pretty good game.

Owego had demonstrated early on that they had a passing game and they weren't hesitant to use it to their advantage.  The Cardinals are loaded with pretty solid runners and with the line providing some good blocking Valley opted to stick with more of a ground and pound game.  Owego's aerial assault was surprisingly efficient on a couple of instances where sheer speed of execution was key. The ball would get snapped and the #21 at QB, Patrick Bilbrey, would just as quickly offload it to one of a couple of different receivers that he had at his disposal.  The shorter, screen type plays seemed to work best for Owego although they did strike paydirt on a couple of longer strikes.  One receiving weapon in particular was the #5 sophomore of Will Gladney.  Keep an eye on him folks - he made a couple of one handed grabs that were really (really) something else - he's a good ball player.  The Indians also had a deceptively speedy and quick back wearing jersey #40 of Stavion Canavan.  This kid looks kind of like a beefcake (stocky) - but he moves like a cheetah.  He was fun to watch and was also a contributor to the success that Owego had on the field.

On the Valley side of the ball - it was turning out to be a night of single digit assassins.  <grin>  The Cardinals captain of the ship, #5 Vinnie Darpino burned the Indians badly on a couple of terrific runs that resulted in TD's.   In special teams play #8 Christian Chase was quickly becoming "the man!" on kick off and/or punt run backs as he repeatedly put the Cardinals into good field position.  Chase also had an interception on the night.  David Crow wearing his #7 also had a big night with some solid yardage gained on a couple of really good runs.  Crow also swung the hammer that drove the very last nail into the coffin for Owego late in the game with a huge interception that sealed the deal on this one. 

I would be remiss not to mention the tandem of Dexter Hamilton and Nick Schermerhorn who both had a huge game.  Sporting the #'s 22 and 20 respectively they didn't work in to my "single digit assassins" motif.  I'll let you guys come up with a nick name for them ...  the "doomsday duo"?  :)  In any case - the Cardinals headed back home with a 33-13 win!

Valley moves onto a 4-2 record for the season now and will be continuing with the road show (?!) going out to Spencer Van Etten for yet another Friday Night Under The Lights game.

I'm hoping to have all of the keepers from this one up to the galleries by sometime this evening (Saturday, 11 Oct. '14).  I'm about half way through the batch now.. 

***** GO VALLEY!!!!!  *****