Syracuse, NY - Football is a great teacher in life. It provided many lessons in 48 minutes Saturday afternoon at the JMA Wireless Dome for the Salamanca Warriors football program.
Schuylerville out of Section II, a small town near Saratoga ripped the hearts out of the Warriors winning the NYSPHSAA Class C title 26-20 in one of the greatest high school football games played in state history.
Salamanca held a 20-7 lead late in the 3rd quarter before the Black Horses leading rusher Landen Cumm scored the first of his 3 touchdowns en route to the program's first state title.
“This is tough,” head coach Chad Bartoszek said following the game. “There’s a lot of tears in that locker room right now but I couldn’t be prouder. You have to put it in perspective, for me at least I got to be with these guys for one more game. It’s a special group that has been through a lot. This is going to sting.”
The Warriors came out swinging. Drawing first blood when Maddox Isaac hit Cory Holleran on a six-yard pass capping off Salamanca’s first drive to make it a 6-0 Warriors lead. The extra point try missed.
Schuylerville bounced back with a score of their own on the ensuing drive. Quarterback Ollie Bolduc led the Black Horses on a nine-play, 61-yard drive with Joe Headen hauling in a 13-yard touchdown reception. The kick was good and Schuylerville took a 7-6 lead into the 2nd quarter.
Salamanca mishandled the kickoff and would start their next drive from their 13. Both teams would trade uneventful drives before the Warriors caught the Black Horses sleeping. Isaac threw his second touchdown pass of the game to Zach Trietley to give Salamanca the lead, but they could not convert the two-point try, so they had to settle for a 12-7 lead heading into the half.
Salamanca received the ball to start the third quarter.
Unfortunately they were unable to take advantage of the opening drive. Xavier Peters however made a great play on the next one resulting in a 28-yard touchdown run. After receiving the handoff from Isaac, Peters ran left towards the sideline but found himself staring down a few defenders, instead of folding the tent, he reversed course, broke two tackles in the process and raced towards the endzone. Isaac delivered a key block that secured Peters path to paydirt.
Schuylerville wasn’t phased however, and their star player was ready to make the most of his opportunities. Cumm scored from six-yards out to pull the Black Horses to within a score. He then ran another touchdown from 44-yards, tying the game at 20 apiece.
Cory Holleran would then break through the Schuylerville offensive line and blocked the extra point attempt, in doing so, kicker Silas Schulte-Lindhorst, also a foreign exchange student from Germany was injured. He was tended to for over 20 minutes, early reports were that he suffered a broken leg.
Schuylerville used a backup kicker on the next kick-off and they attempted a squib kick. The ball went off the kicker’s foot and trickled right through a Salamanca player's legs and it was recovered by the Black Horses.
Nine plays later Schuylerville took a 26-20 lead when Bolduc hooked up with Cumm on a seven-yard score. It was the first time Salamanca trailed in this game.
The Warriors raced down field on their final possession and despite driving down to the Schuylerville eight-yard line, they just couldn’t punch it in before time expired.
“It was a great experience, what an atmosphere. We have a lot to be proud of, these last two years have created a bunch of memories that will last a lifetime,” Bartoszek said.
Salamanca had chances throughout, they’ll beat themselves over and over about what could have been. I won’t. Football is a lot like life, it can spoil you and it can frustrate you. It’s a hard game to play, even harder to understand. To each of the players that took the field Saturday at the JMA, all of them can say they left every ounce of football ability they had out on the field.
There isn’t a cure for the pain they are going through right now. They’ll lean on each other as they have in the past, through tougher circumstances. And the coaches will emphasize over and over that the pain they are in now is temporary, the lessons are ever lasting and will serve them well long after high school.
No matter the final score, they played like Warriors.
Photo Gallery by Emily Croisdale/WNYAthletics
That’s the beauty and heartbreak of football – you leave it all on the field, and sometimes the result doesn’t go your way. Salamanca should hold their heads high; they made their town and fans proud. Tunnel Rush is a fast-paced arcade game where players navigate through a tunnel full of colorful obstacles at high speeds.