Archive: Sports

#1 Greg LeeIf you were not at Sobus field this past Friday, you missed one of the most exciting, best played, high school football games so far this year.  Two teams that have been battling each other for years, supported strongly by each of their communities, met for what can only be described as combat.
 
The Watkins Glen Senecas came into Lansing tied with Waverly at the two spot in Division V, with an overall record of five wins and one loss and a division record of two wins and one loss.  If they beat Lansing, they would continue on to the post season, sealing a second place ranking and if Waverly was defeated by Dryden the Senecas earn a spot at the top as division V champions.  If they lose, their season is over and they go home.

The Lansing Bobcats take the field with an overall record of five and one and a division record of three and zero.  They sit alone in first place of Division V.  The Cats were in a similar situation as the Senecas.  If they lose they are done and their season is complete.  If they beat Watkins Glen they are the division champions.

Several hundred fans from both communities take their places to cheer on their teams.  The officials were on the field going over their pregame discussions and setting up the volunteer chain crew.  Lansing’s big man, Center and Nose Guard, #71 Pat Judd steps into the announcer’s booth and as everyone removes their hats and helmets he belts out The Star Spangled Banner.  Upon finishing, he rumbled down the bleachers to take the field and help his team to a win.

Watkins Glen’s Jordan Shea lays down a squib kick that bounces down the field toward the sideline and out of bounds.  It seems as if the Senecas’ coaches are fearful of giving Lansing’s kick returners, Tim Kelley and Greg Lee, a chance at breaking through their Special teams unit.  The ball is spotted at the thirty five yard line and Lansing starts their drive.  Judd snaps the ball to Max Jordan who drops back to pass.  Watkins Glen’s defense can be heard yelling “pass” and then “ball” as Jordan launches the ball in the direction of Lansing’s tight end, Logan Osterman.  Keith Rekczis leaps in front of Osterman and snags the ball out of the air.

With the ball at Lansing’s thirty six yard line, the Senecas start their first drive.  Running back Jon Brown starts with a twelve yard gain and a first down, bulling his way through Lansing’s line.  Brown and Rekczis pound the ball down the field looking unstoppable and making quick work of the entire Lansing defense.  Rekczis punches the ball into the end zone and Brown repeats the play for a two point conversion and the first score of the game.

Another grounded kick goes out of bounds, seemingly still skittish of Kelley and Lee.  Jordan and the offense go to work with a short gain from Brandon Davis, a loss of one yard by Kelley and a loss of two additional yards by Jordan causes Lansing to punt the ball away, three and out.  Watkins Glen takes a journey from their twelve yard line to their goal in seven plays.  Punched in again by Rekczis increasing their lead to sixteen to zero.  The Lansing fans are deflated but, the team still hold their heads high.

Watkins kicked off again but this time the ball stays in bounds and is returned to the thirty five yard line by Owen Davis.   Judd snaps the ball to Jordan with three backs behind him.  Kelley takes the handoff and falls in line behind the lead blocking of Lee and Brandon Davis.  Logan 'Toll' Boothe opens up the lane to the East, Logan Osterman widens it to the West, Lee blocks to the left, B. Davis blocks two of the Senecas to the right, Tony Paige keeps his counterpart from advancing and Braydon Jackson and Kyle Arrison stay on their blocks.  When the machine runs well, it pays off and Kelley runs down hill untouched by a Watkins player, sixty five yards for the TD.  The boys from the Glen stop Kelley on the two point conversion.  That's okay because Lansing is now on the board.

Jordan booms a 54 yard kick off and the boys in blue are back on defense.  The Senecas put together a fourteen play drive that ends in a five yard touchdown run from Brown, taking the game into the second quarter and putting the score at 24 - 6 in their favor.  This is more points than any of the other teams in division V have scored on the cats combined.


With an eighteen point lead, Coach Condon releases his kicker and allows him to put his foot into it instead of a squib kick.  The forty two yard kick off was good except that it landed in the arms of Kelley at the eighteen yard line.  Kelley runs from the West side of Sobus field to the East side, lays a spin move on #74 that leaves him wondering which way is up and then crosses back near the opponents sideline.  With great blocks from his teammates, the slippery halfback then shifts gears and pulls away and up the sideline, returning the kickoff for an eighty two yard TD.  Again the Senecas' stout defense denies the two point conversion run.  Even though the score is 24 -12, the momentum is shifting and both teams feel it.

During the entire first quarter the Davis boys and a few other members of the Lansing defense were conversing with Coach Boothe letting him know what was happening on the field and offering up suggestions of how to stop the tandem running of Brown and Rekczis.  Many coaches don't take the time or simply may not trust their young players well enough to listen to them.   Coach Boothe wisely listens and together they tweak their plan into one that might work.  With as many as ten men in the box Lansing slows them down and Watkins Glen goes three and out with their first punt of the game.


The Cats start their drive from the ten yard line with a one yard loss.  The team in white did not like to punt and would try to make the boys in blue pay.  Judd and Jordan make the transaction with the ball.  Jordan fakes the handoff to B. Davis and then drops back.  He looks deep to Logan Osterman which pulls the linebackers and safety to the left.  The QB then turns to his left and fires the ball to Kelley who drafts behind Jackson for a gain of ten and a first down.  By this time the away team is keying in hard on Kelly, trying to find a way to stop or at least slow him down.  Coach Butler senses this, throws Owen Davis into action as the halfback and he gains 11 yards thanks to a sweet block from his brother, Thing One.

With a successful run, Jordan pitches the ball to Owen Davis again and the white jerseys' swarm # 28, no, wait, it's a fake.  Jordan keeps it and blasts up the middle.  He's at the forty, he crosses midfield, the other forty, now the thirty, he stiff arms his pursuer but is brought down by Brown, fifteen hash marks from his goal.  Lee now takes a turn at running the ball and gains eleven yards on a reverse play.  Two plays later, Kelley enters his home, the end zone, for his third TD of the game.  Jordan rolled to his right and tossed the ball to Lee who was waiting, wide open, in the North East corner of the end zone for the two point conversion.  The gap is all but gone and the boys from down south are getting worried, but are not giving up.

Countering Boothe's adjustments, The Watkins Glen coaches go to the air to try and spread the Lansing defense back out.  Rekczis attempts a pass and then so does Justin Kelly.  Both are way overthrown and hit the ground.  Their third attempt was a little underthrown and hit Brandon Davis for an interception thirty four yards from Kelley's second home.  A couple of Watkins Glen penalties and a few nice runs brought Kelley back to where he feels happy and safe.  He scores his fourth TD on a nine yard run and puts the Bobcats on top for the first time in the game.


With touchdowns being scored like punches thrown in a boxing match, Lansing just landed three stiff jabs to the nose of Watkins Glen.  A little battered and bruised but not down for the count, the Senecas bobbed, weaved, and then threw an uppercut of their own pushing the Cats back and scoring another TD off of an eleven yard run by the elusive Brown.  With twenty one seconds left on the clock they attempt and succeed an onside kick.  With the score at 27-32, Watkins up by five, the clock drains and both teams take a break and regroup.

It is Senior night for the Bobcats but the players knew how important this game was and when asked by Coach Winslow when they would like to celebrate, they all decided to hold off on the ceremony until after the game, "after the win", one of the players stated.  So instead of celebrating their seniors, the fans mobbed the concession stand to recharge with hotdogs, nachos, and popcorn.  The coaches and players planned their next moves and countermoves.


The Boys in blue pounced back onto the field and as they circled to warm up, a few of the visiting fans decided to feed the animals with 'Boos' and tried to distract them by shouting numbers as the Cats counted and stretched.  Not only was this poor sportsmanship but, they must not have known that taunting a Bobcat achieves the same result as poking a bear.

Lansing kicked the ball off to start the second half.  The Senecas push hard but the home team dug in and stopped them six marks short of the first down.  To start their first drive of the second half, Jordan receives the ball from Judd, he fakes to B. Davis, Lee splits out to the right and Kelley splits out to the left.  This parts the defense like Moses and the Red sea.  Jordan looks deep and connects with Osterman who brings the ball in, turns, and runs.  He jukes the shifty Brown and outruns another.  He's at the 40, the 30, and is finally hauled to the ground by Ryan Pruitt at the fourteen yard line.  A short run by Kelley and another keeper by Jordan put the Cats back in the lead.  The two point conversion run failed but blue is up by one, 33-32.

The coaches have Brown run the ball off tackle seven times in a row with some success.  As much as he tries to carry his team and the ball, he ends up turning it over on downs.  Both teams are about spent from being on the ropes and battling hard.  No yard was has been easily gained this night.  The Cats and Senecas exchange three and outs, neither defense allowing more than five yards.  Jordan and his crew in blue get the ball back and start a good drive on the legs of Kelley.  After a penalty and an incomplete pass, they get brought to a halt at the fifty.

Fourth and eleven, the punt team takes the field.  Kelley is back to punt and Jordan in the back field to block.  Judd snaps directly to Jordan who rolls to his right and puts the ball up near Osterman.  He bobbles it then pulls it in with a defender draped over his back.  Fourteen yards a first down and the end of the third quarter, the crowd goes wild.  Thirty six yards was quickly eaten up in two runs by the swift feet of Kelley.  A thirty one yard run earned him his fifth touchdown of the night and a PAT kick by Jordan put the Cats up by eight.

After a short kick off by Jordan, the Senecas go to work putting up a drive with four different running backs and pushing the ball down the field into the goal for their fifth TD.  They attempt the two point conversion to tie the game at forty all.  The Cats dig in their claws and stop the tribe short.  With just under seven minutes left, the Blue crew starts to poke holes in the bucket of a clock, hoping to drain out the seconds at a faster rate.  Kelley runs it once for no gain, then again for eighteen and a first down.  Jordan runs the fake hand-off keeper up the middle and is hit hard.  He coughs up the ball and it's recovered by a Senecas player.  They start near midfield and down by only two.


A field goal would put them ahead.  At this point Coach Strait runs down the sideline with his back to the field yelling and waving like a madman at the fans in the stands to make some noise.  The stands erupt with everyone on their feet, stomping and screaming.  An uncontrollable, contagious attack of excitement spreads throughout the hillside and was deafening.  The twelfth man on the field helped the Bobcats stop the eleven boys from the Glen short of the first down.
Lansing took over on their thirty nine yard line and gave it to their man with the wheels.  Three drives averaging twenty yards carried Kelley into the end zone for number six of the night.  With the clock at just under two minutes, Jordan's PAT kick all but sealed the win for the Cats.

Watkins Glen had to go to the air with the ball.  After only three completions on seven pass attempts they turned the ball, the win, and the sole spot on top of division V over to the Lansing Bobcats.  As high as he was soaring, Jordan found a way to take a knee.  Knowing that tonight, they were the champions, the team respectfully went down the fifty yard line to shake hands and say great game, meaning every word of it.  The final score was 47 – 38, Lansing.

The team celebrated the win and Senior night in an elegant post game ceremony.  Many of the fans stayed and watched.  They also talked about the game and how exciting and breathtaking some of the moments were.  Lansing Football has not held the title of division champions for over seven years.  They now continue their quest to reach the next goal, Section IV Champions.


The Bobcats play again this Saturday, November 1st at Binghamton Alumni field.  Kick off against Newark Valley is scheduled for 3:00 pm.

There were four key factors to this game.  The first, the communication between the players and coaches.  The second, a supportive fan base cheering the team on.  The third was the way that every player on the Bobcat's team worked together and did their job, whether it be pushing the starting offense by running the scout defense, making a good block or just making sure there is water.  The forth, and most important, the tenacity of this team to not give up when all looks lost.  Down by eighteen points, they still maintained the belief that was instilled into them by their coaches.  They could overcome anything, play bigger than they are, and be victorious.

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