Norwich clinches 2nd straight postseason appearance
ONEONTA – Norwich took the longest and most difficult road to a second straight postseason berth, and completed that journey Friday night in Oneonta at Lloyd Baker Field.
The Tornado (4-4) executed two scoring drives in the second half with almost flawless precision, and survived Oneonta’s last-minute attempt to pull the rug out from Norwich’s season winning 15-12.
Losers of four of five games at one point, Norwich persevered the last two weeks winning back-to-back division road games to secure second place in Class B’s Division three. Next up is this Friday’s road date at Owego in the first round of the postseason. Owego topped Johnson City Saturday to win the Class B, Division IV crown.
“We’re two wins away from being Section IV champions,” said Norwich coach John Martinson to his team as he closed his post-game comments.
Norwich – and Oneonta for that matter – had absolutely no offensive rhythm in the first half. The punters were called into duty four times apiece. Norwich had the ball on Oneonta’s side of the field on two occasions, yet a stingy ‘Jackets defense refused to budge.
Oneonta seemed to make the right offensive adjustments to start the second half driving 65 yards for the opening score of the game. Bryce Wooden shook off a would-be Norwich tackler near the line of scrimmage, and rumbled 25 yards to the end zone diving over the goal line for good measure.
Norwich, too, made the right amount off offensive tinkering, and sparked by Morgan Crawford’s 37-yard kickoff return past midfield, moved unabated for the tying score. Tyler Hoffman, Josh Favaloro, and Mackey Hotaling alternated carries, and Favaloro’s 11-yard scamper around the left end tied the contest. Nate Ashton’s straight-on extra-point boot had Norwich ahead to stay.
“We knew what was happening in the first half (on offense),” Martinson said. “They were pinching their tackle and nose tackle, and the nose tackle and backside linebacker were eating us up. We worked on (blocking) angles at halftime, and went after the two hole...we had them guessing on defense. We used the power of Hoffman at fullback up the middle, we used Mackey with the tight trap, and we used Favy outside. That’s a tough mixture to deal with.”
Norwich forced another Oneonta punt – the only one of the second half – taking over at its own 30 late in the third quarter. Norwich used nearly six minutes of time to score its first touchdown, and chewed up just over six minutes on its second. Using the same running formula as the first drive – Hoffman, Favaloro, and Hotaling – with Nick McCullough adding a pair of nice runs, Norwich cruised down the field in efficient, yet brutal fashion. Hoffman powered into the endzone from six yards, and Norwich had all the momentum.
A bit of trickery on the extra point made it a two-possession game. With Ashton lined up to kick the extra-point, holder Seth Thomsen took the snap, and immediately stood and raced toward the goal line with Ashton available as the pitch man. Thomsen did the work himself as the Oneonta defense was completely fooled. The 15-6 advantage would prove critical.
“It was just a tremendous special teams call, and I’d like to congratulate Coach (Mark) Abbott, who called it,” Martinson said. “We work on that, and we noticed that most high school teams come after the block. Having Seth and Nate back there, they’re both so athletic. We ran it, and Seth didn’t have to make the pitch. It was beautiful. It put us up two scores, and we’re lucky we did that because we might have ended up in overtime.”
Oneonta spurned its traditional offensive formation when it got the ball back with 6 1/2 minutes left in the game. Quarterback Keegan Trombley directed the attack giving the ball to Wooden out of the option, taking it himself, while also completing timely passes to receiver Anthony Delgado. On a fourth-and-20 from the 21, Trombley connected with Delgado on a 21-yard scoring pass. The missed conversion had the Yellowjackets within 15-12 with 3:33 to play.
Norwich prepared for an onside kick attempt by Oneonta, yet the ball squirted through a NHS up-man’s hands, and Oneonta recovered the ball at midfield with an opportunity to win the game.
Using the run almost exclusively, Wooden and Miguel Vega had first-down runs, and Oneonta penetrated as deep as the Norwich 27. Three incompletions in a row ended the contest, the last one knocked down by deep safety Thomsen.
Norwich could finally rest easy in a game where it’s level of emotion outweighed the intensity and focus early on. By game’s end, each were off the chart. “We didn’t have a lot of intensity and focus in the first half,” Martinson said. “Oneonta played a tremendous football game tonight, and my hat’s off to Oneonta and the coaching staff. Their kids laid everything on the line, and they’re not a typical 3-5 team. They’re very good.
“This was a rivalry game for us, and you can always throw the records on the window...I just love it. It’s a great tradition, and not a lot of schools have this.”
And for Martinson and his staff, he has his team in position it wants to be. “We’re in the playoffs, and we want to be the champions,” he said.
Hoffman led Norwich’s balanced rushing attack with 52 yards. Favaloro had 46 and Hotaling 44.
Wooden led Oneonta with 133 yards on 24 carries.
Score by quarters
NHS 0 0 7 8–15
OHS 0 0 6 6–12
Scoring Summary
Third quarter
O: Bryce Wooden 25 run (run failed)
N: Josh Favaloro 11 run (Nate Ashton kick)
Fourth quarter
N: Tyler Hoffman 6 run (Seth Thomsen run)
O: Keegan Trombley 21 pass to Anthony Delgado (pass failed)
Team Summary
N O
First downs 8 12
Rushes-yds 40-171 48-190
Passing yds 2 39
Comp-att-int 1-4-0 3-13-0
Punts-avg 4-31.0 5-34.0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-0
Penalties-yds 6-35 6-50
Individual Statistics
Rushing: (N) Tyler Hoffman, 11-52; Josh Favaloro, 11-46; Mackay Hotaling, 9-44; Seth Thomsen, 5-19; Nick McCullough, 3-10, Morgan Cleveland, 1-0. (O) Bryce Wooden, 2-133; Miguel Vega, 5-27; Taharen Williams, 2-15; Keegan Trombley, 7-7; Nick Giovagnoli, 3-6; Logan Pondolfini, 5-4; Jacob Mykytyn, 2-(-1).
Passing: (N) Seth Thomsen, 1-3-0, 2 yds; Mackay Hotaling, 0-1-0, 0 yds. (O) Keegan Trombley, 3-13-0, 39 yds, TD.
Receiving: (N) Favaloro, 1-2, (O) Anthony Delgado, 2-38, Miguel Vega, 1-1.
The Tornado (4-4) executed two scoring drives in the second half with almost flawless precision, and survived Oneonta’s last-minute attempt to pull the rug out from Norwich’s season winning 15-12.
Losers of four of five games at one point, Norwich persevered the last two weeks winning back-to-back division road games to secure second place in Class B’s Division three. Next up is this Friday’s road date at Owego in the first round of the postseason. Owego topped Johnson City Saturday to win the Class B, Division IV crown.
“We’re two wins away from being Section IV champions,” said Norwich coach John Martinson to his team as he closed his post-game comments.
Norwich – and Oneonta for that matter – had absolutely no offensive rhythm in the first half. The punters were called into duty four times apiece. Norwich had the ball on Oneonta’s side of the field on two occasions, yet a stingy ‘Jackets defense refused to budge.
Oneonta seemed to make the right offensive adjustments to start the second half driving 65 yards for the opening score of the game. Bryce Wooden shook off a would-be Norwich tackler near the line of scrimmage, and rumbled 25 yards to the end zone diving over the goal line for good measure.
Norwich, too, made the right amount off offensive tinkering, and sparked by Morgan Crawford’s 37-yard kickoff return past midfield, moved unabated for the tying score. Tyler Hoffman, Josh Favaloro, and Mackey Hotaling alternated carries, and Favaloro’s 11-yard scamper around the left end tied the contest. Nate Ashton’s straight-on extra-point boot had Norwich ahead to stay.
“We knew what was happening in the first half (on offense),” Martinson said. “They were pinching their tackle and nose tackle, and the nose tackle and backside linebacker were eating us up. We worked on (blocking) angles at halftime, and went after the two hole...we had them guessing on defense. We used the power of Hoffman at fullback up the middle, we used Mackey with the tight trap, and we used Favy outside. That’s a tough mixture to deal with.”
Norwich forced another Oneonta punt – the only one of the second half – taking over at its own 30 late in the third quarter. Norwich used nearly six minutes of time to score its first touchdown, and chewed up just over six minutes on its second. Using the same running formula as the first drive – Hoffman, Favaloro, and Hotaling – with Nick McCullough adding a pair of nice runs, Norwich cruised down the field in efficient, yet brutal fashion. Hoffman powered into the endzone from six yards, and Norwich had all the momentum.
A bit of trickery on the extra point made it a two-possession game. With Ashton lined up to kick the extra-point, holder Seth Thomsen took the snap, and immediately stood and raced toward the goal line with Ashton available as the pitch man. Thomsen did the work himself as the Oneonta defense was completely fooled. The 15-6 advantage would prove critical.
“It was just a tremendous special teams call, and I’d like to congratulate Coach (Mark) Abbott, who called it,” Martinson said. “We work on that, and we noticed that most high school teams come after the block. Having Seth and Nate back there, they’re both so athletic. We ran it, and Seth didn’t have to make the pitch. It was beautiful. It put us up two scores, and we’re lucky we did that because we might have ended up in overtime.”
Oneonta spurned its traditional offensive formation when it got the ball back with 6 1/2 minutes left in the game. Quarterback Keegan Trombley directed the attack giving the ball to Wooden out of the option, taking it himself, while also completing timely passes to receiver Anthony Delgado. On a fourth-and-20 from the 21, Trombley connected with Delgado on a 21-yard scoring pass. The missed conversion had the Yellowjackets within 15-12 with 3:33 to play.
Norwich prepared for an onside kick attempt by Oneonta, yet the ball squirted through a NHS up-man’s hands, and Oneonta recovered the ball at midfield with an opportunity to win the game.
Using the run almost exclusively, Wooden and Miguel Vega had first-down runs, and Oneonta penetrated as deep as the Norwich 27. Three incompletions in a row ended the contest, the last one knocked down by deep safety Thomsen.
Norwich could finally rest easy in a game where it’s level of emotion outweighed the intensity and focus early on. By game’s end, each were off the chart. “We didn’t have a lot of intensity and focus in the first half,” Martinson said. “Oneonta played a tremendous football game tonight, and my hat’s off to Oneonta and the coaching staff. Their kids laid everything on the line, and they’re not a typical 3-5 team. They’re very good.
“This was a rivalry game for us, and you can always throw the records on the window...I just love it. It’s a great tradition, and not a lot of schools have this.”
And for Martinson and his staff, he has his team in position it wants to be. “We’re in the playoffs, and we want to be the champions,” he said.
Hoffman led Norwich’s balanced rushing attack with 52 yards. Favaloro had 46 and Hotaling 44.
Wooden led Oneonta with 133 yards on 24 carries.
Score by quarters
NHS 0 0 7 8–15
OHS 0 0 6 6–12
Scoring Summary
Third quarter
O: Bryce Wooden 25 run (run failed)
N: Josh Favaloro 11 run (Nate Ashton kick)
Fourth quarter
N: Tyler Hoffman 6 run (Seth Thomsen run)
O: Keegan Trombley 21 pass to Anthony Delgado (pass failed)
Team Summary
N O
First downs 8 12
Rushes-yds 40-171 48-190
Passing yds 2 39
Comp-att-int 1-4-0 3-13-0
Punts-avg 4-31.0 5-34.0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-0
Penalties-yds 6-35 6-50
Individual Statistics
Rushing: (N) Tyler Hoffman, 11-52; Josh Favaloro, 11-46; Mackay Hotaling, 9-44; Seth Thomsen, 5-19; Nick McCullough, 3-10, Morgan Cleveland, 1-0. (O) Bryce Wooden, 2-133; Miguel Vega, 5-27; Taharen Williams, 2-15; Keegan Trombley, 7-7; Nick Giovagnoli, 3-6; Logan Pondolfini, 5-4; Jacob Mykytyn, 2-(-1).
Passing: (N) Seth Thomsen, 1-3-0, 2 yds; Mackay Hotaling, 0-1-0, 0 yds. (O) Keegan Trombley, 3-13-0, 39 yds, TD.
Receiving: (N) Favaloro, 1-2, (O) Anthony Delgado, 2-38, Miguel Vega, 1-1.
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