Waverly batters Greene, 39-0
BINGHAMTON – For the Greene Trojans, a first sectional football championship will have to wait at least another year.
Waverly conceived and executed a perfect offensive a defensive game plan, one that led to perhaps a more exaggerated final outcome than one would imagine.
Facing the unbeaten and state-ranked Trojans, Waverly captured the program’s second-ever sectional title blowing out Greene, 39-0, Saturday at Binghamton Alumni Stadium.
Quarterback Zach Cooney had first-half touchdown passes of 66 and 87 yards to speedy wideout Ryan Hewitt, and the Waverly defense posted its seventh shutout of the season allowing a Trojans team, hitherto averaging 32 points a game, to just 131 yards of total offense, and nary a sniff at the goal line.
“We had a big play early, and I think when you get a team down a little bit that hasn’t had much go wrong for it this year, it plants a seed of doubt,” said Waverly coach Jason Miller. “Then you have something else go good. It’s something that spiraled out of control for them.”
The Trojans seemed to have their defense well prepared for Waverly at the start forcing a punt after a three-and-out on the initial series of the game. After punting the ball back to the Wolverines, Cooney and Hewitt then struck gold. On a long aerial down the left sideline, Hewitt outran his defender and under Cooney’s looping pass for the 66-yard score with 7:04 left in the opening quarter.
Cooney connected with two long first down passes to Jeff Mastrantuono on the next drive to pave the way for a Dylan Gutierrez seven-yard scamper upping the lead to 12-0 with just over two minutes left in the opening stanza.
“They had a good game plan and their football team did a nice job with their skill position players,” said Greene coach Tim Paske. “They took it to us early, and we had some mental breakdowns. That hurt, and it’s tough to overcome those when you’re playing a good football team.”
Greene drove for two first downs on its second possession of the game, but on a fourth-and-eight near midfield, it tried a little trickery to extend the drive. Jeff Carlin took the short snap out of a punt formation, and ran off left guard for seven yards, just shy of the first-down marker. From there, Cooney led his team down the field for a second TD.
Cooney’s second long TD pass to Hewitt was perhaps the most devastating to Greene’s collective psyche. Taking over at the 23, a penalty moved the Wolverines back 10 yards. On the next play, Cooney found Hewitt, again on a similar pass to the first touchdown. This time, Hewitt was 10 yards clear of his defender when he ran under the ball. Hewitt easily won a foot race to the goal line, and a two-point conversion toss to Hewitt raised the edge to 20 points.
An interception by Waverly’s John DuVall with 57 seconds left in the first half nearly led to a fourth score. Cooney just overthrew a diving Mastrantuono in the endzone as time ticked off to end the half.
Cooney, who threw for 253 yards on 8-for-19 passing, had 218 of those yards in the first half, 175 to Hewitt. “We knew if we were going to beat them today, it was going to be through the air,” Miller said. “It was a great performance, but our 39 points overshadows the other side of the board, that zero. Really, that’s what it’s been for us this year.”
Waverly ran the ball just nine times in the first half, but shifted to more of a ground-based attack in the second. It kept the clock moving, and the defense continued to stymie the Trojans.
One Trojans drive stalled at its own 16 yard line. On the punt snap, Greene kicker Isaiah Webb had to bend low to scoop up the ball. As he gathered the ball, Webb accidentally took a knee at his team’s four-yard line.
Situated just 12 feet from a fourth touchdown, the Wolverines wasted no time with this golden opportunity, and Gutierrez swept left on the next play for his second TD of the game.
With the game already well in hand for Waverly, the score continued to snowball against Greene. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Waverly’s Jon Puusalo stepped in front of a Joe Beckwith pass, and ran it back 37 yards for a touchdown. Following a Greene punt, Waverly drove 55 yards for its last touchdown, all on running plays. Nick Puusalu ran 28 yards on an option pitch to kickstart the drive. Reserve running back Anthony Girolamo polished off the possession running it in from two yards out.
Waverly finished with 388 yards of total offense, and will meet Herkimer in the state quarterfinals next week. Greene (9-1) now has two losses the sectional finals over the last four years. Paske said that he hopes that the third time will be the charm.
“When you start the playoffs, only one team will feel good at the end of the tournament,” Paske said. “We hopefully wanted to be that one...I’m extremely proud of this group of seniors, and look at where they elevated our program. We won a division title again, and they took us to the cusp of a section title.”
Score by quarters
Wav. 12 8 6 13–39
Gre. 0 0 0 0–0
Scoring Sumary
First quarter
W: Zach Cooney 66 pass to Ryan Hewitt (kick blocked), 7:04
W: Dylan Gutierrez 7 run (pass failed), 2:02
Second quarter
W: Cooney 87 pass to Hewitt (Cooney pass to Hewitt), 5:53.
Third quarter
W: Gutierrez 4 run (kick blocked), 3:29
Fourth quarter
W: Jon Puusalu 37 interception return (kick failed), 11:41
W: Anthony Girolamo 2 run (Jeff Mastrantuono kick), 7:07
Team Summary
G W
First downs 9 12
Rushes-yds 46-96 30-135
Passing yds 35 253
Comp-att-int 3-14-2 8-19-1
Punts-avg 4-34.5 2-25.5
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties-yds 7-55 5-35
Individual Statistics
Rushing: (G) Keegan Cerwinski, 17-63; Jeff Carlin, 13-22; Trevor Parrish, 3-15; Mike Beckwith, 4-11; Joe Beckwith, 4-1; Dan Dickman, 4-(-4), Isaiah Webb, 1-(-12). (W) Nick Puusalu, 5-53; Dylan Gutierrez, 7-33; Zach Cooney, 5-15; Kyle Kuzma, 2-14; Mark Connor, 4-7; Trevor Nocchi, 4-7; Anthony Girolamo, 2-6.
Passing: (G) Joe Beckwith, 3-10-1, 35 yds; Brett Ramsey, 0-3-0, 0 yds, Jeff Carlin, 0-1-1, 0 yds. (W) Zach Cooney, 8-19-1, 253 yds, 2 TDs.
Receiving: (G) Jeremy Flohr, 1-29; Brett Ramsey, 1-3; Cole Browning, 1-3. (W) Ryan Hewitt, 4-175; Jeff Mastrantuono, 3-63; Austyn Bostwick, 1-15.
Waverly conceived and executed a perfect offensive a defensive game plan, one that led to perhaps a more exaggerated final outcome than one would imagine.
Facing the unbeaten and state-ranked Trojans, Waverly captured the program’s second-ever sectional title blowing out Greene, 39-0, Saturday at Binghamton Alumni Stadium.
Quarterback Zach Cooney had first-half touchdown passes of 66 and 87 yards to speedy wideout Ryan Hewitt, and the Waverly defense posted its seventh shutout of the season allowing a Trojans team, hitherto averaging 32 points a game, to just 131 yards of total offense, and nary a sniff at the goal line.
“We had a big play early, and I think when you get a team down a little bit that hasn’t had much go wrong for it this year, it plants a seed of doubt,” said Waverly coach Jason Miller. “Then you have something else go good. It’s something that spiraled out of control for them.”
The Trojans seemed to have their defense well prepared for Waverly at the start forcing a punt after a three-and-out on the initial series of the game. After punting the ball back to the Wolverines, Cooney and Hewitt then struck gold. On a long aerial down the left sideline, Hewitt outran his defender and under Cooney’s looping pass for the 66-yard score with 7:04 left in the opening quarter.
Cooney connected with two long first down passes to Jeff Mastrantuono on the next drive to pave the way for a Dylan Gutierrez seven-yard scamper upping the lead to 12-0 with just over two minutes left in the opening stanza.
“They had a good game plan and their football team did a nice job with their skill position players,” said Greene coach Tim Paske. “They took it to us early, and we had some mental breakdowns. That hurt, and it’s tough to overcome those when you’re playing a good football team.”
Greene drove for two first downs on its second possession of the game, but on a fourth-and-eight near midfield, it tried a little trickery to extend the drive. Jeff Carlin took the short snap out of a punt formation, and ran off left guard for seven yards, just shy of the first-down marker. From there, Cooney led his team down the field for a second TD.
Cooney’s second long TD pass to Hewitt was perhaps the most devastating to Greene’s collective psyche. Taking over at the 23, a penalty moved the Wolverines back 10 yards. On the next play, Cooney found Hewitt, again on a similar pass to the first touchdown. This time, Hewitt was 10 yards clear of his defender when he ran under the ball. Hewitt easily won a foot race to the goal line, and a two-point conversion toss to Hewitt raised the edge to 20 points.
An interception by Waverly’s John DuVall with 57 seconds left in the first half nearly led to a fourth score. Cooney just overthrew a diving Mastrantuono in the endzone as time ticked off to end the half.
Cooney, who threw for 253 yards on 8-for-19 passing, had 218 of those yards in the first half, 175 to Hewitt. “We knew if we were going to beat them today, it was going to be through the air,” Miller said. “It was a great performance, but our 39 points overshadows the other side of the board, that zero. Really, that’s what it’s been for us this year.”
Waverly ran the ball just nine times in the first half, but shifted to more of a ground-based attack in the second. It kept the clock moving, and the defense continued to stymie the Trojans.
One Trojans drive stalled at its own 16 yard line. On the punt snap, Greene kicker Isaiah Webb had to bend low to scoop up the ball. As he gathered the ball, Webb accidentally took a knee at his team’s four-yard line.
Situated just 12 feet from a fourth touchdown, the Wolverines wasted no time with this golden opportunity, and Gutierrez swept left on the next play for his second TD of the game.
With the game already well in hand for Waverly, the score continued to snowball against Greene. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Waverly’s Jon Puusalo stepped in front of a Joe Beckwith pass, and ran it back 37 yards for a touchdown. Following a Greene punt, Waverly drove 55 yards for its last touchdown, all on running plays. Nick Puusalu ran 28 yards on an option pitch to kickstart the drive. Reserve running back Anthony Girolamo polished off the possession running it in from two yards out.
Waverly finished with 388 yards of total offense, and will meet Herkimer in the state quarterfinals next week. Greene (9-1) now has two losses the sectional finals over the last four years. Paske said that he hopes that the third time will be the charm.
“When you start the playoffs, only one team will feel good at the end of the tournament,” Paske said. “We hopefully wanted to be that one...I’m extremely proud of this group of seniors, and look at where they elevated our program. We won a division title again, and they took us to the cusp of a section title.”
Score by quarters
Wav. 12 8 6 13–39
Gre. 0 0 0 0–0
Scoring Sumary
First quarter
W: Zach Cooney 66 pass to Ryan Hewitt (kick blocked), 7:04
W: Dylan Gutierrez 7 run (pass failed), 2:02
Second quarter
W: Cooney 87 pass to Hewitt (Cooney pass to Hewitt), 5:53.
Third quarter
W: Gutierrez 4 run (kick blocked), 3:29
Fourth quarter
W: Jon Puusalu 37 interception return (kick failed), 11:41
W: Anthony Girolamo 2 run (Jeff Mastrantuono kick), 7:07
Team Summary
G W
First downs 9 12
Rushes-yds 46-96 30-135
Passing yds 35 253
Comp-att-int 3-14-2 8-19-1
Punts-avg 4-34.5 2-25.5
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties-yds 7-55 5-35
Individual Statistics
Rushing: (G) Keegan Cerwinski, 17-63; Jeff Carlin, 13-22; Trevor Parrish, 3-15; Mike Beckwith, 4-11; Joe Beckwith, 4-1; Dan Dickman, 4-(-4), Isaiah Webb, 1-(-12). (W) Nick Puusalu, 5-53; Dylan Gutierrez, 7-33; Zach Cooney, 5-15; Kyle Kuzma, 2-14; Mark Connor, 4-7; Trevor Nocchi, 4-7; Anthony Girolamo, 2-6.
Passing: (G) Joe Beckwith, 3-10-1, 35 yds; Brett Ramsey, 0-3-0, 0 yds, Jeff Carlin, 0-1-1, 0 yds. (W) Zach Cooney, 8-19-1, 253 yds, 2 TDs.
Receiving: (G) Jeremy Flohr, 1-29; Brett Ramsey, 1-3; Cole Browning, 1-3. (W) Ryan Hewitt, 4-175; Jeff Mastrantuono, 3-63; Austyn Bostwick, 1-15.
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