CHENANGO FORKS – The host and top-seeded Chenango Forks Blue Devils’ earned the early advantage over the Norwich defense. Unlike the first meeting this season, the Purple Tornado were unable to answer the Forks offense and saw the 2019 season come to a close Friday night at the Blue Devils won 48-17.
“I thought we had a great week of practice and we were ready to play,” said Norwich head coach Mike Chrystie. “Unfortunately [Chenango Forks’] early success was big for them and we just couldn’t recover.”
Chenango Forks’ work load rested mostly upon the shoulders of Lucas Scott, the Blue Devils 6 foot-4 inch, 250 pound running back, as the junior scored five touchdowns.
“Lucas Scott is a load,” said the Norwich head coach. “He did a great job of hitting the hole and cutting back inside. If you try to tackle him high, he is tough to bring down.”
He finished the game with 187 yards on 22 rushing attempts, averaging 8.5 yards a carry.
Forks’ passing game was also on point as quarterback Ray Austin went a perfect 4-for-4 for 73 yards and a touchdown. His top receiver was Ethan Brown, who caught two passes for 39 yards and was on the receiving end of the scoring play.
Norwich took the opening kickoff after winning the coin toss and Chrystie immediately went to the passing calls as the air game is what worked in the first meeting between the two teams in the regular season – a game in which the Tornado fell to the Section IV Class B defending champs by a single touchdown.
However, the first drive stalled and Norwich was forced to punt after the three-and-out. The punt came off the side of Carson Maynard’s foot and out of bounds to give the host team good starting field position.
From there, Forks drove down the field in no time as all, giving all but one handoff to Scott, who then punched it in from three yards out for the 7-0 score with 8:55 left in the first.
The Purple Tornado’s next drive once again was forced to a three-and-out – like many of the drives in the first half for the four-seed – but Maynard sent a booming punt down field, setting the Norwich defense up with a good spot to stop the Blue Devils before half field.
Yet, Chenango Forks drove the length of the field and scored as Scott broke loose, shedding tacklers off of him left and right and running 45 yards into the end zone for the 13-0 lead.
The first half went on and the same ensued as Norwich was unable to get their offense going. Quarterback Griffin Mills and his receivers were having a hard time connecting down field and the Forks defense had nose for David Berger.
Mills, who was constantly seeing pressure in the backfield, was on the move and looking for an open wide out.
“They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball,” said the Norwich head coach. “Their defensive ends are both 6 foot-4 inches and made it tough to throw our quick passing game. They mixed their coverages up a lot from the last time we played Forks.
“We just weren’t able to get any momentum early and it just spiraled from there.”
Austin ran four yards for his lone rushing touchdown then passed to Brown 18 yards through the air to bring the score to 34-0 before the first half concluded.
On the Austin-Brown scoring drive, Norwich’s JT Vinal nearly came away with an interception on the play before the touchdown as he stepped in front of Forks’ Brown and came down with the ball in his possession. However, the officials called it a simultaneous catch and awarded to completion to the home team.
The final drive of the second quarter saw Norwich put a passing drive together as Mills found Eli Rodriguez, Carson Maynard and Cameron Byrne to get close to the goal line but the drive was halted with the clock showing zero to signal the end of the first half.
The Blue Devils received the kick to open the second half and their started scored on two of the first drives they had and headed to the sideline for the rest of the game. Scott took both scoring handoffs 23 and 16 yards out to cap off his five TD night.
Norwich scored the final 17 points of the game with Mills taking a 41 yard read-option in for the Tornado’s first touchdown of the game.
Senior kicker Matt Giglio tacked on 25 yard field goal attempt that sailed straight through the uprights with 3:07 left and Carson Maynard added another rushing score for the visiting Tornado’s as he run the ball in from 13 yards out.
Mills finished the game with eight carries for 90 yards while Maynard totaled 28 yards on three attempts. Berger, who had back-to-back 200-plus yard game entering Friday’s game, was held to 10 yards by the Forks defense.
Rodriguez ended the night catching four of Mills’ six completions and had 39 receiving yards to lead the Norwich’s wideouts. Maynard and Byrne had one reception each as Maynard’s was for 19 yards and Byrne gained four yards.
The Tornado’s defense was led by Vinal’s seven tackles while Shane Lawrence had six. Byrne ended the game with 5.5 and Evan Sylstra added another five.
Both teams came away with no turnovers and a combined total of 20 penalty yards accumulated. Norwich’s offense finished with 219 yards while the Blue Devils compiled 390.
“I thought we had a great year,” said Chrystie. “We started out 0-3 and fought back to make the playoffs in the toughest division in New York State. It speaks volumes about this team.
“They never stopped believing in one another and never stopped working hard,” Chrystie continued. “It was an unfortunate performance in our last game, especially because we played them so tough earlier in the year, but I am proud of the season we had. I want to thank the 17 seniors for everything they’ve given to the program. Their leadership both in season and in the off season will be missed.”
Norwich finishes their season with a 4-5 record and went 4-3 in Section IV Division II schedule.