HAMILTON – The second annual Chenango County Kickoff Classic was held at Colgate University on Sunday night featuring the Norwich Purple Tornado and the Sherburne-Earlville Timberwolves. S-E kicked off their season opener in a Section III/Section IV cross-over against Sidney while Norwich took on Cortland.
S-E fell in the final minutes to Sidney 22-21 while Norwich shutout Cortland 56-0.
Sidney 22-S-E 21
After Sherburne-Earlville held a 15-8 lead after the end of the third quarter, the Sidney Sabers had two consecutive drives, resulting in touchdown passes. One drive came following recovering an onside kick that almost went out of bounds.
Steve Franklin’s S-E team worked on a special package they’ve been practicing all week to provide some magic to ignite the offense with Nick Hull rushing at the quarterback position. S-E did score within eight minutes left in regulation with Justin Race’s 13-yard rush, but the two-point conversion came up short to make it a one point game.
S-E had one final chance in the final seconds of the game with quarterback Hadden Price and Nick Hull working hard to make plays happen, but the comeback fell incomplete. Justin Race scored two S-E touchdowns and Nick Hull had one as the team prepares for Canastota on Friday.
“ The kids played with all their hearts and made great effort out there,” Franklin said. “They just made one more play than we did. It was great to battle with a Section IV team. You want that for a week zero game.”
”We have a shortened week, so we have to get iced up and ready to go.”
Norwich 56- Cortland 0
Norwich wasted no time against Section III’s Cortland Purple Tigers in the all-out Purple and White game. It was 36-0 at halftime before Norwich added one more score in the third, where the starters were then subbed out. Norwich added two final scores in the fourth quarter with Mitchell Collins at quarterback.
The Norwich defense held Cortland to 110 yards on offense with some threat in the end of the first half, but that was all. Norwich also recovered a fumble on Cortland’s second drive of the game.
The Norwich offense racked up 396 total yards with 272 rushing and Steven Dowdall’s 124 passing yards. Dowdall also threw for three touchdowns with a pass to Braden Hagenbuch, Mitchell Collins, and Tiernan Lindsay. Dowdall ran for a 32 yard rushing touchdown as well. Kaden Downey carried the ball for a four-yard rushing touchdown.
Mitchell Collins rushed for a 32-yard gain to score as Tiernan Lindsay had a 30-yard rushing touchdown to round out the scoring for the Purple Tornado.
Colgate alum and Norwich’s head coach Mike Chrystie and his team will now practice with a shortened week as they head to Horseheads on Friday night.
“For week zero, you have it in your head where you think you are,” he said. “We showed up and are in a good spot and are ready to go against Horseheads.”