NORWICH – Once again, Norwich did not hurt itself with turnovers or penalties. Instead, it was an impressive Maine-Endwell offensive performance that conjured memories of the school’s state championship teams of lore.

The Spartans scored the game’s first 28 points, and spoiled the Purple Tornado’s senior recognition night rolling to a 50-12 victory on Friday night.

Maine-Endwell busted a long TD run on the game’s second play from scrimmage, and on the defensive side of the ball, limited Norwich (4-4) to just one first down over the host club’s first three possessions.

M-E capitalized on each defensive stop as quarterback Preston Ocker followed the team’s opening touchdown with two passing scores.

That prolific start lifted the visiting club to a 22-0 lead before the first-quarter turn.

“This (type of outcome) hasn’t happened in a long time,” said Norwich coach Mike Chrystie. “We’ve had tough opponents, and pretty much played all of them competitively until the end. We wanted to put together a good performance, and we weren’t able to do that.”

Maine-Endwell made hay with several chunk plays throughout the game. Aside from Cameron Smallacombe’s 59-yard TD run to open the scoring, the Spartans had three other long runs of at least 37 yards, and three passes of at least 19 yards.

Overall, Maine-Endwell racked up 518 yards of total offense on just 49 plays.

“Maine-Endwell’s offense is a different animal with their triple option,” Chrystie said. “It’s not an offense Waverly or Owego plays. You have to play disciplined defense and tackle well. We didn’t really do any of that.”

On the flip side, Norwich’s offense mustered just two solid drives.

Already trailing by four scores, Norwich quarterback Cooper Chrystie hit Kassen Stubb on a monster 41-yard pass play to the M-E nine. Two plays later, that same Chrystie-to-Stubb connected hooked up on an eight-yard TD pass making it 28-6 late in the second quarter.

Norwich didn’t score again until the first play of the fourth quarter, when, Zack Parker raced 56 yards for a touchdown.

Parker, coming off a 200-yard plus rushing performance the week before, was held in check most of the night finishing with 79 yards rushing on 17 carries.

“This game is not indicative of the team we have,” Coach Chrystie said. “The key for us is to heal up and regroup. We have a lot of young guys getting valuable experience, and other than this game, we’ve been very competitive in a tough division.”

Norwich is already locked into the fourth seed in next month’s Section IV Class B playoffs. It wraps up its regular season this week at Susquehanna Valley.

Score by Quarters

M-E  22  6  14  8—50

Nor.   0   6   0    6—12

Scoring Summary

M-E, Cameron Smallacombe 59 run (Max Policare run), M-E:  Preston Ocker 22 pass to Zach Battaglini (Policare run); M-E, Ocker 5 pass to Policare (run failed); M-E, Ocker 16 pass to Battaglini (pass failed), N, Cooper Chrystie 8 pass to Kasson Stubbs (pass failed); M-E, Ocker 1 run (Smallacombe run); M-E, Jayden Larnerd  44 run (run failed); N, Zack Parker 56 run (run failed); M-E, Nicholas Testani 1 run (Dominic Bill run).

Individual Statistics

Rushing:  M-E team 41-429 yards (Cameron Smallacombe 11-148, Max Policare 10-98). Norwich:  Zack Parker 17-79, Leland Montgomery 4-21, Josh Lindridge 1-12, Kaden Downey 1-6 Cooper Chrystie 2-2.

Passing: (M-E) Preston Ocker 7-8-0, 100 yds, 3 TDs.  (N) Cooper Chrystie 9-16-0, 98 yds, 1 TD; Josh Lindridge 0-1-0, 0 yds.

Receiving: (N) Kassen Stubb 5-68, Carter Chrystie 2-14, Leland Montgomery 1-9, unknown, 1-7.