SECTION 4 FOOTBALL: ELMIRA MAKES HISTORY WITH 3RD STRAIGHT SECTIONAL TITLE (24 PHOTOS) (November 14, 2025)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
ELMIRA — Down 12-6, the Elmira Express scored the next 27 points and never looked back as they topped Corning 53-18 to win the Section IV, Class AAA Championship on Friday night.

The win gives the Express three straight sectional titles, something that hadn’t happened in Express history. It’s also the first time an Elmira team won a sectional crown on their home turf since the field opened at the high school.

“We were talking about that all this week,” Elmira coach Jimmy McCauley said. “The bye week, I thought we handled the bye week really well and then all this week we talked about you can be the first group in our short history, not only to win three in a row, but the first group to win it on our turf and we talked about opportunities and how few opportunities someone gets in their life, so we wanted to make the most of this.”

For the Elmira players making history is special.

“It’s very exciting,” Julian Colon said. “Three times in a row. First time on this turf, it’s just really exciting. My team is excited. The crowd got me lit.”

“It feels good,” Dash Harris said. “We just made history right there. No one in our school ever got a three-peat and no one had won a sectional championship on this field.”

The offense got going early as Zack Conklin threw a deep ball and Julian Colon snatched the ball away from two defenders and took off for a 55-yard touchdown at 8:34 of the first quarter.

It was the first of three touchdowns for Colon in the game. He had three touchdowns in a matchup with Corning earlier this year, and three in last year’s sectional final against the Hawks, giving him nine in the past three matchups with Corning. 

“We had game planned we were going to take some shots with him,” McCauley said. “He’s a great player, but then you’ve got Dash, we get him in open space, then you have Arius (Bradbury) around the corner. Arius does a great job of blocking. Kaiden Wright and Liam (Ogden), I know they are our receivers but they are great pass catchers. They take pride in their blocking. It’s phenomenal when you have receivers that don’t mind if they block or catch the ball. It’s phenomenal and that’s how we get those long runs.

“He’s (Colon) a gamer. I give him credit. He practices hard. I think that’s part of it, I think he’s learned that as far as the years go. You can’t just show up, and he works at it.”

Once Colon got an early score, it fired up the Express.

“He’s something special, nobody can guard him,” Harris said. 

Colon is an emotional player, and once he scored you could see the energy build throughout the sideline. 

“I can’t even explain it,” Colon said. “I get lit, then my teammates come, then the crowd is lit. Everybody is lit.”

Corning came right back and handed the ball to Clayton Smith on eight straight carries. After a five-yard run by Tahj Haynes, Smith ran in for the touchdown at 4:39 to tie the game at six. Smith had 56 yards on the drive. 

Corning got the ball back after a fumble, and the Hawks got a 59-yard run from Mike Lutton at 1:23 of the opening quarter to make it 12-6.

Corning scored the next 27 points, two touchdowns each from Colon and Harris in that span.

“I had to get mine, that’s just something I had to get mine,” Harris said with a smile about matching Colon’s three touchdowns in the game.

“He said you got one, I’ve got to get mine,” Colon said. “I said if you run to my side, I got you, and I blocked for him.”

Colon put Elmira on top as he hauled in a 35-yard touchdwon from Conklin and Ben Guyette hit the extra point with 16 seconds left int he first quarter.

Harris had a 14-yard run with 3:05 left in the half to put Elmira up 19-12 at the break.

Colon started off the second half with a 79-yard scoring run and Guyette hit the kick with 10:03 left in the third. Harris then hauled in a 43-yard touchdown from Conklin and Guyette hit the kick with 5:35 left in the quarter.

Corning was backed up to first-and-forty on their next drive, but put together an 80-yard drive capped by a Haynes one-yard run with 11:56 left in the game.

That’s as close as things got. Harris had a 45-yard scoring run just 52 seconds later.

“Punch harder,” Harris said of responding to the scoring drive by Corning. “We got punched, we had to punch harder.”

Bradbury scored on a 41-yard run with 8:56 left and Guyette had the kick and Willie Walker had a 43-yard run with 5:12 left and Jan Kitchener hit the extra point to cap the scoring. 

The unselfishness by everyone played a key role in the win.

“I think you can see the continuity in our team when those things happen,” McCauley said. “When some of our key players like Colon and Arius and Dash, when they are blocking for others, they truly care about winning, they understand what it takes.

“We knew they were going to get theirs and we knew we had to withstand that and keep being physical.”

The blocking was a big key for the Express, who ran for 260 yards in the game.

“I give a big shoutout to my blockers, my linemen, my running backs who block,” Harris said. “Julian Colon, he had a big block. I don’t give the credit to me, it doesn’t happen without them.”

For Colon it’s fun to see everyone block for each other.

“I feel great knowing they block for me, I block for them, my line blocks for us,” Colon said.

Corning ran for 240 in the game, but Elmira held them to 115 yards after the first two drives.

“It’s all about reading our keys,” Harris said. “I give a big shout out to Liam (Ogden) and Baby Harris. They are always reading their keys and doing what they’ve got to do.”

Harris ran for 93 yards on 10 carries, Colon ran for 89 and Conklin had 23 yards rushing. Walker ran for 43 yards on one carrie, Jonathan Reader had 16 yards, Ogden had 15 yards and Julius Mulligan had five yards.

Conklin was 3-for-4 passing for 133 yards and three scores.

The last time the Express played Corning the Express senior quarterback didn’t start the game at quarterback. After an injury he returned to the lineup and had six touchdown passes in the two games against the Hawks this year.

“Zack is a player for us, he’s definitely a gamer,” McCauley said. “I thought at the beginning of the season, I’m not sure if it was things he was seeing, or our opponents. But, I’m so glad his senior year he’s where he’s at now.”


Elmira plays the winner of Liverpool or Christian Brothers Academy (Syracuse), who play tomorrow in the Section 3 final. The game will be at 6 p.m. next Friday at Vestal. 

Colon said the team will prepare themselves for the matchup. 

“What we did this game, we’ll do the same thing,” Colon said. “Study, practice hard, watch film, do the same things we do.”

Colon had two catches for 90 yards and a score and Harris had the 43-yard touchdown catch.

Baby Harris had an interception for Elmira.

Smith and Lutton each ran for 76 yards for Corning and Haynes ran for 62 yards. Jacob Deneka had 15 yards, Mikey Johnston had eight yards, Johnny Graham ran for five yards and Colton Graham ran for four yards.

Cooper Bange was 3-for-8 for 55 yards for Corning and Smith had a 22-yard catch, Johnny Graham had an 18-yard catch and Paul Sanotra had a 15-yard catch. 

ELMIRA 53, CORNING 18
CORNING 12 0 0 6 — 18 
ELMIRA 13 6 14 18 — 53

FIRST QUARTER
E: Julian Colon 55 from Zack Conklin (Kick failed), 8:34
C: Clayton Smith 1 yard run (Run failed), 4:39
C: Mike Lutton 59 run (Run failed), 1:23
E: Colon 35 yards from Conklin (Ben Guyette kick), :16
SECOND QUARTER
E: Dash Harris 14 run (Kick failed), 3:05
THIRD QUARTER
E: Colon 79 run (Guyette kick), 10:03
E: Harris 43 pass from Conklin (Guyette kick), 5:35
FOURTH QUARTER
C: Tahj Haynes 1 yard run (Run failed), 11:56
E: Harris 45-yard run (Kick failed), 11:04
E: Arius Bradbury 41 run (Guyette kick), 8:56
E: Willie Walker 43 run (Jan Kitchener kick), 5:12

INDIVIDUAL STATS
RUSHING
ELMIRA
Dash Harris 10-93-2; Conklin 4-23; Colon 6-89-1; Julius Mulligan 1-5; Liam Ogden 1-14; Jonathan Redar 1-16; Willie Walker1-43-1
CORNING
Clayton Smith 18-76; Haynes 9-62; Lutton 6-76; Cooper Bange 2-(-4); Johnny Graham 1-5; Jacob Deneka 4-15; Keegan Kelly 1-(-4); Joey Allowatt 2-2; Mikey Johnston 1-8; Colton Graham 2-4
PASSING
ELMIRA
Conklin 3-4-133-3-0
CORNING
Bange 3-8-55-0-1
RECEIVING
ELMIRA
Colon 2-90-2; Harris 1-43-1
CORNING
Paul Santora 1-15; Smith 1-22; Graham 1-18
INTERCEPTIONS: E: Baby Harris 

TEAM STATS
                    CORNING            ELMIRA    
RUSHING                46-240            20-260
PASSING                3-8-55                3-4-133


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