BY BRIAN FEESSouthern Tier Sports Report
HORSEHEADS — For the Corning Hawks things were clicking in every aspect of the game on Friday night.
The Hawks were able to run, and throw, the ball on offense. The defense forced multiple turnovers and on special teams they won the field position battle, while also converting on every extra point, and hitting a field goal.
In the end, it was the defense, and then the offense, that sealed a 24-22 victory over Horseheads.
Bryce Thomas scored on a 69-yard touchdown for the Blue Raiders with 2:35 left in the game and Horseheads went for two and the tie.
Twice in the game Thomas had converted on two-point tries, but this time the Hawks came up big and got the stop.
“I shared with them Nick Saban, I’ve been watching the Saban series,” Corning coach Mike Johnston Jr. said. “He talked to a psychologist, a professor. He said you are too hard on the kids. You have to win seconds at a time. Put that one behind you. We just gave up the big one, here’s the play of the game right here. You have to get the stop. You have to recover the onside kick, and then we have to sustain a drive, get a first down and the game is over.”
After the defensive stop the Hawks did recover the onside kick and then Keegan Kelly had a five-yard run on first down and picked up a first down a play later to seal the win.
While the Hawks are now 5-3 on the year, two of those losses were close games late.
“I told them we have played some pretty good teams in the state,” Johnston Jr. said. “We lost to a good Elmira team, a really good Elmira team, that is rolling along, clinched the division and is the top seed in the playoffs. And, we got beat a week ago (against Vestal) with 37 seconds to go. Those are two games that we are right there, nip and tuck with an opportunity to win the game with a chance at the end. We told them you guys don’t understand, you are a good football team and you’ve gotten better every week and we see that as coaches.
“Our fullback got hurt and we were down to our third fullback, and he hasn’t played one play (at fullback) all year long and he stepped up and he’s our middle linebacker. Keegan VanCise is just a tough kid and he played a heck of a game for us. We did a lot of good things on every side of the ball. We pinned them at the one-yard line twice on punts and you know I hate punting, but I’ll take that any day of the week. We mad two great pass plays. We just saw some things with their defense we thought we could exploit. I thought our kids stuck to the game plan and we possessed the ball for the majority of the game and kept it out of their playmakers hands, and they have a lot of them. I have a lot of respect for their coaching staff and what they are doing with their program. We knew this was going to be a big game and we’d need to come out and play with a lot of confidence, and be physical.”
Corning got thing started early as Keegan Kelly scored on a three-yard run at 8:50 of the opening quarter. Caleb McGee hit the extra point and it was 7-0.
For McGee, getting a chance to kick in the game was special. The Hawks don’t kick a lot, but on Friday they gave the sophomore a chance, and he delivered, going 3-for-3 on extra points and hitting a 29-yard field goal in the win.
“That was fun, I haven’t done that yet (have a chance to kick on every score),” McGee said. “It’s fun to knock them all through and go 100% on the day.”
Knowing the coaching staff believes in him was special.
“That was huge, when he (Johnston Jr.) called for the first extra point I knew I was going to knock it through,” McGee said.
Watching the kicking game come through in a big spot just means more weapons for the Hawks later in the year.
“It’s definitely another weapon we can use in the future,” Johnny Graham said. “We never have really kicked the ball and to see Caleb knock here tonight knocking everything down.”
Johnston Jr. just felt something in his gut that he should kick the ball.
“I felt something in my gut we needed to go for one,” he said. “It wasn’t anything game planned, but my gut was saying let’s go for seven and put the pressure on them to have to get that extra point, or two point conversion. Everything worked out in our favor and he had a big field goal for us too. It’s not all the time where we have a kicker and he’s a sophomore Andre’s our backup QB and he played defensive back for us as well. I thought he did a great job placing kickoffs as well. He had a big game for us from the special teams aspect.
“Really proud of our kids all the way around. Kids stepping up. Casey (Hale) gets hurt at the fullback, but he’s also our outside linebacker and Drew Crane steps up and does a heck of a job and on the other side Luke Sturdevant did a great job and neither one of them are starters tonight. You are playing the No. 10 team in the state that’s 6-1 and they are rolling and we have two outside linebackers who haven’t even played there all year long. Really proud of the effort those guys made.”
It wasn’t just special teams where McGee made an impact, he was also part of a strong defensive effort, that came up big all night long. He had a big interception to end the third quarter.
“We had three interceptions,” Johnston Jr. said. “Caleb had one, Mikey (Johnston) had one and Keegan Kelly had another big one. Our secondary was fantastic and those guys are all sophomores. The game doesn’t know how old you are. It doesn’t know your age, when you step between the white lines and they are going out and competing daily.”
Corning’s second score came at 6:49 of the second quarter as Nate Bretch hit Graham on a 28-yard touchdown pass. McGee hit the extra point to make it 14-0. The score capped a 14-play, 96-yard drive as Corning controlled the clock. At that point, midway through the second quarter, Horseheads had one possession in the game.
“We knew it was going to be a touchdown,” Graham said of the catch. “We were thinking all week in practice and it was going to be open, so we are emphasizing just run our routes well. I love catching the ball.”
Bretch completed two passes on the game, on two attempts, for 91 yards, both to Graham and both for touchdowns.
“That’s not too shabby,” Johnston Jr. said. “And, people say we can’t throw. It’s a philosophy, we are ground and pound. We like to control the cock and have the ball in our possession. It sometimes is our best defense.”
Horseheads got on the board before the half as Lyncoln Bennett capped a drive with 2:06 left in the half with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Jahvee Meisner. Thomas had the two-point run to make it 14-8.
McGee extended the lead with 4:59 left in the third on the 29-yard field goal to make it 17-8.
“Everyone contributed,” Graham said of the win. That was the best part. Everyone was on their A game today.”
“That was my second one (field goal),” McGee said. “I kicked one, but that was a huge blowout. I haven’t had the pressure like that before.”
Thomas got Horseheads within a point as he had a 53-yard touchdown run just 1:08 after the field goal. He then had the two-point run to make it 17-16.
As quick as Horseheads scored, the Hawks came right back, scoring 11 seconds later as Bretch hit Graham for the 63-yard touchdown and McGee made the kick.
“Everybody was coming into the game pumped up, listening to music, and we played like we had nothing to lose,” Graham said.
McGee had the interception at his own five yard line as the ball bounce off the hands of the Horseheads receiver and McGee bobbled the ball, and then caught it as the third quarter ended.
“I bobbled it for like five yards, I’m lucky I came down with it,” McGee said.
Thomas had the 69-yard touchdown, and that’s when Corning came up big on the two-point stop.
“We didn’t even get a hand on him (Thomas) the first couple (two-point tries),” Johnston Jr. said. “To their credit, they went back to the well, we kind of loaded up that side and rolled the dice and had a hunch it was coming. Our kids got penetration, wrapped up and got the biggest stop of the game.”
Closing out one of the close games was a big boost for the Hawks.
“Such a big confidence booster,” Graham said.
The loss last week to Vestal was tough, and the Hawks came right back this week.
“Last week was a pretty devastating loss,” Graham said. “But, we made sure everyone was showing up for practice, no messing around and making sure everyone was staying focused.
“We know we have such a good team. We have some young guys on the team who step up and make huge plays for us.”
Kelly ran for 120 yards on 24 carries for the Hawks and Graham ran for 64 on 12 carries.
Bretch was 2-for-2 passing for the 91 yards and two scores, both to Graham.
Sturdevant had eight tackles and a tackle and a half for a loss in the game.
Bradley Rhodes had eight tackles, and a tackle for a loss and Ryan Yeoman had eight tackles, 3.5 tackles for a loss and a half a sack.
Cam Anderson had seven tackles and 1.5 tackles for a loss and VanCise had five tackles, a half a sack and a tackle for a loss.
Thomas had 16 carries for 206 yards and the two scores and Jaxson Burchard ran for 29 yards.
Bennett threw for 76 yards and a score and Jack Patchett had two grabs for 29 yards and Bradyn Hourihan had two catches for 14 yards. Burchard had an 18-yard catch and Mesiner had the eight-yard touchdown catch, while Elijah Miller had a seven-yard catch.
Miller had 12 tackles and a sack and Burchard had seven tackles, while Connor Warrick had six tackles.
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES
PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE GAME:
