BY BRIAN FEESSouthern Tier Sports Report
ELMIRA —In a game where neither offense put a lot of points on the board, the Corning Hawks turned to their defense and special teams to beat Elmira 16-0 to claim the Section IV, Class AA title on Friday night.
“Our number one goal was to win the sectional title,” Corning coach Mike Johnston Jr. said. “Our kids kept their eye on the prize and they kept improving. We got guys healthy. Casey Hale ends up getting the player of the game, he hasn’t played in three games. He was outstanding for us and it gave us a lot of energy and it was uplifting for us to get him back.”
John Graham had an 87-yard kick return to start the second half, racing right up the center of the field to put the Hawks up 6-0.
“We found ways tonight to make things happen,” Johnston Jr. said. “Special teams was huge. Johnny Graham opens the second half. Our defense was outstanding. Our offense just stayed the course and kept wearing them down. We broke one late in the game, huge run by Ashton Neally.
“I’m shocked they kicked the ball to him (Graham), to be honest with you. When you get named the Class AA Player of the Year, and he just showed you why. His aspirations are to go to play at the highest level in baseball. This just goes to prove — and I say it again — play multiple sports. I’m a big proponent of that. I coach three sports myself. Here’s a kid, his first love is baseball, but he comes out and he’s the player of the year at the highest level of football in Section 4 and just showed you why. He made a big play when we needed it most. I was smiling inside when the ball got kicked to him. I was like, ‘they did not.’ I couldn’t believe it happened, but he did what he had to do and everybody blocked it up right and it just hit timing-wise. Tough to catch him, he can run. Really proud of those kids on the special teams as well. They don’t get enough credit sometimes.”
Graham did not expect to have the ball kicked to him.
“We were thinking all week in practice they weren’t going to kick it to me, kick it to other dudes,” Graham said. “But, as soon as I saw it to me I knew it was going to be gone. Everybody blocks it perfectly and it was great.”
Caleb McGee hit a 19-yard field goal with 4:40 left in the game after the Express defenses stopped Corning at the two-yard line. Ashton Neally had a 35-yard run with 3:43 left after the Hawks forced a fumble and recovered. McGee hit the extra point.
There’s so much familiarity with our programs,’ Johnston Jr. said. “Having coached with the Elmira staff or coached their players and some of my trainers played for me in Elmira. I think the biggest thing is you can throw out X’s and O’s. If you can take away trick plays and all that nonsense. Everybody has a little razzle, dazzle once in a while, but I think you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to out touch each other. Whoever is the tougher team is going to win.”
For Elmira that familiarity makes it tough when you don’t execute the game plan.
“If you look at Section 4, we are loaded with C’s and D’s. A lot of small schools in our section,” Elmira coach Jimmy McCauley said.. “Look at the other end, there’s only three AA’s. Ithaca is still improving. That kind of leaves Elmira and Corning. We’re relatively close, 15 to 20 miles down the road or minutes. The relatively closeness of the coaching staffs. It’s going to be like. Regular season one-score game, two-score game in this one. Tough one to lose for sure.
“If you look at the season as a whole, where we started out to where we ended, I felt like we were improved as a whole: offense, defense, special teams. We tell our guys, never, ever is one game going to define us. If you look at the season as a whole, I think our team did what it was capable of doing. Did we execute tonight? Absolutely not.”
Keegan Kelly ran for 99 yards on 15 carries for Corning and Graham ran for 68 yards on 12 carries. Neally ran for 42 yards. Nathan Bretch was 1-for-2 passing for 28 yards, with the pass going to Kelly.
Ryan Goble ran for 39 yards, Baby Harris ran for 37, Dom Goetz had 34, Willie Walker ran for 29, Frankie D’Angelo 22 and Jonathan Redar ran for 18 for the Express.
Neally ended the game with an interception on the final Elmira drive.
McCauley knows the team has to execute better.
“I just didn’t think we executed very well,” he said. “I thought our defense played well, but the other two phases – special teams and our offense – we just didn’t look good.
“I thought we had two good drives inside the 20 or somewhere close to. Just didn’t come out with points. I think that hurt us. Too many miscues. We had a couple penalties, that’s traditionally not like us. You picked the wrong game maybe to not play your best. But I will say, I’ve been coaching for a little bit, and I really like this group. They kind of reminded me of me and my friends when I was in high school. I really, really liked this group. Kind of tough to say goodbye to them in the locker room. Comes down to the execution.”
“It’s great, super exciting,” Graham said. “We know they beat us earlier in the season. We were just looking to kick their butts this game. Everybody was pumped all week, listening to music in the locker room and getting ready.”
The Express had three turnovers in the game, including losing a fumble after getting to the Hawks six-yard line on the opening drive. That was as close as Elmira got to scoring.
“The exciting thing is most of those kids are sophomores and juniors. But we’re still senior led from that standpoint,” Johnston Jr. said. “Casey Hale and Cam Anderson, those are the two that make our world go around as far as leadership goes. We were bend but don’t break. We don’t like to punt. I put them in some bad spots defensively, but we just kept fighting. We’d give up a big play and then we’d stop them three plays in a row. I just thought we took advantage of Elmira’s mistakes on offense. Maybe a low snap or they dropped the ball or whatnot. I thought our defensive secondary was outstanding, I thought our kids up front did a great job staying at the level of the ball and not overpursuing and getting upfield, so they could kick out or overrun the play. They did everything that our coaching staff asked them to do. I thought Bob McGee, our defensive coordinator, and Tim Hughes put a heck of a defensive game plan together. I’m really proud of them and the effort that they’ve put in all year long. It just feels great to bring the trophy back to Corning.
“We’ve got 12 sophomores and a freshman who have been up since day one. We didn’t know where they would fit in. Whether they would get to play, have enough playing time, take advantage of the 10-play rule at the varsity level and then maybe go play on Monday nights (on junior varsity). Lo and behold, they’re all up and they’re all starting. That’s great for the future, but really proud of the present and what they’ve been doing as well. We’ve just got a great group of kids that keep fighting and keep working. I keep telling them, ‘Let’s get in the weight room more, let’s get stronger so we can compete at the highest level. This game and the Horseheads game were two huge, huge games for us this year, when you win the two local ones when it matters most.
————
PHOTOS BY LANCE LARCOM, TEAM PHOTO PROVIDED.
