By Brian FeesSouthern Tier Sports Report
HORSEHEADS — With the game hanging in the balance, the Horseheads Blue Raiders put the ball in Bryce Thomas’ hands on nearly every offensive play in the fourth quarter, and he delivered as Horseheads topped Baldwinsville 36-6.
Thomas had a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns and he had four scores in the game as the Blue Raiders moved to 2-0 on the year, winning in their home opener.
“Anytime you get a win you’ll take it,” Horseheads coach Kevin Hillman said. “It was a long game, a rough game. There are things we still have to clean up, but we’ll take it.
“The things we are capable of if we clean up the penalties, the skies the limit. But, if we don’t clean those up, we aren’t going to go anywhere. I think we can be real good, but if we clean that stuff up, but it’s also two weeks in a row we’ve had a lot of penalties, so we’ve got to clean that up. If we don’t clean it up, we have a big game at Maine-Endwell next weekend and it will get ugly in a heartbeat. So, we’ve really got to clean this stuff up. I know we have some injuries, but we can’t make excuses, next guy up.”
It’s the second straight game in which both Thomas and Patrick Laney had over 100 yards rushing in a win.
“You get something quick with him (Laney) and he’s so fast,” Hillman said of the team’s speedy back. “You give a little sliver with him and he’s gone. And, I think a lot of things people don’t really know is defensively that kid is hustling back all over the place and breaking up passes. I don’t know how many pass plays today, that was huge. Some guys, that had wheels and got open, and he got back and broke that up and were just huge, huge plays.”
For Thomas it’s fun having the combo in the backfield with Laney.
“It’s awesome, him, Jaxson (Burchard), it’s good knowing wherever the ball is going it’s going to go up field,” Thomas said.
And, the speed of Laney is something different this year.
“It’s really nice, because last ye was more driving down people’s throats, and this year we are able to get outside,” Thomas said.
And, the line up front has done a good job opening holes for all the back.
“They have, even though we have a lot of new people, they are stepping up,” Thomas said. “They are doing what they need to do, it’s all them, I can only do so much. Without them, I’m nothing really.”
Hillman saw the line start to take over as the game went on.
“They did a great job, and the one thing with Bryce, he, sometimes he, wants to get out on the defensive side of the ball, but he’s such a big weapon, especially the second half of the game he can really take over, really take drives and run the clock. The last two weeks we got that ball back ins one situations after the teams scored and he had some big drives and runs and a couple touchdowns that can put a nail in the coffin. Really a shoutout to the lineman to, they had some stuff in the first half where they were getting pushed back a little bit and they kind of got together and had two great drives they put together. A great job all around by the offensive team.”
And, down the stretch everyone knew the ball was going to Thomas and he still wasn’t stopped.
“I think that’s when an offensive line, an offensive team, can take pride in and say you know what we are doing, we are coming at you and we are going to do it anyways,” Hillman said. “And, you still move the ball, that says a lot.”
Baldwinsville put the ball in the air a lot, especially in the second half. They got the score to get within 22-6, and had the ball with a chance to cut the deficit even more, but the secondary stood up against the Bees passing attack.
“We saw last week they threw like 38 times in the game,” Hillman said. “We had a few breakdowns in safety but we will clean that stuff up. But, for as many passes as they had, it was good work in our secondary, they did a good job.”
Thomas ran for 193 yards in the game. He’s up to 500 yards in just two games this year. Laney ran for 127 in the game and had 58 receiving. Laney also had four tackles, one solo, and two pass deflections on defense.
Dmitri Charlanow threw for 96 yards, with Keegan Zeller had 32 receiving and Burchard had six yards rushing and six receiving. Charlanow also ran for 42 yards.
Liam Morrissey had nine tackles, eight solo, two sacks and a fumble recovery. Elijah Miller had five tackles, Burchard had four, all solo, and Keegan Harkness had four tackles.
Horseheads is at Maine-Endwell next Saturday.
“It’s going to be a good test, we are going to see where we are at,” Hillman said. “That’s one of the things we try and preach is be physical on defense and be the hammer when you are running. This is going to be a big test to see if they can hang with the big boys next week, because that’s going to be a good one. I’m excited for it. You get the challenge against a perennial state power.”
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES
PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE GAME:
