SYRACUSE — In its search for the program’s first ever New York State title, the Salamanca football team ended up falling just eight yards short of a possible walk-off win.
Between the third and fourth quarters of their New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Final, the Warriors had conceded 19 straight points to Section 2 Champions Schuylerville. With just over a minute left and staring down a six-point deficit, Salamanca marched from its own 44-yard line and backed the Horses up inside their own 10.
But with just five seconds left to play, a miscue on the go-to route in their final play of the game led to the Warriors falling by a score of 26-20.
“(I’m) trying to hold it together for a group of guys in there that are crushed,” Salamanca coach Chad Bartoszek said. “That was a heck of a football game, and it’s hard for them to wrap their brains around that right now, because it’s just the suddenness of an end of a season at the state finals at the eight-yard line. It’s crushing, that’s the only word.”
However, there was a silver lining that he was able to find.
“The message in there is that ‘you just learned a heck of a lot about life. Some things aren’t going to go the way you want them to go. But if you work hard, believe in yourselves, you can accomplish great things.”
Some of those great things that showed up on the day were the performances of the Warriors’ duo of Maddox Isaac and Xavier Peters.
Isaac, while not having his usual amount of success in the run game against Schuylerville, rushing 12 times for just 21 yards, he found his stride in the passing game. Isaac finished 12-for-19 through the air with one touchdown pass apiece to Cory Holleran Zach Trietley. Holleran’s score came from six yards out while Trietley found the endzone on the back of a screen pass catch-and-run from eight yards.
Peters, on the flipside, was able to find some gaps in the Horses’ defense and racked up 117 yards with his legs. He scored the third and final Salamanca touchdown on the day with a 28-yard burst.
HOWEVER, not all of its rushes, let alone overall plays, were as big as Peters’ rushing score. And According to Bartoszek, there are two ways one could look at this game. One option being that it came down to just one missed play. The second is that it was more of a result of the slow grind that came before.
“Those battles in between the trenches were tough, they were physical,” Bartoszek said. “And we were up (to it). I mean, there was a lot of short gains, a lot of short yardage, a lot of spaces that we thought maybe we could create. I give them a ton of credit. How they hung in there and they kept battling.”
The pace of play was certainly one that Salamanca did not have an abundance of experience with. But for a team that has thrived off the quick strike over the course of the season, Bartoszek credited his players for making the adjustment, even if it meant he will live to rethink some choices he made as a play-caller earlier in the game.
“That’s part of the offensive play-caller’s nightmare, that there was probably some shots we should have taken earlier,” Bartoszek said. “We were able to get down the field late there and maybe we should have went to a few of those (plays) early on. It just always felt like (Xavier) and Maddox were like, one tackle away from busting a long run … and it just felt like that the whole game. The way that things were going, we saw some things and, kind of, stuck with it.”
Despite the loss, the Warriors were able to reach the absolute last possible game of the season with its only negative mark over the course of its entirety being its loss to Schuylerville. And although the program’s dream of bringing home its first-ever state title will have to wait at least another year, Bartoszek is proud of what his team was able to accomplish.
“I have appreciation for what took place there, and I do appreciate that I got to be with these guys one more time,” Bartoszek said. “Our staff put their lives to the side for starting in June. … The hard part is the ‘what if,’ and as the years go by, you don’t get a ton of these opportunities. Sometimes you just got to capture it, and we just fell short.”
Salamanca finished the season with a final record of 13-1.
Salamanca 6 6 8 0 — 20
Schuylerville 7 0 7 12 — 26
First Quarter
Salamanca – Cory Holleran 6 pass from Maddox Isaac; Easton Chudy extra-point no good, 6-0
Schuylerville – Joe Headen 13 pass from Ollie Bolduc; Silas Schulte extra-point good, 7-6
Second Quarter
Salamanca – Zach Trietley 8 pass from Isaac; two-point attempt no good, 12-7
Third Quarter
Salamanca – Xavier Peters 28 run; Holleran pass from Isaac two-point attempt good, 20-7
Schuylerville – Landen Cumm 6 run; Schulte extra-point good, 20-14
Fourth Quarter
Schuylerville – Cumm 44 run; Schulte extra-point no good, 20-20
Schuylerville – Cumm 7 pass from Bolduc; two-point attempt no good, 26-20
Team Statistics
Sala. Schuy.
First Downs 15 19
Rushes-Yards 32-169 42-276
Passing Yards 135 43
Comp-Att.-Int. 12-19-0 4-6-0
Total Offense 304 319
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1
Penalties-Yards 7-35 6-27
Punts-Avg. 1-43.0 1-20.0
Total Plays 51 48
