SECTION IV FOOTBALL: OWEGO ENDS 6-YEAR DROUGHT AGAINST M-E, ADVANCES TO CLASS B CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (24 PHOTOS) (November 8, 2025)
By TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
ENDWELL — Owego brought an end to a six-year drought with a 19-16 upset of Maine-Endwell in the Section IV Class B football semifinals here Saturday.
The victory brought an end to an 11-game losing streak against the Spartans. Owego’s last win over M-E came on Oct. 18, 2019 — that’s 2,213 days or 315 weeks for the numbers trackers.
Patton Taylor, the head coach for the previous five setbacks, was relieved to get the monkey off the program's back.
“For us to achieve our goals, we have to go through M-E,” he said. “In the past two years, we've taken some thumpings, closed the gap. It finally feels good to get the win when it matters. I couldn't be prouder of these fellas. At times it was frustrating this year. Things weren't always pretty, but today they came in well-prepared. We're just going to be happy with how they performed today.”
Sam Sherwood and John Farrell, both of whom came up with the big scoring plays for Owego, relayed what every River Hawk player and fan were feeling.
“It feels like a dream come true,” Sherwood said. “All the hard work this team has put in over the years, all the doubting, all the negative comments, we persevered and I'm proud of these boys. I'm so proud.”
“It feels amazing,” Farrell added. “Our team, we have a great group of kids, like we're just good attitude, we've been doubted and no one thought we were going to win this game, and we proved them wrong.”
Trailing, 16-13, the River Hawks’ John Farrell jumped in front of a Preston Oecker pass, cut across the field and raced 72 yards with the game-winning touchdown with 4:33 remaining in the game. The PAT kick was blocked, but Owego would hold on to end the skid.
“That ‘pick six,’ that won the game,” coach Patton Taylor said. “It just kind of felt like, give us something here. Especially last time we were here, the game ended because of a pick six. Call it fate or what you will, but that was a special moment for Johnny.”
“Our defense all day did a fantastic job. They were put in tough, tough, tough situations, especially with their type of offense that they run over there. Defense did a fantastic job of, once they identified that the ball was picked off, just blocking and creating space for Johnny to move.”
“I saw them roll out for a pass and I had the drop back as a corner, and I saw the guy behind me running like a five-out, maybe a 10-out, saw the ball in the air, got it, brought it down, saw an open lane to the left, took it, saw my blockers, saw the end zone, that's all, nothing else to it,” Farrell said.
Prior to the “pick six” it looked like the River Hawks might buckle as M-E put together a 9-play, 71-yard drive to take the lead for the first time.
After Owego turned the ball over on downs at the M-E 29 late in the third quarter, the Spartans’ Max Policare broke loose for a 29-yard gain to the Owego 42. Two plays later, Cameron Smallacombe made an 18-yard run to the 22 and Marco Konrad followed with an 11-yard rush to the 11.
M-E worked the ball to the five, but a holding penalty set the Spartans back to the 14. On the next play, Preston Oecker found Konrad, who had split two defenders, open in the end zone for a touchdown. Oecker’s PAT pass to Zach Battaglini gave M-E a 16-13 advantage with 9:38 left to play.
“There's a reason why those guys have been so successful for so long,” Taylor said. “They're masters at preparation and masters at making changes at halftime, making those adjustments. Our fellas, they stuck to their keys.
“Past couple weeks, they (M-E) seemed to have found some rhythm in their offense, so we figured at some point they would kind of start to gash us a little bit, but our defense did a great job of slowing them down.”
Owego would go four and out, and M-E would get the ball back at its own 29 again. The Spartans moved the ball to the Owego 35 with the help of a 21-yard pass from Oecker to Konrad. On third-and-six, Oecker threw downfield, but Farrell came away with the interception and TD.
The River Hawks looked primed for an upset early, grabbing a 13-0 lead in the first eight minutes of action.
Sherwood raced 82 yards down the left sideline with the opening kickoff, taking advantage of a gaping hole left by his blocked near the Owego 35-yard line. Dylan Brace split the uprights with the PAT kick and the River Hawks were up, 7-0.
“It felt amazing,” Sherwood said. “It definitely set the stage, set the tone for the game, but my blockers, I couldn't do it without them and I give all the credit to them.”
“I think that the past couple weeks we’ve been hearing about how they've kind of figured things out,” Taylor said. “They were scoring a lot of points, but we came in well-prepped.
“Right out of the gate, I think that set the tone that we're here to play. You know, we were watching a lot of film on their kickoffs. We predicted what they were going to do and we got the desirable look that we were looking for that type of return. Fantastic blocking, Sam hit a crease and we took it to the house, so that just came down to preparation.”
The Spartans would punt on their first possession, but recovered a controversial fumble at the Owego 26, but Sherwood tipped away a fourth down pass in the end zone, giving the ball back to the River Hawks at their own 22.
On third and 10 from the 32, Phelps found an open Farrell cutting across the field at the 40 and the speedster turned it into a 68-yard TD. M-E blocked the PAT kick, leaving Owego ahead, 13-0, with 4:47 to go in the opening period.
“That play, that was something we put in a couple weeks ago,” Taylor said. “We knew they had very aggressive inside linebackers, so we loved that play this week. When we first put it in, it didn’t look fantastic, but we kept working it, working it, working it. We knew those backers were going to fly, and we got the look that we wanted, and we hit it, and Johnny was just able to put the jets on and do his thing.”
After an exchange of punts, the Spartans would get the ball at the Owego 42 and take just five plays to find the end zone with Oecker finding Konrad open at the two. Wyatt Richardson’s PAT run closed the gap to 13-8 at 10:32 of the second quarter.
Owego would wrap a pair of punts around an M-E possession that fizzled out at the River Hawks’ 37 to preserve the visitors’ lead.
M-E turned the ball over on downs to open the second half, then the teams exchanged punts. Owego would turn the ball over on downs to precede the Spartans’ go-ahead possession.
M-E finished with 334 yards of offense to Owego’s 166.
Phelps went 7-for-11 through the air for 107 yards with Farrell pulling down six passes for 98 yards and Card making one receptio for the other nine. The running game was held to 58 with Brace picking up 63 on nine runs.
Oecker completed 14 of his 21 passes for 187 yards with Konrad grabbing seven passes for 117. M-E ran for 147 yards as Smallacombe carried the ball 16 times for 67 yards and Konrad had nine rushes for 35 yards
Farrell ended the day with 173 all-purpose yards while Konrad had 152..
Owego (7-3) faces top-seeded Waverly (9-1) next Saturday at 8 p.m. at Susquehanna Valley.
Taylor declined to comment on his game plan for the Wolverines, but did note that “it's been a long time since Class B has come down to two Tioga County teams. I honestly can't remember the last time that's happened.
“I think it's going to be an exciting matchup. It'll probably be very, very similar to the first game with them. We're just excited, excited to have the opportunity to go fight for another section title.”
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IN PHOTO 1: Sam Sherwood. IN TOP PHOTO: Nolan Card (left) & Dylan Brace. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
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