SECTION IV FOOTBALL: NEWARK VALLEY'S HARDENSTINE LOOKS TO REGROUP TO CHALLENGE IN CLASS C (2019-08-09)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
NEWARK VALLEY — Newark Valley struggled through a late-season meltdown last fall after winning a state championship in 2016 and qualifying for the state playoffs in 2017.

Head coach Ted Hardenstine is looking to rebound from a 5-4 campaign and snap a four-game losing streak when the Cardinals open the 2019 season Sept. 7 at home against Windsor. 

The Black Knights dropped down from Class B. There will be two other teams missing from the Class C ranks. Wavertly moves up to Class B while Edison has moved to 8-man football.

Newark Valley, Corning and Deposit / Hancock will scrimmage at Chenango Forks at 7 p.m. Aug. 30.

Following are Hardenstine’s thoughts on a few topics about the upcoming season.

What do you think of the changes to Class C?
“I’m excited for the upcoming season. I think that Class C football in Section IV will be very competitive this year. The team that is able to win our section should be battle-tested, and ready to make a good run deep into the state playoffs. We lose one of the better teams in Class C last year with Waverly going back up to B, but they are replaced with another quality team in Windsor. Edison is going to drop down to 8-man football this season, I would hope this allows them to have more success to build their program so that they will be able to return to 11-man in the future.”

Do you like the way your schedule is set up this season?
“I do like the way our schedule is set up. We start the year home vs. Windsor, at Tioga, and then home vs. Sus. Valley. These are three good teams that are well-coached. Playing these three schools the first three weeks will challenge us to play quality football early in the season, and ensure that we are well-prepared to compete the rest of the season. The next three games are all of our division games (at WG/OM, vs. SVEC, vs. Dryden). These should be three quality teams, and they represent the three most important games of the regular season. And finally, we finish on the road at Fulton and at Groton. Fulton is a Class A school from Section III, and Groton a Class D school.”

Are there any rule changes that affect your program?<
“We haven't had our coaches meeting with the officials yet, but there does appear to be a couple of rule changes that could have an impact on us this year. One appears to be the addition of a 40-second play clock that will start after the previous play is blown dead. This has the potential to change the pace of the game on both sides of the ball. Another is some changes to the definition of legal offensive formations. I'm not sure the level of impact this will have yet. We will find out more at our meeting later this summer.”

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2019 NEWARK VALLEY CARDINALS SCHEDULE

(All games begin at 1:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.)

Sept. 7 …. vs. â€¦ Windsor
Sept. 13 ... at … Tioga, 7 p.m.
Sept. 21 … vs. â€¦ Susquehanna Valley
Sept. 27 … at … Watkins Glen/Odessa-Montour (Watkins Glen), 7 p.m.
Oct. 5 …. vs. â€¦ SVEC
Oct. 12 … vs. â€¦ Dryden
Oct. 18 … at â€¦ Fulton, 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 25 … at â€¦ Groton, 7 p.m.

Nov. 1-2 … Section IV Class C semifinals
Nov. 8-9 … Section IV Class C championship