SECTION IV FOOTBALL: SVEC TURNS AWAY NEWFIELD COMEBACK BID (2021-04-13)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
CANDOR — Devin Beach and Hunter Haynes rushed for more than 100 yards apiece and scored two touchdowns each as SVEC held off a late Newfield rally to squeak out a 34-32 8-man victory here Tuesday evening.

SVEC held the Trojans at bay for the majority of the first three quarters, but the visitors seemed to keep hanging around before charging back in the final frame, scoring the game's final two TDs. For Newfield, a rally would have been sweet revenge for a 50-36 loss to the Eagles April 2, the Trojans' only setback heading into this clash.

"That's what they do," SVEC coach Mike Chaffee said. "They've got a lot of weapons, a lot of firepower. They can strike at any time and they did just enough to keep themselves around in the game. Even as a two-score game, we knew how quick that could change going against a team like that."

Newfield was trailing, 34-16, but was able to take advantage of a 21-yard SVEC punt and quarterback Jacob Humble scored on a 3-yard keeper. His pass to Kyle LaBarge for the PAT made it 34-24 with 8:22 remaining.

SVEC responded with a long drive into the Trojan red zone, but sputtered at the Newfield 13 following a false start penalty and a key defensive stop two plays later.

The Trojans, facing a fourth-and-two at their own 21, got an 18-yard run from Humble. On the next play, Travis Chrisman raced 56 yards to the Eagle five with a lateral and Humble found Jalen Hardison open in the end zone on the next play. Humble's PAT run trimmed the lead to 34-32 with 1:41 on the clock.

The Eagles recovered the ensuing onside klick, but an inadvertent whistle gave Newfield another chance, but again SVEC pounced on the pigskin to save the win and remain unbeaten.

SVEC jumped out to a 14-0 lead, and twice led by 18 points on the way to improving to 4-0 on the season.

After stalling at the Newfield 35 on the game's opening drive, the Eagles would survive the Trojans' first possession. A pair of key defensive plays by Kameron Buchanan, and another by Elliot Walter left Newfield facing a fourth-and-four near midfield, but Humble's 43-yard keeper gave the Trojans a first-and-goal at the five — Lucas Huff made a TD-saving tackle on the play. Two plays later, Humble was sacked and Haynes recovered the ball at the 18.

A 38-yard run by Jacek Teribury, followed by an 18-yard pickup by Beach, set up Haynes' 32-yard TD run to give SVEC a 6-0 edge as time expired in the first quarter.

Newfield would turn the ball over on downs at the Trojan 38. Six plays later, Haynes punched it in from five yards out and a Nick Thomas-to-Beach PAT pass gave the Eagles a 14-0 cushion.

"Hunter, he saw the open field tonight," Chaffee said. "They were giving us the middle of the field. Our coaches made some adjustments there and he was able to cut back and find that middle early in the first half when we needed to. That was a good job by him, a good job by our coaching staff and a good job by our offensive line, creating those holes for him."

The Trojans bounced right back, scoring on Chrisman's 10-yard run with 4:12 left in the first half. Hardison, who highlighted the drive on a screen pass for 49 yards, caught the PAT pass to cut the gap to 14-8.

SVEC gave the ball back when a fake punt failed, but Newfield was flagged twice for 34 yards in holding penalties, allowing the Eagles one more opportunity to score before the break. And they did as Ousmane Duncanson's 20-yard run set up a 40-yard Thomas-to-Beach TD strike for a 20-8 lead with 12.9 ticks on the clock.

"That was huge," Chaffee said. "We missed a lot of opportunities in the first half. Being able to capitalize on that gave us a little bit of a cushion. We definitely needed that after a slow start."

The second half began with a Newfield three-and-out, which ended with a shanked 16-yard punt, gave the home team the ball at the Trojan 41. Beach bolted 41 yards down the sideline on the next play, extending the SVEC advantage to 26-8 with 10:38 left in the period.

The Eagles' dual-threat tight end played a big role with 200-plus yards rushing and receiving on the night.

"He carried us in that first half," Chaffee said. "He's grown so much this year as a player, as a person and as a leader. We're just really proud of him and what he does for this team. He's a guy that we can lean on and rely on any time. He came up big for us tonight."

Newfield recovered the onside kick and Humble connected with LaBarge for a 40-yard TD on the next play and Cosey Zavaski-Starks' PAT run made it 26-16.

This time, the Trojans tried a little onside trickery. While huddled near the kicking tee with his back to the ball, Humble tried to kick the rock with his heel, but only got a piece of the ball and it did not go the required 10 yards. With nobody going after the ball, Lucas Huff alertly scooped it up and headed for the end zone, but lost his footing. However, he did give his team possession at the Newfield 34.

Thomas found Teribury open for a TD on the next play and the QB's keeper on the PAT made it 34-16 with just over 9 1/2 minutes to go in the third quarter.

Haynes would intercept Humble at the SVEC 10 on the ensuing possession, then Hardison would pick off Thomas on the next series of downs. Forced to punt, Humble would boom one 62 yards for a touchback.

The Eagles would take the ball into the fourth quarter, where that 21-yard punt would set the stage for Newfield's comeback bid.

SVEC would rack up 437 yards offense to the Trojans' 413 with 363 of the Eagles' yards coming on the ground (43 carries). Newfield rushed for 211 (32 carries) and threw for 202 as Humble completed 10 of 21 attempts.

Beach toted the ball 14 times for 165 yards and Haynes had 21 rushes for 115. Beach had 205 yards offense on the night and Teribury added 80 yards rushing and receiving on three touches. Duncanson added 20 yards on one carry and Thomas tacked on 74 passing and 19 rushing.

With dual 100-yard rushers on the scene, the Eagles didn't have to rely as heavily on their signal caller.

"He's a little banged up," Chaffee said. "We played Friday night. We didn't have a full week's rest. They met the requirements for the rest they needed, but we've got other guys we can rely on to run the ball and carry the the load, so we kind of lean on them a little bit more when we need to."

The rare Tuesday game was scheduled so that SVEC could also play Onteora Saturday. The Section IX school has since changed its schedule and canceled that game, but Chaffee is hoping to line up another opponent.

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IN PHOTO 1: SVEC's Jacek Teribury (10). ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.