SECTION IV FOOTBALL: SVEC GIVES COACH LOPSIDED BIRTHDAY GIFT (2021-10-14)
BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
SPENCER — SVEC coach Mike Chaffee celebrated his birthday Thursday evening with his 10th consecutive Section IV Football Conference victory as the Eagles pounded Newfield, 60-0, in an 8-man Division VIII game here.
It's SVEC's fifth contest scoring 60 points or more since leaving the 11-man ranks last season and its also the Eagles' second straight shutout. The purple and black, ranked second in the state, have won all nine 8-man games since making the switch last season.
The Eagles put the ball in the end zone four times in about 6 1/2 minutes of the first quarter to jump on a 32-0 cushion.
"Again, everything was clicking for them," Chaffee said. "It's nice to see, after a week off, they came out firing and they picked up right where they left off, so that was good."
After Jacek Teribury returned the opening kickoff 51 yards to the Trojan 25, Nick Thomas found Devin Beach open for a TD just 11 seconds into the game. A Thomas PAT run made it 8-0.
Newfield looked like it might make a game of it with a 21-yard pass play on its first offensive play of the night, but the Eagle defense stiffened and forced a punt.
Three plays later, Thomas bolted 53 yards to paydirt, then tossed the PAT pass to Beach and it was 16-0 at 8:49 of the opening period.
A Trojan fumble on the ensuing possession would give SVEC the ball at the Newfield 44 and three plays later, Thomas hit Hunter Haynes with a 12-yard TD pass. Haynes' Pat run pushed the advantage to 24-0 and there was still 6:53 left in the first quarter.
Following a Trojan three-and-out, Haynes returned the punt 45 yards just 88 seconds later for another TD and a Thomas PAT pass to Hunter Harmon made it 32-0.
Newfield finally started moving the ball on its next possession, setting up a first-and-goal at the SVEC eight. However, the Trojans started going backward and turned the ball over on downs at the 14.
Pavel Jofre, who came off the bench to record a career night, hauled the rock four times for 63 of the next 84 yards, setting up a 2-yard keeper by Thomas with 6 1/2 minutes remaining in the half. His PAT run gave the Eagles a 40-0 bulge at intermission.
SVEC began rotating subs in early in the game.
"We feel confident with our second string in there and we like to rotate guys in," Chaffee said. "It's going to help us continue to build the program for when our seniors are gone next year.
"Those guys are going to have a lot of playing time this season, to continue to let them grow and let them play with the starting offensive line too, so we get our second running backs in there, playing with the first offensive line. That's really good for them, four our team and our program."
Newfield would be forced to punt on the first possession of the second half and Beach, despite reversing direction early in the return, lugged the pigskin 79 yards for another TD. The PAT attempt failed, but SVEC's lead was now 46-0 with 9:34 left in the third quarter.
Another Trojan three-and-out set up the Eagles for a 7-play, 56-yard drive capped by Kameron Smith's two-yard plunge at 3:03 of the third period. Jacek Stahl ran for the PAT and a 54-0 advantage.
Tyler Doster would pick off Newfield QB Honour Miner at the SVEC 20.
The Trojan defense would tighten up and force the Eagles would attempt their first punt of the season. A high snap over the head of Thomas forced him to scoop up the ball and kick it on the run, resulting in a 3-yard punt.
Newfield would drive to the SVEC 14, but John Hammond's 11-yard sack of Austin Jenney helped squelch the threat and preserve the shutout.
"We had another shutout," Chaffee said. "Defense, everybody was contributing, we got all our guys in, we rotated in. They got down in our territory, but they kept fighting and they didn't give up. They kept fighting right to the end.
"Our defense played extremely well, keeping them off the board."
On the ensuing drive, the Eagles marched 70 yards in eight plays with Jofre and Teribury accounting for all the yards with Jofre scoring from a yard out with 1:29 remaining in the game. The pat attempt failed.
SVEC rolled up 478 yards offense, 441 coming on the ground via 37 rushes.
Jofre handled the brunt of the workload with 14 carries for 104 yards. Beach had two rushes for 92 yards, Thomas had three for 90 and Logan Jewell had four for 71 and Teribury added five for 51 more. Haynes, Jacek Stahl, Smith and Tyler Stahl combined to tack on an other 33 yards on nine carries.
Thomas completed both of his pass attempts, for 25 yards to Beach and 12 to Haynes.
Newfield (1-3, 1-1 Div. VIII) finished with 120 yards total offense.
SVEC (4-0, 2-0 Div. VIII) has clinched a tie for the division title and can lock up the championship next Friday at Elmira Notre Dame (0-4, 0-1 Div. VIII).
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IN PHOTO 1: SVEC's Pavel Jofre. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
