SECTION IV FOOTBALL: OWEGO HOPES TO COMPETE FOR CLASS B TITLE (2024-08-19)
By TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
OWEGO — About half of Owego’s roster this season will be seniors and that group brings a plethora of athleticism to the gridiron. Add some players from a JV team which lost just one game and the River Hawks have a recipe for success.
Of course, nemesis Maine-Endwell stands in the way of Owego and a Section IV Class B title, but that highly-anticipated battle doesn’t happen until Week 8.
The numbers and talent level are promising for second-year coach Patton Taylor.
“Right now, we're sitting at 66 between JV and varsity,” he said. “We're at 35 on varsity with 17 to 18 seniors, so a very, very large senior class, very athletic senior class. We're also getting a bunch of kids up from JV.
“They had a great season last year. A good chunk of them, they'll be contributing this season and organically just creating competition at practices.”
Taylor has enjoyed some good turnouts at summer workouts as well
“The summer optional practice is really continuing to develop our line,” he said. “We had great numbers all summer. Our linemen have come a long way expanding our run game.
“We also have a pretty athletic crew up on varsity, so we can throw the ball around a little bit too. I think we'll be pretty versatile this year but priority No. 1 is developing the line.
On the defensive side of the ball, the River Hawks have reaped the benefits of competing in 7-on-7 during the summer.
“Defensively, you get a lot of good reps,” Taylor said. “You get a ton of different looks, looks you probably don't get or wouldn't get in 11-v-11 football. We had a ton of JV kids travel up to Forks and the state tournament up in Cortland. We were able to get them in in big spots. We were able to know the rotations and just get that live experience. Defensively, I think that's where we really took a big step forward.”
Owego’s defense was lacking in two losses to M-E last season. The Spartans did graduate a large number of players, but are notorious for reloading year after year. Even though finishing second to M-E is nothing to be ashamed of, Taylor knows what his team is looking for.
“The goal should always the sectional championship,” he said. “Reflecting back on last year, the first three to four weeks we were still trying to find our identity. In the first year with a new staff, coach, that's common, but once I just kind of had a light bulb moment after the Watkins Glen game, we really started playing a different brand of football, so we got a little bit of a run there. Obviously, we ran into a tough opponent in Maine-Endwell in the finals, but from where we were at the beginning of the season to where we were at the end of the season, we were really a different team.”
Owego will open at Union-Endicott at 7 p.m. on Sept. 13.
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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
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