By TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
CANDOR — The Newark Valley and Spencer-Van Etten/ Candor football teams both needed victories Friday night to stay on the heels of the front-runners in the chase for Section IV Class D playoff spots.
Turning to its talented back field trio of running backs Logan Aman and Charlie Hilbert, and quarterback Jakobe Foster, the Eagles pulled away for a 48-19 Division VII win on Candor's Senior Night.
Aman recorded his fifth 200-yard rushing game of the season and scored three touchdowns, Hilbert ran for more than 100 yards and scored twice, and Foster factored in on a pair of TDs. “This was a good week to bounce back after last week, so getting out of here with a win was definitely our goal and we're happy we got there for sure,” said SVEC coach Gino Martone.
Meanwhile, NV QB Nate Hinckley was injured on his team’s first possession of the game and did not return.
NV coach Ted Hardenstine addressed some of the adversity his players dealt with this past week, specifically the injury to Hinckley.
“I think anytime you have that happen it's a big loss,” he said. Quarterback's a guy that does a lot of communicating with the whole team for us and so that's definitely a tough loss anytime you have it. That's why the people in other professions say that that guy's the quarterback. He's an important guy, no doubt, so that was a tough way to start.
“I think this year overall we've been really healthy. We've been really fortunate. We just had a flurry of things happen here this week where we're missing a few guys. Obviously having to start the game right off from the first drive having your quarterback go out, that's definitely some extra adversity that we face.”
Still, the Cardinals hung in until being victimized by a disastrous second quarter.
With the score tied, 7-7, an encroachment call gave SVEC a first-and-goal at the NV 8. Aman scored on the next play and Jak Smith converted the PAT kick for a 14-7 lead at 9:53.
The Cardinals fumbled at their own 28 on the ensuing possession and Foster recovered. On the very next play, he hit Rodney Vaow in stride, Smith’s kick careened off the right upright, but the Eagles had a 20-7 advantage with 7:41 on the clock.
Following a Newark Valley punt, SVEC moved the pigskin 60 yards in five plays, highlighted by five double-digit runs from Aman and Hilbert, and capped by Amana’s 15-yard TD dash. Smith’s PAT kick made it 27-7 with 3:46 to go in the half.
NV’s next possession started going backwards before Hilbert intercepted a pass at the Cardinals’ 27 and returned it to the NV nine although a penalty moved it back to the 23. Foster scored on a keeper on the next play, Smith split the uprights with the PAT at 1:26 and SVEC would go into intermission with a 34-7 cushion.
“Unfortunately we just all around weren't able to get it done on a level to be able to kind of compete with that team in the first half, especially on the offensive side of the ball,” Hardenstine said.
“Defense, we slowed down a little bit. Our tackling needs a lot of work. Our tackling was not very good tonight, but obviously Jackson's play, it was an enormous play there early to tie it up at 7-7 and give us a little bit of momentum. We just couldn't build anything off of it unfortunately.”
The Eagles scored the first points of the night on the opening drive as Foster hit a wide-open Vaow with a 28-yard pass, Aman picked up another 30 on the next play and Hilbert scored from five yards out. The first of six Smith PAT kicks made it a 7-0 game with only 44 seconds off the clock.
Newark Valley responded with a 13-play, 61-yard drive that sputtered at the SVEC 3 after Hinckley was injured on a 13-yard run that set up a first-and-goal at the six.
NV came back with a 10-play possession that resulted in a 73-yard “pick six” by Hoover Jackson. The PAT kick by Cooper Davis made it a 7-7 deadlock with 1:53 to go in the first quarter.
The second half started with an NV fumble on the second play from scrimmage. Amana recovered the rock at the NV 33, then ran it in for a TD on the next play. Smith’s kick at 10:34 made it 41-7.
Martone was pleased with the team’s offensive performance.
“That was a key all week,” he said. “We didn't perform particularly well on offense last week, so we definitely focused on that and coming out here and executing like we did was the goal, and glad to see we were able to do it.”
Despite their dilemma, the Cardinals came back with an 8-play, 66-yard drive capped by a 2-yard TD run from Davis. The PAT run failed, making the score 41-13 at 4:40.
SVEC countered with two long TD runs in the same possession, one of which was wiped out by a penalty. Aman dashed 68 yards to paydirt, even fumbling the ball to himself along the way, only to have it nullified by a holding penalty. On the next play, Hilbert darted 76 yards for a TD and Smith’s kick with 2:51 remaining in the period made it 48-13.
NV found the end zone on the first play of the fourth quarter as Logan Rhodes bolted 20 yards to cap a 4-play, 53-yard drive. The PAT run was unsuccessful, leaving the score at 48-19 with 10:55 left in the game.
Defensively, SVEC bent a little, but didn't break.
“They're a tough team and they're young so they're going to be good in a couple of years, but they definitely pushed us down the field a little bit. We did well bending, not breaking for the most part and I think we did well when we got down to the red zone and tightened up our defense a little bit.”
With a running clock in place, the Eagles were able to run out the remaining time.
SVEC cranked out 466 yards of offense, 399 coming on the ground. Aman gained 223 on 16 carries and brought his season total to 1,284 yards.
“He's athletic, he's gifted and just give him a little crease and he can take it the distance for sure,” Martone said. “Tonight we executed on offense and he found the holes, and when he gets out in the open it's tough to catch him, so just keep him healthy, keep him going and we'll see more of that hopefully.”
Hilbert gained 102 yards on five rushes. Also contributing on the ground were Foster (3-31), Landon Lawrence (4-25), Owen Beach (3-20) and Link Robinson (1-7).
Foster went 3-for-5 passing for 69 yards with Vaow grabbing all three. Robinson completed one screen pass to Landon Whitmarsh for minus-2 yards.
NV had 171 yards rushing and 52 through the air. Davis had nine carries for 59 yards and Rhodes contributed 51 yards on 10 rushes. Hoover ran the ball five times for 29 yards and Hinkley carried the ball three times for 24 more. Carmine Kataloni added two runs for 13 yards.
Hinckley went 1-for-2 passing for 21 yards and Hoover went 1-for-3 for 31. Zion King had one catch for 31 yards and Tim Wojtysiak had one reception for 21 yards.
SVEC improves to 2-1 in the division and trails Tioga (3-0) and Trumansburg (2-1) and currently holds the third spot in the chase for two playoff spots. Newark Valley is 1-2 and can still make the playoffs, but would need a lot of help. Groton is also 1-2 and Greene/Oxford is 0-3.
——————
IN PHOTO 1: SVEC’s Charlie Hilbert. IN TOP PHOTO: The NV offense and SVEC defense. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
