| BataviasBest.org
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Tucked away behind the main campus on West Bergen Road, in a quaint patch of woods that you barely even know is there, is the Byron-Bergen soccer complex. On Friday night, this was the site of perhaps the most exciting game I have been to all season long as the Lancers took on the Hawks in a contest full of energy that ended with the home team securing a hard-fought victory.
The place was packed from start to finish despite the chilly conditions, and the near-capacity crowd was into the game for the entire 48 minutes – even beginning the wave at one point. After watching this exhibition of excitement take place from 7:00-9:00 pm last night, it left me wondering – why don’t the Lancers play all of their home games at Byron Bergen?
The night began rather slowly, but with eight minutes gone in the first quarter the Hawks would strike first.
Utilizing several big runs to the outside which drove them all the way down the field on their second drive, the Cardinal O’Hara offense found their way to the 1-yard line faced with a first and goal situation. On the ensuing play, the Hawks would call a QB sneak in order to cram their way into the end zone and take a sudden 7-0 lead following a successful PAT.
On the point after attempt, I saw something I had never seen before during a HS football game. As the Hawks lined up for a two-point conversion originally, halfway through the play clock they called for a substitution. After already being at the line of scrimmage they sent in a few members of the kicking unit, adjusted the formation, and kicked the extra point. Although it had no bearing on the game, I certainly found it interesting.
Anyway, immediately following the Hawks’ first score, Elba would respond by seizing the momentum by way of a huge kick return coming from Rider Farnsworth, which set the Lancers up past midfield looking to tie the score.
Advancing the ball all the way to the Cardinal 20 yard line, it seemed as if they would do just that, but following a bad exchange on a first down play inside the red zone, they turned the ball back over to the Hawks and threw away a favorable chance. Luckily for the Lancers, though, their defense came to play just as they have all season long.
After Cardinal advanced the ball all the way inside the Lancers’ 30 yard line during their possession, the Hawks drew up a pass play to the left side on a second down. As the Hawks’ QB released the ball to his receiver, Elba’s Richard Flores stepped in front of his man in order to intercept the pass in the red zone. The interception gave the ball right back to the Lancers with the opportunity to go about 80 yards for the tying score with 6:16 left in the half.
Unfortunately for the home team, though, their offense was just simply not clicking early on and returned the ball to 
Cardinal O’Hara shortly after the interception. Again, Cardinal drove all the way down the field with relative ease on the ensuing possession – but again, Elba’s Richard Flores would come up huge.
On a pass play to the left side with under a minute to go in the first half, Flores was again challenged by the Hawks’ quarterback. For the second straight time, Flores was able to read the eyes of the QB, step in front of the pass and pick the ball off at the goal line, then returned it 100 yards the other way for the touchdown. The pick-6 was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Lancers, as the crowd had erupted and the entire sideline seemed to be re-energized with the swing of momentum.
On the two point try from Elba, a nice shovel pass from Garrett Chapell to John Hochmuth gave Elba the 8-7 lead, which would loom large come later in the game. With just 34 seconds remaining in the half, the Hawks would retain possession but were unable to do anything with it and each team went into the break with Elba still holding a one point advantage.
Out of the intermission the Lancers would begin with the ball, but on the first possession for each side, neither team would be able to muster any sort of rhythm and after the first six minutes of the third the score remained 8-7 Elba.
On their second drive of the third quarter, however, Elba finally got it going. Using a heavy dose of their two-headed monster at running back, the Lancers drove the length of the field and ended up punching the ball through the goal line to extend their lead. Mike Shanley scored the touchdown this time for the Lancers on a 12 yard run with 1:30 remaining in the third quarter, and after another successful two-point attempt by Chapell, the score was now 16-7 with Elba holding an important two possession lead.
For the remainder of the game, Cardinal O’Hara was able to drive the ball with success against the Lancers but could not 
finish their drives off with touchdowns. Struggling to finish when inside the red zone, the Hawks went to the passing game a little too often when within scoring territory and struggled to score as a result.
The game ended with the score 16-7 Elba, and with the victory the Lancers advanced to an impressive 4-2 on the season.
“We bent but we didn’t break,” said Elba head coach Mike Cintorino following his team’s emotional victory. “We made plays when we needed to tonight, and Richard came up huge for us. He made the play of the game.”
Along with Flores’ impressive performance in the secondary against the Hawks, Steele Truax also had a great game on both sides of the ball for the Lancers. Finishing with 14 carries for 94 yards as well as 11 solo tackles and a sack, Truax would have earned my MVP in this one.
“Steele loves competition,” added Cintorino. “He is 100 mph with everything he does. He really helped seal the deal with some strong carries at the end of the game. The line did a great job of getting off the ball and Steele made the most of it tonight.”
On Truax’s overall importance to the team, Cintorino had equally glowing praise for his Senior leader.
“He is a big guy to have on your team,” he said. “He leads by example and it doesn’t matter what the score is, he plays the same way – downhill all the time. He is a fun kid to coach.”
To go with the impression Truax left on his head coach, the offensive line also struck Cintorino as a unit whose play stood out to him on Friday night.
“Without the push our line got tonight, Steele would have had a tough time,” he said. “Our line wanted to come out and make a statement after getting beat up a little last week.”
Also putting together a solid game was Elba’s Mike Shanley. The lighting to Truax’s thunder, Shanley carried the ball 17 
times for 70 yards and a score last night, while also converting several key third downs for the Lancers. All season long, the elusive RB has provided the Lancers with game-breaking ability they lack at most other positions on the offense. Slipping several tackles and making people miss throughout 2014, Shanley has been incredibly valuable to his team.
The aforementioned Flores rounded out the top performers for Elba, who gave his team confidence going into the half with the 100-yard interception return and finished with two total INTs as well as 5 tackles.
Next up for Elba will be Alexander next Saturday in what will be their homecoming game.
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