State Semifinal Playoff Coverage with Roger Neel & Tim Birney

We kickoff the State Semifinal Playoff coverage with Roger Neel analyzing the Maine Endwell Spartans and Chenango Forks Blue Devils, followed by Tim Birney analyzing the Tioga Tigers.

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SPEAKER_03 0:09

Welcome to Cover Four. If you're a Section 4 football fan, this is your five years. I'm Coach Smith. I'll be your host. The Cover Four Podcast is brought to you by TDS Performance Improvement. 60% of first-time leaders fail. TDS Performance Improvement prevents these failures by verifying often overlooked prerequisites. To see if you have the leadership prerequisites, visit TDSPI.com. That's TDSPI.com. Click the Let's Have a Conversation button and schedule your free informative conversation. Hey Section 4 football fans, welcome to the state semifinals. Congratulations to the three Section 4 teams and their football communities. We kick off with Roger Neal, the sports voice of the Southern Tier. He'll be analyzing the Maine Endwell Spartans of Class B and the Shenango Forks Blue Devils of Class C, followed by Tim Burney, the founder of the Valley Sports Report. Tim will be analyzing the Tioga Tigers of Class D. For each matchup, I'll be analyzing the opponent. Let's get after it. All right, beginning with black Class B, which is going to be played Saturday, November 27th at 3 o'clock at Cicero, North Syracuse. That's going to have Maine Nwell Spartans out of section four versus Western New York Maritime Health Science Falcons out of section six. Their head coach is Ty Parker. He brings his team in. He has the Falcons at 10 wins and two losses this year, and they're on a 12-game winning streak. They've scored 398 points and allowed 138 points. And they beat Batavia 22 to 14 to advance to this particular game, Roger. So tell us a little bit about Maine and well, what we can hope to expect in these New York State semifinals.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

How about that, Tim? I'd like to have the printing and the um merchandising contract for that team because you could spend a lot of time and money on ink. By the time you finish that name, it'll be the next day. That is a name and a half. Oh my goodness. But hey, how about Maine and well? The Spartans rolled by Homer 48-22, upping their record to 10 and one. Emmy, how about this five second quarter touchdowns? They broke open the game. They were up 34 to 8 at the half. And guess who again at the engineering controls? Michael Mancini. A couple of TDs rushing, one passing. Mancini ends up with 104 yards in the air, 83 rushing. He got some running help from Donnie Hammer over 100 yards on the ground. So Maine Enwell putting the ball in the air, but again, a very strong running attack. And very interestingly, a few years back I talked to him, an outstanding uh offensive coordinator who said, We're gonna pass the ball during the regular season, whether we have a big lead or not. Not trying to rub it in, not trying to blow out teams, but there'll be times if you make it to the state playoffs, you're gonna have to pass. ME, great running attack, but Mancini can put it in the air too. So, with that, when they take on this team, it should be uh a very interesting matchup to see whether they stick to the ground or go to the air. Whatever the case, again, the engineer of it all, Michael Mancini, Tim.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

Yeah, I want to make one point of clarification there. I had said that uh the team, uh the Falcons were coming in on a 12-game winning streak. That's actually a 10-game winning streak. They come in with a 10 to 10 and 2 record and a 10-game winning streak. I want to make that clear. So now we go on to class C. That's going to be played Saturday, November 27th at 12 o'clock p.m. at Cicero, North Syracuse. Also, that will have Shenangle Forks Blue Devils out of section four versus the East Rochester Ganada Bombers out of section five. They're coached by Brian Turinjo, and they come in at a 12 and zero record, and they're at a 12-game winning streak. They've scored 395 points and allowed 120. And they beat Medina 26 to 24. That must have been quite a game to get to this particular game. So, Roger, tell us about Shenango Forks Blue Devils and what we can expect from them in this semifinals.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Well, as they they beat the Skinny Atlas to advance 41-28. And if it was ever a typical Forks game, it sure sounded like this was it. Outstanding. They throw the ball once in a while, but it's rare, and they don't need to. They get it, they get ball control, they get good defense, and that is exactly what they had. Top off with some fine offense, too. Hubbs Hawk, five touchdowns, 25 carries. He gained 230 yards in that game. And of course, Forks, how about this? You talk about possession. When you have the ball, you don't make turnovers. The other team, well, their offense is on the sideline, they can't get the ball, and that's exactly what Forks did. Forks football, which is tremendous, and uh, they had back-to-back drives that ended up taking over 13 minutes off the clock. Now, that in easy math is over a full quarter when the other team couldn't touch the football. So, uh again, forks doing what they do. If they have to pass, they'll do it, but not often. And with that kind of running attack, they didn't have to in this one to advance on. So forks will be loaded going into this game.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

Yeah, absolutely. I think we'll uh have some really good representation out of all three of the Section Four teams that are going to be uh competing at this uh state semifinal levels. Thanks again, Roger. And I'm hoping that we're gonna be here next week talking about uh some Section Four teams playing for a state championship. So you take care, have a great Thanksgiving and a great Thanksgiving to all our listeners as well. And uh hopefully we'll be back. Take care, Roger.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

And the same to you, Tim. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

Well, in class D, that game is gonna be Friday, November 26th at 3 p.m. at Cicero, North Syracuse. And that's gonna pit the Tyoga Tigers from section four against the Oakfield Alabama Alba Aggies out of section five, coached by Tyler Winner. They come in with a 12-0 record and are on a 12-game winning streak. They've scored 546 points, which is a lot, and they've allowed 139, and they beat Randolph, who is uh somebody that uh Tyugas had a little history with in the past, but they beat Randolph 28 to 22 to get to this particular point. And um I think they're gonna be a little bit surprised with this version of the Tyoga Tigers this year. Tell us about them, Tim.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

It's okay, coach. Tyoga enters the game at 10-0. They've outscored their opponents 48.8 to 9.5 points per game. That's 488 points this season in just 10 games, giving up 95. Uh, Emmett Wood having another tremendous year. You know, as a sophomore, he was the coaches association player of the year. I think he was the first sophomore to ever do that. Uh, had 2,600 yards and 30-some touchdowns this year. He's got 1,769 yards on just 119 carries. That's a 14.9 yard per carry average. He's got 28 touchdowns. Uh, I think when we first talked in the preseason, I said, you know, if Emmett Wood uh had had a full season last year, that you know, he would push Jesse Manuel's school record of 8,500 yards. And, you know, think about it, he lost at least four games last year, and maybe more if they if they win the second title last year. He's missed one this year. Last week he ran for 322 yards on 16 carries. And his career total now he has uh 7,01 yard in his career. Just in 93 touchdowns, 93 rushing touchdowns. Just an amazing career uh for the young man. And they average uh 375 yards a game on the ground. Uh they're they're they pick up more than 10 yards a carry, they're 11.4 yards a carry uh as a team. So uh senior fullback Gavin Godfrey has 723 yards and seven touchdowns. And uh Caden Bellis, sophomore quarterback, 576 rushing yards, nine touchdowns. You know, then you go a little bit deeper, and Drew Macumber, who plays a little bit at the end of each game uh when they're way ahead, he has 300 or 273 yards. He's averaging eight yards a carry behind the JV line. So, I mean, and so that that says something for the future as well. Uh and Caden Bellis is not only very dangerous in the option, uh, but he's made Tyoga into a really uh difficult team to defend with his passing accuracy. He's completing uh 53.3 percent of his passes, 32 out of 60. Uh the the scary part about that is that uh his completions average 28.4 yards per completion. Uh he's got 14 touchdown passes this year and no interceptions. So just a uh a very diverse offense, and he's got some weapons to throw to uh 6'3 sophomore. Um Valentino Rossi had two catches last week for 104 yards, a touchdown of 60 yards, and a touchdown of 44 yards. Uh he's averaging 35 yards per catch this year. Uh Evan Sickler, another sophomore, has got five catches for 207 yards, that's 41 yards a catch. Uh Cody, Kobe Whitmore leads the team with nine catches, 152 yards, that's 17 yards per catch. Uh Uzman Duncanson, sophomore, plays a little bit in the slot, plays a little bit of halfback. He's got four catches for 134 yards, that's 33 and a half yards uh per catch. You know, they they it's just a very, very difficult team to defend. And not only between the run and the pass aspect of it, uh the fact that they've got three legitimate backs who can beat you for 100 to 200 yards. Uh, you know, you look at it, Wood ran for 322 yards last week. The week before that, um Gavin Godfrey ran for 191 on 11 carries. Uh the week before that, um Bellis had 194 yards and Wood had 189 in the same game. Uh, so you just very, very difficult to defend because you don't know who's getting the ball. Caden Bellis is very good in the backfield um uh with his handoffs and and very makes it very difficult on linebackers to see who's got the ball. So that gives his running backs an extra half step for himself. Um so it's gonna be uh OAE, as they call them up there, I guess, uh is gonna be they they've faced some decent competition this year. You know, that's one thing too, coach. You know, a lot of people around section four will will tell you uh how bad uh section four class D is. But the funny thing about that is if you look at the state rankings throughout the year, you know, and you take those with a grain of salt. But throughout the but throughout the year, you know, you had Delhi ranked, Harpersville Apton ranked, Newark Valley ranked, um, all of them in the top 10 at one point or another. I think um Delhi was number four or five the first time, maybe six the first time Tyoga played them. And Harpersville Apton peaked, they were at number seven, I think, when Tyoga played or played them and beat them, and one Tyoga won both those games, I think 55-nothing and 48-nothing. You know, so I think people around here don't realize how good this Tyoga team is. Because when you look at the schedules throughout the year, Tyoga's opposition, they played um eight different teams because they played uh Harpersville. Yeah, eight different teams they played. Um they played Harpersville or Newark Valley twice and Dal High twice. So their opponents, they have four of them with winning records. Uh Doddsville was the fifth team with a winning record. So of the eight teams they played this year, five of them had winning records, and their combined record was 38 and 33. And four of the teams, actually, if you count Watkins-Glen OM, which is class C ranked, five of the eight teams this year that they beat were ranked in the state. So a 38 and 33 record. If you take Oakville, Alabama, they played all three of the teams they played in the uh Section 5 or uh playoffs, because they played seven games in a regular season, played three postseason games. So they played uh three different teams twice. And the combined records of the teams they played this year were 35 and 45. They played three different teams that did not have a win this season, and two other other or three other teams they had losing records. So of the of the 10 different teams they played this year, seven of them had winning records. Um, and one of those was five and four. Avon was nine and three. They beat Avon twice in close games, and they beat Randolph, who was uh now 10 and one. So like I said, Tyoga gets knocked a little bit because of the weak, the weak schedule in Class D, but I don't think that's the case as much as people think. I think Tyoga's just that good um that they've truly separated themselves from this. I think Newark Valley, Delhi, uh, Harpersville, Apton, pretty solid Class D football teams. Um Tyoga's just on a different level. Um, Dodgeville came in 10-0, had outscored their opponents by 35 points a game this year, and that was really no contest. Um Tyoga's second play of the game, Emmett Wood goes 57 yards off tackle. You know, I think uh Dodgeville hit on a beautiful pass play, big touchdown pass. Uh they cut the lead down to uh was it 7-6?

SPEAKER_03 14:27

I believe it was 7-6, correct?

SPEAKER_00 14:28

7-6, and then Tyoga at that point, it was it was all over. You know, Wood, um you know, I talked to Coach Ayello, he'd been all year been talking about a diversified offense. Um, he loves to give to diversify things to make it tougher to defend. And he said it just came down to the fact that Emmett was busting so many big runs, you know, then they and they had a bunch of holding calls, you know. They haven't they they're not a very penalized team at all. But the last two weeks they've had the same officiating crew and they've been flag happy. That's I always had like 19 penalties in the last two weeks, and I don't know what that was all about, but they had more holding calls in two weeks than they did all season. But anyway, I digress. So what happened was they had a lot of second and longs, third and longs because of the holding calls. So he just kept giving the ball to Emmett. And um, I think he had a I mean, he only had 14 carries, but he had five of them called back on or 16 carries, but he had five of them with holding calls. So um just one of those deals. I think you'll see this week he'll get back to that diversified offense that suffer to defend, you know, unless he finds something that's working, and then as a coach, you know, until they stop it, you keep running it.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Exactly. I think with the firepower that they have that you alluded to and documented so well, I think you know, the Tiger Tigers moving forward, if they're anywhere as a rough, if they're on the offense and they're anywhere near the 50-yard line or into the opponent's side of the field, I think you're looking at four-down uh territory on a consistent basis just because of what they do on average per pass or per run. The statistics are so much in their favor. And the fact that they're so well in all facets are very multifaceted offense. I call it not only an ambidextrious offense where you can do things passing, running left and right, it's the type of running they do and the type of passing they do, it's not dinky dunk kind of stuff. It's chunks, you know, it's chunks that they're taking. So I really think that uh, you know, OAE that you call them Oakfield, Alabama Alba, I think they're gonna have their hands full in terms of stopping that. And I think if Tyogi gets into a close game, it plays into their hands just because of the ground and pound that they can do and actually play keep away from an opponent that may be good offensively. So I think it's we're set up for a really good game here on uh Friday afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

You know, one of the things I think the first time we talked this season, I I picked uh Tyoga to win a state title. And I and I said to you, and I and I've said it since, and I've written it since, there's there's not another team in the state that has the same type of playoff experience this Tyoga team does. They had 10 sophomores on that team uh two years ago when they went to this, they lost 28-27 to CSP in the in the state semis. And um so and they had a a ninth grader on that team as well. So if you you take that into consideration, there you know, they've got a large chunk of kids, you know, right now that played quite a bit in that state semifinal game. You know, you're looking at you know, most of their senior class this year, they've got 10 seniors um that are playing mostly. It's this whole team is either senior or sophomore, except for the freshman that's playing on the line. So, you know, they're not going anywhere for a while. But what I'm saying is they they've got experience that nobody else can match up with at this point in the postseason. So I think that's an intangible that's gonna be tough to uh defend for other teams.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

Yeah, it is, and it prevents that culture shock. We're like, wow, we're we're in the state semifinals. Well, you know, that as opposed to well, we've been here before, we understand what it takes. We lost that particular game, we're not losing this one, and let's stay, you know, focused. So it does it does help contribute to the overall success and it does put another little uh notch in that in that belt in terms of something to fall back on to if the going gets tough.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

And they're also playing on the same field they played on two years ago at Cicero North Syracuse.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Ah, yep.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

So a lot of things that are that play into Tyoga's hands this week.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

You know, looking at at uh OAE, uh offensively, they kind of have a uh very similar um numbers to Tyoga. They have uh Gage Armbrewster, who I don't have full stats. I I was able to peruse the internet and find nine of their or 11 of their 12 games. But what I can tell you is that uh Armbrewster has let's see over 1,500 yards and 17 touchdowns this year running the ball. They have Noah Courier. He has uh more than 600 yards and 12 touchdowns. He's also has uh uh 10 catches for about 300 yards, he's got five touchdown receptions, and then their quarterback, Bodie Hyde. Um, I don't think he was the starting quarterback early in the year. I think he's starting he moved into the starting quarterback spot third or fourth week, according to the the stats that I was able to pick up. He's thrown for he's completed about 60% of his passes, uh, 683 yards and nine touchdowns. He's also rushed for 466 yards and 11 touchdowns. Um, the running back, their big running back, the armburster uh boy, he has he rushes for a little over 10 yards a carry. So this is a team that's um has a lot of big play potential. Um they run a uh wing T but out of a shotgun. And uh they are able to um throw the ball fairly effectively as well. But a lot of that from what I've seen, a lot of the their success throwing the ball was teams that came up with eight and nine guys trying to stop the run. So they're able to throw to open receivers or one-on-one coverage where you know guys may have bitten on the run and uh receiver got a couple steps behind him. So, you know, we'll see. Uh uh Tyoga, you know, they played Watkins Odessa Montour earlier this year. They run the uh the double wing T. And um, so it's a little different, but there's a lot of the same counter elements, and um uh they've got some good athletes. So, you know, Tyoga's got a little bit of experience against this type of offense, but it's not exactly the same offense. Uh I the thing with Tyoga's defense is they're so quick. You know, I've said all year the team the way you beat this team is a Randolph type team that can run the ball between the tackles with some physical linemen. Sorry, my dog. So so my so they got some physical linemen, um, but this OE team's not any bigger than Tyoga. Uh they've got some big skill players, linebackers, defensive end tight end slash tight end. Um so I think it's a it's a pretty good matchup of teams. I think um I I like Tyoga, but I think Tyoga's got to play well. They have to come out and play well and play their style of football. Um, and I think if they come out and they play their brand of physical football for four quarters, um, I don't know that OAE has seen that type of football. Maybe against Randolph they did. Um, but other than that, you know, they're gonna get hit for four quarters. This Tyoga football team is fast and physical on defense, and uh they're gonna if OAE wins this football, they're gonna earn it. The football game, they're gonna earn it. You know, and I I think obviously I think I don't think it's gonna be an easy one for Tyoga. This is, you know, this time of year, the wins get a lot tougher. And I think that this is the biggest challenge they've faced all year for sure. I think this OAE team, I think they were eight-man football just a couple years ago. And um, they've definitely put together something special here. Uh, this team, you beat you beat a Randolph football team, you're a pretty good, you're a pretty good football team, you know, in that in that round of the playoff state playoffs. So uh I'm looking forward to a fun game. I think it's gonna be uh it's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

Yeah, I think it's gonna come down to classic uh playoff football. The farther you progress, the more you need to have a good solid running game and be a you know good, solid defensive team. And if the other team is more of a prolific team, that's even more reason you need to have a good solid running team. So you keep the ball, you keep the chains moving, you keep the clock moving, you play in essence, keep away from an offense that's very dynamic. So, Tim, uh, as usual, you've done a great job and uh set our listeners up with all the the information they need to uh go into this game knowing what they need to know. And uh I think it's gonna be a great game. And thank you, Tim. And hopefully we'll be here next week talking about going into the the next game. I don't want to get the get you know too much ahead of ourselves, but the potential's definitely there. So thanks, Tim, and uh look forward to hopefully talking to you next week.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Absolutely, coach. One thing to keep your eye on keep your eye on the weather. It looks like it could break down a little bit up there, and that could play in the type that could play in the Tyoba's favor as well if it if it becomes a ground and pound type football game and uh you know any kind of mud or or snow or stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

So yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Never know.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

All right, take care, bud.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Thanks, coach.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

Yep. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe. And remember, tell your friends, Coach Smith says visit cover4.com and be the next fan up. In football and life, it's not where we line up, it's where we wind up. Thank you for listening to the Cover Four podcast.