Warriors mar Dawgs’ Friday night lights debut

Sullivan West falls to a Section Four foe for second straight week

By RICHARD A. ROSS

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY - The good news for Sullivan West is that their daunting opponents from Section Four are now in the rearview mirror. After losing to Delhi last week by the lopsided margin of 58-13, Sullivan West hoped for some redemption against perennial power Walton.

But the invading Walton Warriors had ideas of their own. After suffering their own resounding loss against Unatego last week, Walton set its sights on turning its season northward. Obviously something was going to have to give.

What gave was Sullivan West’s capacity to deal with the running game. On offense, the Bulldogs tallied negative yardage by game’s end. On defense, they failed to stop Walton’s agile running backs.

The Warriors mounted a powerful running attack, fueled by the steady running of junior fullback Richard Fletcher, and wore down the Bulldogs on their way to a 26-6 victory.

Fletcher accounted for 146 yards on 24 carries. He also tallied a pair of touchdowns on a two-yard plunge and a 21-yard gallop.

Playing for the first time under the lights on their new field in Lake Huntington, Sullivan West won the toss, but elected to defer. The Bulldogs hoped to ride the enthusiasm of the home crowd and the memory of last year’s teams’ resounding win over Pine Plains to propel them to a win.

Early Warriors miscues thwarted their first drive, which pulled up lame with a fumble at the Sullivan West 18, knocked loose by John Whitaker and recovered by Bulldog Will Schlott.

Getting that turnover should have sparked the Dawgs. Instead, their running game was totally stifled by Walton’s defense.

Walton capped off its next drive at the Sullivan West 45 in a matter of six plays as Fletcher’s two-yard run gave Walton a 6-0 lead with 9:52 left in the second quarter. The Warriors failed on the two-point conversion pass, which was broken up by Bulldog Jason Leewe.

The Bulldogs had to punt after a failed series, and sent the ball deep into Walton territory. A thoughtless Bulldog block in the back gave Walton 10 more yards, but a second fumble was recovered by Schlott at the Walton 14.

Quarterback Jim Moloney threw a leading pass to flanker Donald Cooper on first down to tie the score at six-all with 6:30 to go. Moloney’s PAT went wide right. Shortly thereafter, Warrior Adam Pierce broke free and caught what appeared to be a 39-yard touchdown, but the play was called back on a holding penalty. Walton accrued four costly penalties in the first half to go along with its two fumbles. Without those miscues, the score could easily have been heavily in Walton’s favor.

The teams headed into halftime knotted at six apiece but Walton had won the time-of-possession battle by a landslide.

The Bulldogs received to start the second half and went three and out, despite good field position from a Walton squib kick. Moloney was too shallow to receive the long snap for the punt and Walton partially blocked it, which gave the Warriors the ball on the Sullivan West 38. The Warriors got to the 13 after several runs by Fletcher, but Sullivan West stopped Walton cold until fourth down. With a fourth and 13 to go at the 15, quarterback Pat O’Brien faked into the line and raced around right end untouched for the score. Walton extended the lead to 14-6 on a conversion pass to Adam Pierce with 3:29 to go in the third quarter.

If the game had a defining moment, that was it. Prior to the score, Bulldog defenders shouted to each other, “We didn’t work all week to let these guys score in our house.” But despite their passion and intensity, Sullivan West defenders squandered the chance to make a statement of ownership as they let O’Brien garner the lead that the Warriors would never relinquish.

Moloney was sacked a total of three times on the night by Walton’s swarming defense. In fact, a sack set up the third touchdown by giving the Warriors a short field. Fletcher’s 21-yard jaunt made it 20-6 with 9:52 left in the game.

Moloney had some success in the air transforming a third-and-10 play into a 25-yard first-down pass to Brad Reimer. He also hit a leaping Cooper over the middle but the drive stalled. On a fourth and 18, he was intercepted as Walton dropped back into a cover three defense. Unfortunately, O’Brien was seriously injured during the runback and left the game with what coaches presumed was a broken leg. It was a devastating loss for the junior signal caller and the Warriors, who are just gearing up for the Class D wars in Section Four.

Walton appeared to be heading for another score with Fletcher running well, but he coughed up the ball at the Sullivan West 17, which was recovered by Bulldog John Dertinger.

Once again, Walton stifled Sullivan West’s offense and a final possession by Walton ended as halfback Anthony Mead broke through the middle of the line and galloped 35 yards to make it 26-6. Walton (1-1) came up short on the two-point conversion but the damage had already been done as Sullivan West fell to 0-2. The Bulldogs look forward to their trip to Livingston Manor next week as a chance to finally get in the win column.

“We stepped up and played better in the second half,” said Walton coach James Hoover, who was obviously upset about the loss of O’Brien. “He’s a great kid and a fine quarterback.”

Sullivan West coach Ron Bauer told his team to “hang together and focus on next week. We really need to work on our blocking,” he said.

After two sound defeats at the hands of powerful Section Four teams, it would seem that the Bulldogs have to work on all other aspects of their game as well.

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