Week one—Sullivan County football briefs

Tri-Valley and Liberty score huge opening-day wins

Livingston Manor/Roscoe victimized by Deposit again in season opener

By RICHARD A. ROSS

HIGHLAND FALLS, NY — Those prognosticators not privy to Tri-Valley’s training camp regimen, or the riveting dedication of coach John Rusin’s staff and his players, looked at the match up between Class C Tri-Valley and Class B James I. O’Neill and handily predicted an O’Neill win.

More than likely, the same pundits predicted a Tri-Valley defeat at the O’Neill tournament at the outset of last year’s basketball season. Tri-Valley defeated O’Neill then, and went on a season-long rampage that took them just one game shy of Glens Falls and ended with a total record of 22-2.

On August 31, the Bears beat O’Neill again, this time in football as they came from an 18-13 halftime deficit to hold the Raiders scoreless for the second half en-route to a 26-18 win.

Tri-Valley got on the board first, turning a supposed punt into a 20-yard gain by Sean Drown, abetted by a huge block from Garret Grey. Brendan Musa scored shortly thereafter on a six-yard run. Bo Murphy’s PAT gave the Bears an early 7-0 lead.

O’Neill’s Ben Johnson took a screen pass 46 yards for a TD. The PAT failed and Tri-Valley retained a 7-6 lead. In the second quarter, Tri-Valley quarterback Charlie Edwards connected with Dan Byrne on another fourth-down conversion, this one a 26-yard pass play. Musa subsequently carried it in for two yards for the Bears’ second score. The PAT failed, but Tri-Valley now led 13-6.

O’Neill answered right back on a long pass play from sophomore quarterback Aaron Kilner to Matt Gibney. The PAT try for two points failed, but O’Neill closed to within to one at 13-12. A key interception of an Edwards pass by defensive back Marshall Moten set up another strike from Kilner to Gibney, this time for 57 yards, and O’Neill took an 18-13 lead into halftime.

But that was it. Tri-Valley’s defense stiffened and shut out the Raiders in the second half. Meanwhile, Tri-Valley continued to make fourth downs a nightmare for O’Neill. Edwards overcame an intentional grounding penalty to connect with a diving Nick Cassidy for the go-ahead score. The two-point attempt failed, but the Bears now led 19-18.

Tri-Valley’s blitzing defense upset Kilner’s timing and neutralized the Raiders’ shotgun offense. Kilner’s fine passing was marred by key drops by Raider wideouts. A bad snap set up by the Raiders set up Tri-Valley at the Raiders’ one-yard line, allowing Edwards to score on a keeper. The PAT made it 26-18. Kilner completed 11 of 26 passes for 286 yards; Gibney had seven receptions for 181 yards and two touchdowns; Johnson had three catches for 89 yards.

Musa carried the ball 28 times for 141 yards and caught three passes for 25 yards. Cassidy and Grey had seven tackles apiece.

Tri-Valley travels to Livingston Manor/Roscoe (LMR) for week two. Last year, the Bears overwhelmed the Devilcats 55-0.

DELHI, NY — Utter the name Delhi and the word football comes immediately to mind. For years, the Bulldogs have been synonymous with winning ways in Section IV, formerly in Class C and most recently in Class D.

Graduation left the Delhi Bulldogs without running sensations Nate Rockefeller, Brenton Hood and Chad Rockefeller, but Liberty figured there would be others to step into the breach.

Delhi may be a shadow of its 2006 self but it’s still Delhi. Still, this day was all about Liberty.

Facing an arduous battle to keep the program that was reinstated in 2005 afloat, despite rolling up a record of 1-17 over the course of two seasons, Coach Jim O’Connor never lost his optimism. This year, he expects to see some of that pay off in dividends, and it didn’t take long for the first return to roll in as Liberty recorded a stunning 26-22 opening day win over one of the region’s most storied programs.

Liberty came out stoked to play, something that has been apparent in watching their practices. They are a cohesive, hard-working lot, and getting Dustin and Ryan VanLieu from Tri-Valley added depth and experience to the team’s backfield that is indeed a force to be reckoned with.

Tompkins ripped off runs of 40 and 15 yards for the Indians’ first scores of the day. On defense, he was a monster making 10 tackles. His teammates call him “Tank” and one look at his bruising physique shows why.

Following Tomkin’s offensive display, the VanLieu twins showed theirs. First Dustin ran it in from three yards out, and then Ryan added a six-yard run. Quarterback Joey Ruiz’s keeper on the PAT added two more for a 26-0 halftime lead.

You can well imagine what the locker rooms were like at the break. O’Connor hoped his team wasn’t over confident. Meanwhile, Delhi coach David Kelly probably had some choice words for his team that was putting a suddenly different face on Delhi football.

The second half was a whole other story as Delhi roared back to score three touchdowns in the fourth quarter on three passes from quarterback Trent Kathmann of 35, 34, and 31 yards. Davionne Price ran in a pair of two-point conversions to make the score 26-22.

Facing a fourth and one on the Delhi 40 with a minute to play, Liberty decided to go for it and not automatically hand Delhi another possession given the game’s momentum. With a lead block from fullback Ryan VanLieu, Tomkins barreled into the line and when the dust cleared, Liberty had the first down by a matter of inches and held on for the win.

Liberty will play its first home game against rough and tough Eldred on September 8. Both teams are 1-0. O’Connor hopes the game isn’t a repeat of last year’s 47-0 rout.

ROSCOE, NY — When it comes to opening day football for LMR, the byword is beware of the Lumberjacks. Once again, Deposit ruined LMR’s opener, this time to the tune of 38-0. Last year, LMR finished strong in a 33-16 game. That was a marked improvement over the 35-0 blanking at the hands of the Lumberjacks in LMR’s debut year as a combined team of Livingston Manor and Roscoe.

This year, it was back to square one, but LMR coach Fred Ahart remains positive about the long view as a fine youth football program is underway that will pay dividends down the line. Deposit used a relentless running attack to dominate the clock, while it racked up yardage.

Three different Deposit backs chipped in to give the Lumberjacks four rushing touchdowns in the first half.

LMR’s leading rusher was Josh Gorr, who carried the ball 11 times for 44 yards. Mike Hendrickson had eight carries for 41 yards.