Horde fall to Blackbirds

Granville had more yards in penalties than their featured running back gained and lost two touchdowns because of them, as the Golden Horde fell to Class C South’s Voorheesville Blackbirds Saturday, 33-6.

Kody Bardin ran for 87 yards and a second quarter touchdown, but had two long touchdowns and the associated yards negated by penalties.

With yards called back by penalties Bardin could have been at around 280 yards on the day, head coach Mario Torres said.

Torres said the team was excited and played hard but that led to a high number of penalties.

A few stood out for the coach more than others, however. While some penalties are simply a part of the game and something you’re never happy with but accept, the holding call which negated the first of the two voided touchdowns looked like a good block, Torres said.

“I thought they missed that call. I thought that was a good seal block, he turned the kid to the inside, it was a good block but they saw something I didn’t see,” he said.

Ultimately “That’s football, sometimes the ball bounces your way sometimes it doesn’t,” Torres said.

As with much of the season, the team showed moment and stretches of solid play, typically to have a drive stalled by an untimely penalty or a defensive stand broken on a missed assignment or tackle.

“I thought we beat ourselves. We took 14 points off the board offensively when we had touchdowns called back, then they were able to score and that’s a 28-point swing and we lost by 27,” Torres said.

“It’s just a typical display of shooting yourself in the foot,” Torres said. 

Cameron Gallagher eclipsed the 100-yard mark with 107, largely on the 50-plus yard run that put the Horde in scoring position in the second quarter. Quarterback Luke Hahn went 3-for-9 for 24 yards and was picked twice.

Defensively, Granville had no solution for Amir Robertson who led Voorheesville with 108 on the ground all, seemingly, right up the middle of the Horde formation.

The Blackbirds also had Mike Conde go for 100 yards on the ground while quarterback Mike Chiseri threw for 195 yards and two scores on 10 of 21 passing; he had two interceptions. Torres said the short range passing game led to big yards after the catch for the blackbirds.

“They were able to execute in their underneath passing game and we were not able to execute and make tackles and it hurt us,” he said.

While Granville caused turnovers, the team came away with the ball three times on a (Jared Beattie) interception and two fumbles the Horde were unable to covert into a score. 

Granville drops to 1-7 with the loss while the Blackbirds evened their record at 4-4.

In other football news …

Sunday night, Granville Golden Horde head Coach Mario Torres finally found out the team’s opponent for the final game of the 2011 season.

Of the initial three possibilities, the match up ended up in the ‘”none of thee above” category as Granville will host Warrensburg Saturday, Oct. 29 at1 p.m.on Sam Eppolito Field. The Class D Burgers, 2-5, beat Lake George 50-20 and Catholic Central 36-6 in weeks five and seven, respectively, and fell in a shootout with Whitehall 58-44.

“We’re excited to give the seniors a chance to go out with a win and play one last game at home,” Torres said.

A win to cap the season also helps add some momentum to off season work from play in other sports to working in the weight program and all manner of preparatory work.

Torres said early Sunday evening, if he had to guess, he thought Granville could faceLake George,SalemorJohnstown.

Despite preferring to keep the team close to home for their final game, Torres said the Generals were seeking a rematch with Catholic Central instead of facing Granville putting that match up just 19 miles down Route 22 in doubt.

It remained unclear ifLake Georgecould field a team for the final week of the season, Torres said.

“It’s a matter of whether they have the numbers to play. They got beat by Catholic Central and I don’t know if they have enough guys to play another game,” Torres said.    

The final possibility wasJohnstown.

Torres said for the sake of the team and their fans and family members he hoped Section II might helpSalemsee the light instead of directing Granville to take an hour and a half bus ride for their final game of 2011.

Despite the added cost of a long road trip, Torres said the budget was set up for one more road game.

“The administration’s been really good about supporting us for the nine games and we were budgeted for five road and four at home,” Torres said.

 

— Matthew Rice