Rivalry resurrected: Whitehall-Granville crossover game Saturday

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By Krystle S. Morey

The Granville-Whitehall crossover game is a go!
A once-prominent football rivalry between the Golden Horde and the Railroaders is set to resume Saturday after a 10-year hiatus.
The Oct. 22 game will be played on Whitehall’s Ambrose Gilligan Field at 2 p.m.
Section II held a coin toss at its football committee meeting Sunday, Oct. 16 at Christian Brothers Academy to determine the crossover matchups.
School officials in both districts have been pushing for the crossover game for years.
Whitehall Athletic Director Keith Redmond, who sits on the Section II football committee, said “this is a matchup that both communities have been looking forward to for the last few years.”
He said that the communities may be more excited about seeing the rivalry resurrected than the students.
“The community understands this rivalry more than the kids do,” he said. “This was always a war between the two communities. Everybody looked forward to this game more than any other game in the world at the end of the season.”
“Both communities have enjoyed it (the rivalry) over the years,” Granville Athletic Director Eileen Troy. “It is a positive for high school sports.”
“As a life-long Granville resident, I am always glad to see the Granville-Whitehall rivalry in any and all sports,” Troy said.
She called it a “healthy, positive rivalry.”
The rivalry dates back to 1921, when the Horde beat the Railroaders (then the Maroon) 26-0.
The last time the teams clashed was in 2006. The Horde won, 18-15, on the Railroaders’ field.
The teams used to meet annually, but the districts were no longer in the same classification. Granville plays in Class C. Whitehall competes in Class D.
Both districts pushed for the crossover game for the past two years, to no avail. Last year, former Horde coach Mario Torres refused to have his players suit up against the Railroaders, according to Troy.
“We should have played that game,” Troy said. “That is one of the oldest rivalries in football, and I am so disappointed, personally, that that didn’t happen. Can you imagine if we had played that game? What a great thing for both communities.”
“We pushed hard for that game,” Redmond said.
Granville instead faced off against Tamarac last season, and lost 21-13, while Whitehall was unable to find a crossover foe.
In 2014, Section II canceled the faceoff after the Whitehall-Rensselaer game ended in a brawl among players and coaches of both teams the week before the game was scheduled to be played. Section II, however, denied that the fight was a factor, citing an error in Class C standings as the reason the game was called off.
Now that the Horde is in the Adirondack League for a majority of its sports, it has faced off against the Railroaders in cross country and soccer. Granville girls’ soccer beat Whitehall 1-0 in overtime at its Sept. 29 game under the lights. On Sept. 27, Granville beat Whitehall boys’ cross country 15-incomplete, and Whitehall beat Granville girls’ 15-incomplete.
Horde football coach Brian Bowe said his team is “excited to play Whitehall.”
“It is a game a lot of them have experienced and kept having me try to get it back this year,” he said. “It will be exciting for me because this will be my first experience with the Granville-Whitehall rivalry.”
Bowe expressed confidence that Granville, despite the team’s 0-7 record, has a good chance to be competitive against 5-2 Whitehall.
“I think it’s pretty even,” he said. “Any time there is a big rivalry game I think both teams always have a chance. There is so much emotion put into these games and whoever can control those emotions the best throughout the game usually will come out on top.”
He added: “Our team will be ready to compete.”
The Whitehall coaches, Redmond said, “think Granville is a decent team,” mentioning quarterback Trace Bourn and wide receiver Morgan Williams.
“That is a 1-2 combo that Whitehall is going to have to stop,” he said.
“He is a weapon,” Redmond said of Bourn.
The winner Saturday will without a doubt earn bragging rights in the nearly century-old rivalry.
“We just hope it’s Whitehall that gets those bragging rights,” Redmond said.
When asked which team will come out on top Saturday, Troy said: “We will see on Saturday.”
She and Redmond will be there to watch the competition.