Not even two months ago, the Jordan-Elbridge football team’s magical journey commenced at the Carrier Dome. Now the Eagles are one win from returning to Central New York’s most famous sports stage to play for a Section III Class C championship.
Putting everything together in a fine all-around effort, the Eagles tore up visting Thousand Islands into a thousand pieces in Friday night’s opening round of the Class C playoffs, vanquishing the Vikings 42-6.
This sets up a sectional semifinal between the Eagles and undefeated, top-seeded Herkimer (8-0), who blanked Canastota 24-0 and owns the no. 5 state Class C ranking after winning the sectional Class D title a year ago.
While Herkimer was enjoying its shot of glory in 2013, a young J-E lineup was toiling through a 3-5 season. But now that these Eagles are seniors, they have come of age, mostly due to a defense that hasn’t allowed any opponent to score more than 14 points this fall.
That includes Thousand Islands, who was the same team J-E faced in that Sept. 7 Kickoff Classic opener at the Dome, requiring a late touchdown to edge past the Vikings 8-7. The Eagles were not in a mood to wait until the fourth quarter to take charge again.
Marching 70 yards in nine plays, J-E seized a 7-0 lead midway through the opening period on Sam Robles’ four-yard scoring run. After a defensive stop, the Eagles drove again and Robles, from 10 yards out, found the end zone for the second time as the first-quarter clock ticked down.
Though it didn’t score the rest of the half, J-E made sure, through its defense, that Thousand Islands never got comfortable, Kyle Humberstone getting an interception and fumble returnR. As a result, that 14-0 lead seemed a lot bigger, and the Eagles knew that a big play or two could put the game away.
And that’s exactly what happened in the third quarter. On its third play from scrimmage, Austin Barrigar went back and, from midfield, threw deep, finding Lamatt Chisholm on a touchdown pass that covered 50 yards.
With that 21-0 edge, J-E could afford to go to the ground and stay there. Top back Ryan Matousek churned away through back-to-back Eagles drives, sapping the Vikings’ strengths, and then finding the end zone on scoring runs of 13 and 11 yards to extend the Eagles’ lead to 35-0.
Barrigar tacked on a second TD pass, 12 yards to Jordan Green, in the fourth quarter, and attention could get turned to Herkimer, to see what it would take to contain the Magicians and keep them from making the Nov. 9 sectional final at the Dome against Utica-Notre Dame or General Brown.
