Back on Labor Day weekend, the Morrisville-Eaton and Hamilton football teams both began the 2009 season with wins.
And they would close out the regular season on a winning note, too.
M-E improved its playoff position by knocking off Oriskany 29-20, while Hamilton’s four-game skid finally came to a halt in a 25-0 shutout of Rome Catholic.
The Warriors seemed to catch Oriskany at a good time, coming off a short week and quite happy with itself after giving 4-0 Waterville its first loss of the season six days earlier.
Sensing a possible Redskins letdown, M-E turned to its most trusted big-play man, Joey VanDee, who proceeded to burn Oriskany for all his team’s points in the first half.
After M-E’s defense held the Redskins deep in its own territory in the first quarter and forced a punt, VanDee grabbed that punt at the Oriskany 43-yard line and returned it all the way for the game’s first touchdown.
It stayed 6-0 until early in the second period, when Oriskany got on the board with Mike Bunal’s three-yard TD run. The missed conversion kept it tied, 6-6, and from there VanDee really took over.
The Warriors were on Oriskany’s 40-yard line on its next possession when VanDee found a hole and streaked to the end zone for his second touchdown, putting M-E ahead for good.
Before the half was done, M-E had executed two more scoring drives, each of them capped by VanDee scoring on runs of one and five yards. For the night, VanDee had 18 carries for 127 yards.
M-E carried a 29-14 lead into halftime, and it would hold up, despite Oriskany getting a late TD in the fourth quarter on Mike Bunal’s short interception return.
With that win, the Warriors improved to 4-2. And when Westmoreland beat Waterville 42-12 on Saturday, it created a three-way tie for second in the league between M-E, Waterville and Oriskany, all with 3-2 league marks.
Hamilton, by contrast, only reached 2-4 by beating Rome Catholic, but were quite happy with ending its month-long skid against the Red Wings in front of the home folks on Senior Night.
Still, it took a while for the Emerald Knights to take charge. Other than James Smith scoring on a six-yard run in the opening period, neither side could find the end zone in a first half dominated by the defensive sides.
Finally, Hamilton got moving in the third quarter, driving to Rome Catholic’s 20-yard line before quarterback Coley Graham found Nic Barker in the end zone, doubling the margin to 12-0.
Yet it was the Emerald Knights’ special teams that struck the biggest blow later in the period. Taking a Red Wings punt at his own 20, Phil Kane got terrific blocking and tore through the hole and didn’t stop until he was in the end zone 80 yards later.
Smith, who made the extra point to make it 19-0, had a fine night on the ground, carrying the ball for 129 yards, including a 20-yard TD run in the fourth quarter that sealed the win.
