2011 Chenango Forks Varsity Football

Game 3 vs Chenango Valley
Blue Devils defeat CV's Warriors 21-7
18th straight victory over cross-town rivals

Articles courtesy of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

to Game 2 - Greene

to the 2011 team page

to Game 4 - Norwich

Chenango Forks wins 18th straight against rival Chenango Valley

Kevin Stevens
Press & Sun-Bulletin

TOWN OF CHENANGO --Chenango Forks denied Chenango Valley passage beyond the Blue Devils' 25-yard line until the latter stages of the fourth quarter Saturday in a streak-extending 21-7 football victory.

Lukas Aston rushed for 117 yards and three touchdowns as Forks (2-1) sprang back from a shutout loss served up by Greene five days before at the same venue.

The outcome made it 18 consecutive Forks wins in this most one-sided of rivalries.

"Everyone was devastated by the loss to Greene, especially on our home field," said senior fullback Aston. "They just came out and pushed us around the whole game. We had a great week of practice. We had to use that as motivation for CV."

Contrary to Monday's catch-up attempts against Greene when Forks employed the forward pass an uncharacteristically high nine times, it was back to meat-and-potatoes Forks football Saturday. That was especially evident on the Devils' second possession.

Ahead by 7-0 and taking over on downs at its 25-yard line, Forks set in motion a 17-play drive that lasted 8 minutes, 34 seconds worth of game clock bridging the first two quarters.

Aston got the call on 12 of those plays, including the first five and the last five, and totaled 50 yards on the possession. The largest gain was a 13-yarder by Alec Fleicher on an option to the right against a CV defense mindful of Aston's No. 43 jersey inside.

Aston rushed for 12 yards to CV's 3-yard line and, following a procedure penalty, rushed three more times. The TD came from 1 yard out with 5:02 to play in the half, and Isaiah Zimmer's PAT kick made it 14-0.

Of Aston's workload, which brought 18 rushes for 82 first-half yards, quarterback Zach Jeske said, "It's great. It gets the defense looking at him, and once they cheat toward him we take it in a whole different direction."

Forks had taken the lead for keeps midway through the opening quarter when, following a three-and-out CV possession to open play, Aston closed an eight-play, 58-yard drive by muscling over the left side of the line for a TD.

Down two scores and with its running game largely contained, CV (0-2) leaned on the pass to close the first half but converted on a mere two of nine throws on a pair of possessions on either side of a Forks lost fumble.

Following a Forks punt and CV's inability to convert on fourth down early in the third quarter, the Blue Devils set up at CV's 47-yard line with 6:32 left in the quarter and cleared Jacob Green's path for a 25-yard advancement on a first-down toss play.

After a pickup of 3 yards by Fleicher, the ball was in Aston's dependable hands for five straight plays. The last was a 3-yard scoring run over the left side, and Zimmer's PAT made it 21-0 with 3:18 left in the third quarter.

The game lapsed into a sloppy spell early in the fourth quarter, with Forks losing two fumbles and the Warriors losing another. The last of those turnovers was recovered by CV's Trevor Henige at the Warriors' 13-yard line with 7:36 to play.

CV quarterback Kevin Cox made good on five of six passes -- with four teammates sharing the receiving -- on an 87-yard scoring drive. The Warriors' first points of the season came courtesy of a Cox-to-Zack Collins pass that covered 19 yards with 4:09 to play.

Asked to identify his squad's most significant improvement made from Monday's loss to Saturday, Devils coach David Hogan said, "Finishing.

"Moving the ball and finishing, that's what we talked about. It's not going to do any good if you move the ball down to the 20 and then self-destruct or get stuffed. We've got to finish.

"We've got to take it in, and we did that three times today."

	01	02	03	04		Tot
Chenango Forks	7	7	7	0	-	21
Chenango Valley	0	0	0	7	-	7

CF - Lukas Aston 3y run (Isaiah Zimmer kick)
CF - Lukas Aston 1y run (Isaiah Zimmer kick)
CF - Lukas Aston 3y run (Isaiah Zimmer kick)
CV - Zack Collins 19y pass from Kevin Cox (E. Silvanic kick)

TEAM STATISTICS Online game stats from Gannett newspapers

	CV	CF
First Downs	10	14
Rushes-Yards	24-93	57-276
Passing Yards	137	0
Comp-Att-Int	9-21-1	0-1-0
Total Offense	45-230	58-276
Punts-Ave yards	2-36.0	3-33.0
Fumbles-Lost	3-2	4-3
Penalties-Yards	2-10	2-10

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Chenango Valley rushing

Evan Trebilcock 6-38
Mike Fillers 7-37
Adam Greene 6-35
Trevor Henige 1-(-1)
Kevin Cox 4-(-16)

Chenango Forks rushing

Lukas Aston 27-117, 3 TDs
Zach Jeske 11-59
Alec Fleicher 7-35
Ethan Cook 5-30
Jacob Green 2-25
Joe Fassett 2-5
Isaiah Zimmer 2-3
Ryan Bronson 1-2

Chenango Valley passing

Kevin Cox 9-for-21, 137y, 1 TD, 1 int.

Chenango Forks passing

Zach Jeske 0-for-1, 0y, 0 TD, 0 int.

Chenango Valley receiving

Zack Collins 3-58, 1 TD
Justin Gaudinier 3-48
Mike Fillers 2-24
Evan Trebilcock 1-7

Chenango Forks receiving:

JV Score: 20-16, CV

Preview Article(s)

Kevin Stevens
Press & Sun-Bulletin

Chenango showdown tops football menu

It'll be a matchup of reigning Section 4 champions seeking to rectify some offensive deficiencies when Chenango Valley visits Chenango Forks at 1:30 Saturday for renewal of one of Section 4's most spirited football rivalries.

The 0-1 Warriors, idle last weekend as result of severe flooding in Broome and nearby counties, will seek not only their first points of the season but the program's first win over Forks since 1994.

The 1-1 Blue Devils are coming off Monday's 21-0 humbling at the hands of Greene that marked the program's first shutout loss delivered by a Section 4 opponent since Week 2 of the 2006 season.

"I would expect it to be pretty typical -- hard-hitting, physical, a field position-type game -- probably nothing out of the ordinary," said CV coach Jay Hope. " ... It'll come down to who executes, who blocks and tackles better."

CV dropped its opener by 29-0 at Maine-Endwell, then -- as was the case with many local squads -- had its practice sessions suspended to deal with flooding issues.

"If anything, not playing last week helped us get a little healthy," Hope said. "The flip-side of that coin is, we have guys who need the practice time and who need the game experience."

CV's interior defenders can expect a healthy dose of rushing attempts by 213-pound fullback Lukas Aston, who tops Forks in both carries (29) and yards (176) through two games. The Blue Devils

will have to contend with a CV running game complimented by quarterback Kevin Cox's ability to deliver the ball down field to the likes of elusive Adam Greene and 6-foot-3 Zack Collins.

Post-game Midweek Article:

Fifth Quarter:

Published Tuesdays in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

Forks up to task

Chenango Forks' defense, as is generally the case when Chenango Valley is across the line of scrimmage, was backbone of a 21-7 victory Saturday that extended the Blue Devils' win streak against CV to 18 games.

During the streak, CV has been limited to single-digit point totals 12 times, and the Warriors' last scored more than 14 against the Devils in 1997 (a 47-22 setback).

Standout individual efforts were widespread by Forks defenders, and included:

Adam Bronson's solo effort to fell Adam Greene for a 1-yard loss on a first-quarter sweep that left CV third-and-14 ... Alec Fleicher's hit for a 1-yard, second-quarter loss and, a short while later, his smack of the quarterback that led to the first of four straight incomplete passes ... Bronson heading a swarm of tacklers to deny CV on fourth-and-3 near midfield in the third ... Mike Doll's solo work to cause and subsequently recover a third-quarter fumble ...

"Our prep team, all the second-stringers who don't get in much during the game, they all worked hard giving us a good read for this game," said Forks lineman Connor Luybli. "They played it just how CV plays it, and we knew exactly what we had to do."

As for the improvement from the previous Monday and a 21-0 loss to Greene, Devils quarterback Zach Jeske attributed it to "Dedication. All our lives, Forks football is all we've known. We come out for three days and work, learn-learn-learn, execute-execute-execute.

"Everybody on the team was just devastated because that's not what Forks football is about, Forks football is about coming out and dominating. We didn't do that against Greene. (Saturday), we did that."