Roscoe/Livingston Manor 40

Fallsburg 0

ROSCOE- “A life that touches others goes on forever.”

So even though it was the first time in the past 51 years that Fred Ahart was not standing on the sidelines of Roscoe's football field, offering the encouragement and love that he showed right up until the end of his life, his spirit was most certainly there.

And a happy spirit it was as his beloved Blue Devils continued their unbeaten streak this season with a demonstrative 40-0 win over the Fallsburg Comets.

In Coach's honor, the team released a bevy of blue-and-white balloons to the sky aimed at his angelic presence.

The balloon launch followed a moment of silence in his honor. A large portrait of a smiling Fred stood right behind the Roscoe bench and the players chanted “one-two-three coach” after their time outs. For Coach Mike Hill the win brought a sigh of relief.

“We had no idea what to expect,” noted Hill. “Coach Scanna is a great mentor.”

Even though this was the Comets' first game of the season after only ten practices, their athleticism and potential lethality had Hill scrambling to come up with a variety of schemes depending on what he saw.

What he saw instead was his well-prepared team delivering enough moxie on both sides of the ball to overcome a spate of miscues in the form of high snaps that went over his quarterback's heads.

Hill's mainstay for calling the signals is senior standout Brenden Ryder, but the savvy coach doesn't like to depend on just one person.

“Players can go down or even test positive for Covid. We have to be ready,” Hill said.

To wit, junior Alanis Ruiz, junior Matthew Bowers and senior Dalton Powell took snaps as well as Ryder.

Roscoe's mistakes notwithstanding, the Blue Devils executed an extraordinary kicking game authored by Connor Gorr that put Fallsburg in dire field position most of the game.

How it went down

Roscoe received the opening kickoff but one of those high snaps abated their first drive. A booming Gorr punt pinned Fallsburg on the one and on their first play Peter Lutman was driven back into the end zone with a timely tackle by Roscoe senior Connor Gorr for a safety and a 2-0 Roscoe lead.

High snaps plagued Roscoe on the next two series and Ryder had a touchdown called back on a holding penalty. The score remained 2-0 until 10:23 of the second quarter when A.J. Ruiz carried it in from the one-yard line. David Diaz drove it in for the conversion and Roscoe now led 10-0.

Gorr's kicking again gave Fallsburg dreadful field position and the Comets just could not sustain any traction even with freshman New Rochelle transfer running back, Demari Hamilton, in the backfield.

Roscoe did an excellent job of containing the speedster with their great lateral pursuit and gang tackling.

With 8:38 to go in the second quarter A.J. Ruiz scored his second TD on an eight-yard romp. The conversion failed but Roscoe now led 16-0.

The Comets could be heard saying, “It's only two touchdowns,” but sadly for them the deficit was soon to get larger.

Second Half

At 8:01 of the third quarter Ryder tossed a strike to sophomore tight end, Anthony Teipelke, for a 34-yard TD. Case Leroy added two more points on the conversion to put Roscoe ahead 24-0.

A little more than two minutes later Ryder threaded the needle with a seven-yard TD pass to Leroy. Junior Kevin Bear carried in the two-point conversion and Roscoe now led 32-0.

Junior quarterback Matt­hew Bowers ran 54-yards for a fourth quarter score and Bear made it two conversions in a row as Roscoe rolled to a 40-0 win bringing their record to 3-0. They face rival Tri-Valley at home next Saturday.

The Bears beat Ellenville 42-20 to stay in the hunt along with Sullivan West which bested Eldred 36-0. Sullivan West (2-1) will travel to Fallsburg Friday afternoon.

Coach Scanna felt that if the game has been a scrimmage, he would have been pleased with his team's initial effort but as a game effort he noted there was a lot of work to do.

“We've got a lot of young players and many of them stepped up,” he added. “Football is life.

“You've got to deal with what happens. We'll get to work and try to be ready for Sullivan West,” said Scanna, who is always upbeat and classy.

Roscoe coach Mike Hill lauded his team's defense. “It's our anchor.”

Roscoe held Fallsburg to 1.2 yards per carry.

That is beyond impressive. To prepare, Hill and his team had only film from two years ago to go on.

“Coming in, they were a total unknown quantity,” he observed.

Experience is a dear teacher and Roscoe has already had ample game action to school them while Fallsburg was just facing the first day of football school. For all the teams, every week provides new lessons.

Roscoe Stats:

Total offense 171 yards on 44 plays for 3.9 yards per play. Roscoe completed four-of-ten passes for 67 yards for 16.8 yards per pass. Brendan Ryder threw two touchdown passes and had no interceptions.

Rushing 34/104 for 3.1 yards per carry, Roscoe had one lost fumble. They had four penalties for a total of 25 yards. They marshaled 13 first downs: ten on rushing and 3 on passing. Bowers led all rushers with 50 yards on four carries (12.5 yards per carry). Brenden Ryder rushed 13/32. Aaron Steele led the defensive charge with 8.5 tackles and one sack. Gorr recorded 7.5 tackles and one sack.

Fallsburg Stats:

Total offense 104 yards on 48 plays for 2.2 yards per play. Quarterback Athan Zeno completed 3/11 for 58 yards with two interceptions. Fallsburg had only one penalty for five yards. They lost one fumble. The Comets garnered eight first downs. Zeno led his team with 5.5 tackles. Akinde Bryan had five tackles. Fallsburg is now 0-1. They face Sullivan West at home on Friday afternoon.