by Shari Hand
The Hoosick Falls Panthers football team proved they were in it to win it during Friday night’s Super Bowl game against the Chatham Panthers. The Hoosick Falls offense posted 31 first downs and tallied 674 yards on their way to a huge victory over their Panther rival with a final score of 61-28.
Quinn Rasmus put the hometown Panthers on the scoreboard just five minutes into the contest on a 21 yard pass play. Following a touchback from Hoosick Falls kicker Erick Mulready, Chatham answered with a completion to Ian McGrath in the end zone tying up the score at 7-7 with 5 minutes to go in the first quarter. Then Chatham’s Josh Keyes ran it down the right side into the end zone to end the quarter with a score of 14-7.
The second quarter found the teams working both ends of the field. With a little over two minutes remaining Coach Jones orchestrated an impressive two minute offense putting Hoosick Falls on the board to tie it up at 28 all going into the half.
Hoosick Falls came back on the field after halftime fired up and began the onslaught with a touchdown by Burns just four minutes into the quarter. The PAT was missed. Four minutes later Burns ran it in again, and a Randy Tutunjian completion to Tanner Williams put an additional two points on the board bringing the score to 42-28. The game changing play came when a long bomb by Chatham quarterback Tanner Niles was intercepted by junior outside linebacker Ryan Hyde deep in Hoosick Falls territory.
Hoosick Falls found the end zone three more times in the fourth quarter with one successful extra point attempt, ending the game at 61-28 in favor of the Hoosick Falls Panthers.
Sophomore Brad Burns set the field a blaze with 248 rushing yards and five touchdowns, while Junior Tanner Williams was close behind with just over 200 yards and one touchdown.
Another Big Game On Saturday
Hoosick Falls will face the ninth ranked Saranac Lake Red Storm (9-0) on Saturday at AuSable Valley High School at 1 pm. Saranac defeated AuSable Valley by a score of 55-6 to advance to the Regional contest.
