by Steve Bradley and Paul Hand
The Hoosick Falls Panther football team got the season off to a roaring start with a dominating win over the Mechanicville Red Raiders. The action took place under the HFCS lights last Friday.
[private]Brad Burns scored on a two yard run in the first quarter to open the scoring. The team then turned it on in the second quarter, scoring 22 points on three pass plays. Quarterback Billy Pine’s TD passes were caught by Levi Brewster (7 yards), Randy Tutunjian (68 yards) and Matt Brewster (10
yards). A touchdown was recorded in each of last two quarters, with Burns on the receiving end of a 26 yard throw from Pine in the third and Brandon Hodges scoring on a five yard run in the fourth. Eric Kaufman made all five of his kicked Point After Touchdown (PAT) attempts.
The punt return team had their moment in the lights, providing some nice blocking to enable Billy Pine to record a 68 yard punt return. Jake Bakaitis blocked one of Mechanicville’s punt attempts.
On the defensive side of the ball Brandon Hodges had 10 tackles, Brad Burns 8 tackles and Derek Bird had 7 tackles. Randy Tutunjian also had one interception for the Panthers.
With the game under control, Coach Jones began subbing JV players late in the third quarter, giving these players valuable on field experience.
Brad Burns ended the night with 117 yards on 11 carries. Billy Pine had a 4 TD performance, completing 7 of 12 passes for 170 yards. Randy Tutunjian led the receivers with 2 catches for 83 yards. The defense, often overshadowed by the offense, was tremendous, giving up a total of 102 yards, 93 rushing and 9 passing.
On Saturday, September 8, the team travels to Granville (0 – 1) to take on the Golden Horde. Kickoff is at 1 pm. This is the only afternoon game of the regular season for the Panthers. The Golden Horde mascot is Genghis Khan, who occasionally rides horseback at the games.
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