by Steve Bradley
On a drizzly Friday evening, the Hoosick Falls Panthers Football team completely dominated Lake George / Hadley-Luzerne. The Panthers took control, once again, on the first offensive play of the game. Quarterback Garrett Wright took the snap and lofted a perfectly thrown pass to Austin Pitt, who was racing down the sideline. Pitt continued down the sideline until he was in the end zone. The 55 yard play gave the Panthers a 6 – 0 lead seconds into the game, and they would never look back.
The Panthers kicked off, and the Warriors ran three plays, losing five yards. Then they punted from their own 10 to waiting Panther Colby Davendonis. In what was the heaviest rain of the evening, Davendonis cleanly handled the catch and took off down the sideline. He wound his way down the field, mostly untouched, and at the conclusion of his 55 yard return he was standing in the end zone. Damon Dubois made the extra point to up the lead to 13, where it remained when the first quarter came to a close.
During the second quarter, the Panthers put the game away. Pitt scored on a nine yard run and a 35 yard pass. Conner McCart added an eleven yard touchdown reception to cap off the first half scoring. The halftime score was 34 – 0.
In the third quarter, Pitt added a two yard run for a TD. This brought the score to 41 – 0, where it stayed for the remainder of the contest. During the third quarter, JV players began appearing at different positions on both sides of the ball. Noah Labarge had several nice runs as the JVs sharpened their skills and added a little more varsity time to their experience.
In the waning moments of the game the Panthers drove to the LG/HL goal, where the Panther QB took a knee twice, bringing the game to an end.
Everything went right for the Panthers on this night. Pitt ended the evening with four touchdowns, rushing 12 times for 92 yards and catching four passes for 96 yards. Wright was 8 of 15 passes for 140 yards, with 3 TDs and one interception. Wright tacked on 30 yards in five rushes.
The defense was terrific, holding LG/HL to 19 yards on 24 rushes. Evan Hand had 11 tackles; Mark Hackett had 10; Alex Hull had eight, and Shayne Richard recorded seven tackles. Damon Dubois was 5 of 6 on extra points.
On Friday, September 19, the Panthers and their fans will take a ride down Route 7 to visit the (0 – 2) Tamarac Bengals. Game time is 7 pm.