Kicking off: A year ago, defending NYSPHSAA Class A football champion Sweet Home turned on the jets in Week 6 with a 52-0 rout of Starpoint. Combined with a solid win at Iroquois the previous week, it served notice the Panthers were finding their stride. Seven weeks later, Sweet Home walked out of the Carrier Dome with its second straight New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship.
If the Panthers three-peat, observers may point to Week 6 as when the pieces started coming together.
The Panthers built a 27-0 halftime en route to a 34-6 victory at Grand island for their 32nd consecutive victory.
"Every year we've had to develop a team -- we had some key guys in a few spots, but our line was new and we had some other new guys and it has taken us a while to jell," coach John Faller told The Buffalo News. "We did things on offense, on defense, in special teams.
Sweet Home fumbled on its first play from scrimmage but scored on its next four possessions to take command.
Quarterback Jordan Johnson went 10-for-14 for 132 yards and two TDs, senior Nick Spidell made an interception and caught a 9-yard TD pass, and Ralph Neasman rushed 18 carries for 141 yards.
The teams directly behind Sweet Home in the New York State Sportswriters Association rankings also rolled right along.
No. 2 Aquinas began pulling away in the second quarter and coasted past Canisius 40-16 on three TDs from Mike Messina (14 carries, 162 yards). He scored on a 57-yard carry on the third play of the third quarter to extend Aquinas' lead to 26-10.
The Little Irish have won 19 straight games vs. Monsignor Martin Association teams over five seasons.
No. 3 Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, which has lost to Sweet Home in the last two state finals, broke open a 25-7 game with TDs on its first two possessions after halftime en route to beating Amsterdam 58-27.
Junior Jack Guba ran back an interception 77-yards for a score 13.4 seconds before the half, then returned the second-half kickoff to the BH-BL 42. Four plays later, senior QB Keaton Flint (162 rushing yards and four TDs) scored on a 31-yard carry.
Flint, an all-state wideout last year, completed both his throws and caught two passes from backup John Bennison. His longest TD run was 75 yards in the fourth quarter.
First down: New Rochelle, ranked sixth in Class AA, beefed up its resume with a 23-12 victory over No. 9 White Plains as Jordan Lucas (10 carries, 97 yards) ripped off a 53-yard TD run midway through the fourth quarter.
New Rochelle had been held without a first down in the second half until a minute before Lucas' burst.
The Huguenots successfully defended a fake field goal attempt and then drove six plays and 82 yards with Lucas carrying for the key TD with 5:47 to play for a 17-6 advantage.
Second down: Paul Magloire hit Kendall Bruton for 13 yards on a fourth-and-6 play and Mike Kozlakowski ran in from 5 yards out on the next play late in the third quarter to spark a 45-30 victory for No. 23 Lynbrook over No. 22 Hewlett in Section 8 Class A action.
The TD by Kozlakowski (10 carries, 133 yards) capped a 14-play, 91-yard drive and built a 38-24 lead against a team that had allowed only 21 points in a 4-0 start.
Kozlakowski scored on a 74-yard run on the second play of the game, and Travis Lock answered Hewlett's first TD with a 90-yard kickoff return for a 14-10 lead. Lenny Canales of Hewlett returned a second-half kickoff 92 yards for a TD, but the Owls then drove more than seven minutes to the crucial TD.
Also on Long Island, No. 9 Carey shut down No. 20 Wantagh 30-0 as Rob Zorn ran 23 times for 200 yards and the first TD of a 21-point first quarter. QB Kyle Zahradka ran 11 times for 79 yards and two short TDs.
In Section 1 Class A action, No. 18 Poughkeepsie won its showdown with No. 19 Horace Greeley 24-8. The Pioneers went up 6-0 on Fabian Stone's 62-yard throw to Dane Myers in the second quarter, recovered the opening kickoff of the third quarter to set up a 22-yard scoring drive and then controlled the ball with its ground game.
Halftime: With both teams facing confrontations vs. No. 4 Sachem North in the next two weeks, Longwood stepped up with a 22-13 victory over No. 21 Williams Floyd in Suffolk County Class AA action.
William Floyd had won 12 of the last 13 games vs. Longwood. "This was one huge,'' Longwood QB Danny Farrell told Newsday. "This one meant so much to our fans, our players.''
Davonte Booker's 16-yard touchdown run with 4:09 to play wrapped up the verdict. Booker finished with 13 carries for 90 yards.
Third down: Fordham Prep coach Pete Gorynski rang up his 100th victory in a 40-21 win over Holy Cross, but the unbeaten team may have lost star running back Michael Seminario (21 carries, 165 yards, two TDs) for the remainder of the season to a possible broken collarbone, The New York Daily News reported.
Senior Max Kinder completed 11 of 22 passes for 227 yards for four touchdowns. He'd thrown eight interceptions in two losses to Holy cross in 2009.
As a low preseason seed in the CHSFL, Fordham Prep does not have to face the likes of Class AA No. 2 St. Anthony's or Iona Prep during the regular season, a scenario the coach had lobbied for before the season.
