UV-Edmeston, Oxford gridders finish seasons with wins

Football

Unadilla Valley-Edmeston 22, Hancock 14

NEW BERLIN – The Storm found that it was much better to give than to receive.

For the first time in 17 games over the last two seasons, UV-E did the kickoff instead of the receiving. The defense held the visiting Wildcats in check for three quarters, and the Storm offense produced its best game – far and away – this season.

“This is the first game all season where we came out and took control of the game from the first play,” said UV-E coach Jack Loeffler, whose club finishes 2-6.

Tom Giordano rushed for 238 yards and one score, and sophomore running back Eric Bennett had 122 yards rushing and two touchdowns including an 18-yard in the fourth quarter that upped the lead to 22-8.

Hancock’s Chris Hallstead threw TD passes of 99 and 73 yards to Will Young, but through three quarters, the Storm held one of the most prolific passing quarterbacks in Section IV to just 19 yards.

“This is exactly what we wanted, offensively, all season,” Loeffler said, who credited linemen Claude Davis, Justin Peek, Farrell Ruffles, Jake Curtis, Josh Sandell, Pat Fallon and Josh Rifanburg for allowing the backs to rush for 388 yards. “Almost everything was up the middle, and our linemen were knocking them off the line of scrimmage.”

Giordano scored from six yards out in the first quarter for the only tally in the first half, and Bennett raced 55 yards to paydirt in the third giving his club a two-TD lead entering the fourth stanza.

“We’re really excited and the staff is already making plans for next season,” Loeffler said.

Team Summary

UVE H

First downs 17 5

Rushes-yds 61-388 19-86

Passing yds 3 191

Comp-att-int 1-2-0 7-18-2

Punts-avg 1-28 2-29.5

Fumbles-lost 3-1 1-1

Penalties-yds 3-30 4-25

Individual statistics

Rushing: (UVE) T. Giordano, 34-238; E. Bennett, 16-122, J. Lloyd, 7-21, J. Wright, 4-7. (H) Aaron Gorshack, 12-57, C. Hallstead, 5-20, J. White, 1-9, R. Jennings, 1-0.

Passing: (UVE) J. Wright, 1-2-0, 3 yds; (H) C. Hallstead, 7-18-2, 191 yds, 2 TDs.

Receiving: (UVE) J. Rifanburg, 1-3, (H) W. Young, 2-172, J. White, 2-13, J. Marino, 3-6.

Score by quarters

Han. 0 0 0 14–14

UV-E 8 0 6 8–22

Scoring Summary

First quarter

UVE: Tom Giordano 6 run (Giordano run)

Third quarter

UVE: Eric Bennett 55 run (run failed)

Fourth quarter

H: Chris Hallstead 99 pass to Will Young (Hallstead pass James White)

UVE: Bennett 18 run (Wright pass to Josh Rifanburg)

H: Hallstead 73 pass to Young (PAT failed)

Oxford 14, Tioga 12

TIOGA – Oxford took advantage of its limited trips into Tioga’s defensive end to finish with its sixth win of the season Friday night.

Ian Grundner returned the opening kickoff 50 yards deep into Tioga territory, and the Blackhawks scored shortly thereafter on Steve Locke’s 15-yard scoring toss to Ben Burdick.