Congratulations to the Sherburne-Earlville football senior cheerleaders Abagail Pierce and Kyra Smith, along with senior football players Tomek Jusianec (3), Justin Race (5), Lukas Schieferstein (7), Hadden Price (13), Michael Behret (24), Dustin Perry (62), Alex Campbell (63), and Camden Marino (69)- not in order. (Photo by Morgan Golliver)

SHERBURNE – The Sherburne-Earlville Timberwolves football team returned home on Friday night for its final home game of the 2025 season to take on friendly foe Phoenix in a rematch from the Sectional championship game. S-E also honored its senior players and cheerleaders prior to the contest. Congratulations to senior cheerleaders Abagail Pierce and Kyra Smith, as well as football players Tomek Jusianec, Justin Race, Lukas Schieferstein, Hadden Price, Michael Behret, Dustin Perry, Alex Campbell, and Camden Marino.

“Every year, we have the kids put a lot of effort into the program, so it’s always nice to hold that special event for those guys. We just adore them,” SE’s Coach Steve Franklin said. “Half of our seniors have never played football before, especially at the varsity level. A very inexperienced class, but those eight guys have given their all and we’re just super proud of them.”

The S-E crowd also got a big thrill when senior Tomek Jusianec also played the national anthem with his electric guitar, which was amazing.

S-E put on a great battle with key plays, but Phoenix had strong playmakers, who dished out a solid 51-20 victory. S-E found its footing in the second half after being down 33-0 at the break, facing a lot of adversity with injuries to their top position players.

“The injuries have just derailed our season. We have a few guys in concussion protocol, a few guys with ankle injuries, that just keep gutting it out,” Franklin said. “We just don’t have a lot of depth and it’s starting to show. Love the kids, they fight whenever we ask them to, we’ve been pretty good at making some adjustments to do better in the second half.”

The Timberwolves made some good strides coming out for the second half, getting on the board in their first drive as Lukas Schieferstein and Justin Race got the offense moving down the field. Race scored on a three-yard reception from Schieferstein. However, Phoenix marched down the field themselves adding on to its lead, becoming a back-and-forth affair, which the S-E defense could not stop.

Schieferstein found the end zone himself on the following drive and then for the final touchdown of the night in the fourth quarter, Schieferstein found Nolan Sigman wide open in the end zone and had a successful two-point conversion.

“We just talk about not quitting, which is kind of tough at this point, but the kids keep showing up and put in a tremendous amount of work, just a good group of kids. One of the hardest working groups, just the injuries are killing us and the inexperiences are showing, and hopefully we can get one next weekend,” Franklin said.

S-E (0-6) heads to Oswego (Class A) on Saturday at noon.

Other Chenango County football scores:

B-G falls to Delhi 56-24.

Greene/Oxford falls 41-22 against Newark Valley.