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Beyond the Keystone: New York

Tagged under: Beyond The Keystone

| September 11, 2018

Saturday was another long day. A nearly 3 hour drive home Friday night was combined with a nearly 3 1/2 hour drive to Buffalo. Why?

Pennsylvania and Ohio had plenty of Saturday options. But, so did Buffalo and northern Pennsylvania. Trading my Thursday for Pittsburgh, I decided to take in an All-High Stadium game on Saturday at a rare 1pm start. Kane, meanwhile, had a rare Saturday night game scheduled for 6pm against Bradford. From All-High to Kane would be a 2-plus hour drive. And the risk of rain.

Neither team could do much offensively. Turnovers ruled the day. But, finally taking a game at All-High Stadium made up for the poor play.

That first half touchdown was on an 11-yard play. South Park, aka the Sparks, got the ball after MC/HS attempted a pass on a 4th and 36 from their own ten yard line. The same play they tried on 3rd down. Neither were successful. As the game wore on, that blunder proved to be all the points South Park would need.

But, despite that, after MC/HS gave up possession, South Park drove the field and tacked on one final score to make the lead insurmountable.

Despite the lack of scoring and the general sloppiness of play. It was a fun afternoon at one of the best stadiums in a 200 mile radius. All-High Stadium on a crisp Saturday afternoon should be on any High School Football fan’s bucket list. Tickets are cheap, at only $2. And there’s always a good seat available. Chair back seats down low near the 50 and bleachers–new bleachers–everywhere else.

The field sits in the shadow of Bennett High School to the west endzone.

After the game, I had two options. Kane had a game starting just 2 hours and 27 minutes later. Over 100 miles away through mostly two-lane, semi-mountainous roads. A drive I did before but I had already seen a game at Kane. And seen Bradford play.

The early start meant getting home an hour earlier and being an hour closer to home meant maybe being back by midnight. However, I wasn’t up for the drive.

An unusually scheduled Saturday night game in NYSPHSAA Section 6, it meant a a leisurely trip 30 miles south of Buffalo for a 7pm start. Which meant a stop at Texas de Brazil in Cheektowaga. One of the few places I’d say justify the hefty price tag.

Though I had seen Lake Shore just last year when they hosted eventual state champion West Seneca West on a Thursday evening, this was my first time seeing Eden/North Collins. The Pirates had a brand new facility with track, turf, scoreboard, buildings, and walkways. A small, single span stand on the west side of the field. Tickets, again, were only $2 for adults and free for students and children. Free one-page programs or roster-sheets were available for fans.

What’s amazing, is that Eden cancelled their season back in 2015. But, they had the numbers to return in 2016. Like many other smaller New York schools, they already had a co-op formed with neighboring North Collins but it wasn’t enough to save the team in 2015.

Eden and Lake Shore are Class B schools. Which is the third level in New York. The largest being Class AA. Then it goes A, B, C, and lastly, Class D. Due to a rash of consolidations, Class D now only has four teams. The rural areas south and west of Buffalo are rife with co-ops. Just this year, Randolph and Frewsburg formed an ’emergency co-op’ to keep both schools with football. Randolph was a recent Class D state champion. However, unlike PA where they generally just recognize the ‘host’ school, NY makes reference to both, or all three, regularly. Such as Maritime Charter/Health Sciences or Eden/North Collins.

The Eden game, itself, wasn’t that great. The Pirates jumped out to a 39-6 halftime lead. On the backs of several turnovers. Lake Shore did come together with a 63-yard TD and a wide receiver option pass deep for a TD. But, after making it a three TD game, Eden shut it down with long, sustained drives.

After the game was a long 3-plus hour drive home. Including the leisurely drive down US20 rather than the New York Thruway.

In total, it was over 1,100 miles in four days.

For more about Week 3, you can read the rest of my travels on sykotyk.com/football/ HERE.

For more pics from this weekend’s games, go HERE.

For previous weeks and seasons, go to http://www.flickr.com/sykotyk/sets/

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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