TEAM FINDS STRIDE
After slow start, team scores on seven straight possessions in dominant Class A victory
After a slow start, the Burnt Hills football team scores on seven straight possessions in its dominant Class A victory over Queensbury.
Friday afternoon marked the first time in 16 months and 16 days the Queensbury varsity football team played a game. The first two scheduled games in the Fall Season II slate were canceled because of coronavirus protocols. Burnt Hills made sure the first foray on the field is one Queensbury will not soon forget.
Burnt Hills scored touchdowns on seven straight possessions after failing to move the ball on its first chance. Queensbury could not stop its opposition, nor could it get anything going on offense and suffered the most lopsided loss in the 29-game series between the two schools as Burnt Hills posted a 49-0 Class A victory at Centennial Field.
“It was a blessing, honestly,” Burnt Hills senior two-way lineman Holden Comley said. “Coming into this game, we thought it was just going be a battle every single play. I was expecting a onepoint game. As soon as we started getting those points on the board, our momentum picked up and it just felt great.”
When Queensbury (0-1 overall, 0-1 Class A) captured the 2019 Section II Class A title, it defeated Burnt Hills in Week 7 and again two weeks later in the semifinals. This time, Burnt Hills needed one quarter to get rolling and then never looked back.
“I love them, these guys. They practice hard and love to compete,” Burnt Hills coach Matt Shell said. “They are a ton of fun to coach because they bring it every day.”
Burnt Hills (3-0, 3-0) certainly brought the fight to Queensbury. Things began to turn Burnt Hills’ way late in the opening quarter when the defense stuffed Queensbury senior wingback Jason Rodriguez (101 yards rushing to move into second on the school’s alltime list) for a loss on a fourth-and-1 from the Burnt Hills 29-yard line. The home team drove 70 yards in eight plays — capped by a 15-yard touchdown run from junior running back Michael Frattarola.
Queensbury’s second offensive possession ended in its own territory when quarterback Sean Collins failed to secure the ball on the exchange from center on fourth-and-1 from the 29. In all, Queensbury went 0-for-6 on fourth down and five of those failures to convert came inside its own territory.
“Those are huge momentum swings. Any type of stop is huge,” Shell said.
“The numbers are in your favor when you are converting them,” Queensbury fourth-year coach Matt Crossman said. “It is something we have done as a system since being with coach (John) Irion. It is something that we have always been able to rely on. It wasn’t there for us today.”
Rocco Mareno helped extend the lead to 14-0 five plays after the fumble on a 4-yard touchdown run.
Queensbury’s next drive ended abruptly when junior linebacker Sean Cable intercepted a pass thrown by Collins.
Burnt Hills drove methodically down the field and senior quarterback Caeden Lapietro culminated the 10-play, 69yard series with a 1-yard touchdown run with 17.3 seconds remaining before intermission.
Any hopes of Queensbury mounting a comeback dissipated when Frattarola, who led all rushers with 125 yards, galloped untouched for a 60-yard touchdown three plays into the third quarter.
Burnt Hills proceeded to stuff Queensbury twice more on fourth down
and reached the end zone on short scoring series covering 37 and 22 yards, respectively, to lead 42-0.
Burnt Hills rolled up 276 yards rushing on 35 attempts and scored six touchdowns, three by Frattarola. The offensive line comprised of junior tight end Justin Gray, senior tackle Isaiah Smith, junior tackle Victor Little, junior center Matthew Pinkerton, junior guard Aidan Knapik and Comley at guard helped Burnt Hills face a third down just twice.
“Our guys had a great offseason. As far as the time down, some of these kids just transformed themselves,” Shell said.
“All of our linemen are quick, fast, aggressive, strong and do their assignments,” Frattarola said. “They are great at what they do.”
Comley and Knapik, in particular, were impressive pulling to either side of the field, creating running lanes to be exploited.
“It is my favorite part of the game,” Comley said regarding pull blocking. “I love having a full head of steam to hit somebody.”
Knapik made the conversion from fullback to guard.
“The backfield was pretty crowded and he saw that, so we asked him to move to guard,” Shell said of Knapik, who starts at middle linebacker and had never played on the line before.
Crossman refused to blame Friday being his team’s first game or missing a couple of linemen because of COVID protocols for how things turned out.
“There are a lot of question marks and not many answers,” Crossman said.