Blue Bison remain unbeaten
Shaker staves off rally from Guilderland to improve to 6-0 on season
If there was any doubt about who the best high school football team in Section II might be, Shaker ended any questions on Friday night.
But the Blue Bison didn’t make it easy.
Shaker, after gaining negative yardage for the entire first half, scored two third-quarter touchdowns and then held off a frantic last-minute Guilderland rally to pull out a 14-12 victory. The win was the Blue Bison’s third over its primary Class AA rival in just five weeks and, combined with its early season triumph over Class A power Burnt Hills, left no doubt about who is the team to beat in the playoffs.
Shaker, which edged previously undefeated CBA last week, is now 6-0 overall and 5-0 in Class AA, while Guilderland falls to 4-2 and 3-2.
Shaker turned around the game in the third period, with a pair of touchdowns in less than five minutes. Trailing 3-0 at the break, Shaker coach Gregg Sheeler didn’t panic at halftime. “We just had to believe in ourselves,” he said. “I
don’t want to take anything away from (Guilderland) — they played their butts off — we had to get back to believing in ourselves.”
Shaker’s luck began to change on the Blue Bison’s second play of the third quarter. Quarterback Jake Iacobaccio found Malcolm Robinson for a 37-yard throw and catch, and five plays later Kyle Yusuf went 9 yards around end for a 7-3 Shaker lead. On the Blue Bison’s next possession, Iacobaccio, who had been held to minusfour
yards rushing on 10 attempts, found a seam in the Guilderland defense and scooted 43 yards for a touchdown.
The Blue Bison seemed to have the game in control until the final minutes of the fourth period. With his team pinned back at its own 8-yard line with 2:39 left to play and holding a 14-3 lead, Sheeler opted to take a safety rather than risk a blocked punt. But Guilderland wasted no time after receiving the free kick, scoring 72 seconds later on a Ty Santabarbara-to-aidan Chrysler pass. However, the Dutchmen’s ensuing onside kick went out of bounds and Shaker ran out the clock.
Shaker hardly looked like an undefeated powerhouse in the first half, running 16 plays for minus-five yards in total offense, and didn’t have a single first down. It was its defense that kept Shaker in the game, stopping Guilderland twice deep in Blue Bison territory. Ryan Mazzariello recovered a fumble at the 6-yard line and Sean Gilday intercepted a pass in the end zone.
While Guilderland was held to negative yardage for most of the first quarter, the Dutchmen started to come to life to take a 3-0 lead on Dillon Blanchard’s 35yard field goal. Blanchard would try a 40-yard field goal midway through the fourth period, but he came up short.
For the night, Santabarbara provided most of Guilderland’s attack, completing 10-of-17 passes for 130 yards; Chrysler and Kellen Taylor each caught three passes. The Dutchmen were held to just 80 yards rushing on 35 attempts.
Shaker managed just 115 yards in total offense, with more than half coming on Iacobaccio’s two big scoring plays.