The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Canastota upset by Lowville in semifinals
Lowville capitalizes on 7 turnovers to advance
ROME >> The Canastota football team entered Saturday’s Section III Class C semifinal against Lowville as the No. 1 seed, its players confident that the only way they would lose was if they beat themselves.
Unfortunately, they did as much of that as they could and the No. 4 seed did the rest.
The Section III Class C Southeast champion turned the ball over seven times, falling one game short of a return to the Carrier Dome with a 27-6 loss at Rome Free Academy Stadium.
Canastota’s struggles started on the game’s opening possession when it lost a fumble on a bad snap three plays into the game. After starting on the 3, Lowville’s Patrick Gardener scored on a 1-yard touchdown run up the middle two plays later for a 6-0 lead following a missed PAT.
Things only got worse from there for Congden’s squad, which lost a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. Another three-play drive ended when Kalani Zehr hit Max French with a 5-yard TD pass. Zehr’ PAT kick was good, extending the Lowville lead to 13-0 just over three minutes into the game.
A fumble by the No. 4 seed allowed the Canastota to get back in the game, setting up a 5-yard scoring pass from Jeff Marsh to Lukas Eddy. The two-point conversion try failed, keeping the score 13-6.
A short punt set Lowville up inside Canastota territory later
in the opening period and Zehr capped the four-play, 24-yard drive with a 1-yard run and his second PAT kick for a 20-6 edge.
Lowville took that 14-point lead into the second quarter and recovered another Canastota fumble two plays into the period. Gardener scored his second touchdown on a 9-yard run, followed by another Zehr kick for a 27-6 lead.
Canastota’s defense forced two turnovers of its own before halftime but the offense couldn’t capitalize on either, keeping the score 27-6 going into intermission.
Lowville ran over three minutes off the clock to open the third quarter before punting.
Ben Marshall gave Canastota’s offense a boost with a 50-yard run on first down but the drive ended with a turnover on downs.
Gardener and Chris Ozkan continued to move the ball on the ground for Lowville throughout the second half.
While the No. 4 seed didn’t score, it did run plenty of clock. Canastota made one more big play when Marsh connected with Darien Fox for 50 yards, but Congden’s squad turned the ball over three more times in the fourth quarter to dash any hopes of a comeback.