Billy Beach scores 5 TDs in rout of Pine Bush

LATHAM, N.Y.» It didn’t take long for the momentum to swing from Section IX football champion Pine Bush into the hands of both Shenendehowa and feature back Billy Beach as the Plainsmen ran past the Bushmen, 41-7 in Friday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA sub-regional at Shaker High School.

Pine Bush running back David Alcenat returned the opening kickoff to the Plainsmen 25- yard line looking to send an early message to the No. 10 ranked team in the Nov. 13 New York State Sportswriters poll. Then the Plainsmen sent their own message, as Josh Szwarcberg recovered a Bushmen fumble two plays later at their own 20-yard line.

That wrapped up the highlight reel for Pine Bush for the night.

Just one day after celebrating his National Letter of Intent commitment to play lacrosse at Binghamton University, senior running back Billy Beach wowed the Shen faithful and had a game for the ages.

Beach scored the next five touchdowns, running for 202 yards on 19 carries and pulled in a high fastball from quarterback Brody Vincenzi for a 21-yard snare as the Plainsmen dismissed the Bushmen early Friday night.

“At halftime we can’t even get the smiles off our faces in the locker room,” Billy Beach said. “At the same time we knew that it’s fun to dominate and we needed to do that again in the second half. We did it too to a certain extent; it’s a ton of fun.”

With the Shenendehowa offense moving the Pine Bush defense like a rolling roadblock up and down the field Beach was able to take both inside handoffs or tosses from Vincenzi to the house on 23-, 9-, 1-yard runs before pulling down his extended catch in the corner of the end zone for the 34- 0 halftime lead.

“All the credit has to go to the boys up front,” Beach said. “My result, my stats is what they are doing, what they are creating for me and for our other backs.

“All the credit goes to those five, those six, tight ends, full backs, they’re just absolutely beasts. The way they prepare, the focus they bring, all the credit has to go to them.”

The line makes the holes, but to Beach’s credit he’s the one who finds them.

“He plays at a different level than everyone else,”

Shenendehowa Coach Brian Clawson said. “When the ball is in his hands he makes things happen, he’s very quick. His cut back ability is amazing and he had a great night tonight.”

What cannot be overlooked is the other half of the halftime score, another zero for a Shen opponent against the No. 27 ranked team in the state.

“What we saw on film from Pine Bush, nobody attacked their triple option (offense),” Clawson said. “Wewent into the week and Coach ( Ryan) Fenton developed a game plan with Coach (Jim) Ward that we want to attack this offense.

“We developed some good blitzes, they had a really good game plan, and the scout team did a great job with it during the week. We executed it tonight, hats off to the whole defense.”

Just as the offensive line celebrates every big gain by Beach, big man Jaysiah Woodrow, scat back Kyle Acker and Dyvante Terrelonge; the defense had its numerous shares of celebratory stops.

“We ran a lot of stunts, we were filling the gaps, we stopped No. 5 (running back Gunnar Meland), No. 22 (quarterback Kenneth Holland), that was a key to our whole defense, was to stop them,” senior defensive end Patrick McCane said.

“If you stop them, you win the game and that’s what happened.

“After a big stop everyone is cheering for each other and we’re building off each other’s success. One guy makes a play than we want to step up and make another play. We just build off each other.”

The Plainsmen defense limited Pine Bush to a paltry 37 yards on the ground and 18 in the air as Shenendehowa racked up more than 450 yards of offense in the sub-regional rout.

Shenendehowa will face the winner of the opposite sub-regional between No. 21 Utica Proctor (Section III) and No. 2-ranked New Rochelle (Section 1).

“There are definitely some great teams out there in New York State,” Beach said. “We just need to step up our game.

“I think we have the talent to do it, same thing, focus, effort, go 1- 0 every week, prepare for them, see what they like to do and just see how we can run our stuff.”

Shenendehowa will take on the Utica Proctor/ New Rochelle winner Saturday, Nov. 23 at East Middletown High School at 6 p.m. Admission is $8 if purchased on-line at the www. nysphsaa.org web- site or $10 at the gate.