Stillwater falls in New York State Regional to Gouverneur, 10-2
SCHENECTADY, NY » After a hard fought season, Stillwater fell for the first time all fall in the New York State Regional tournament to Section X’s Gouverneur, 102, on Friday night in front of a packed house at Mohonasen High School.
“I’m extremely proud of our kids ,” said Still water Head Coach Ian Godfrey following the win. “They fought, and fought, and fought. It came down to the last place, what else can you ask for ?”
A back and forth defensive affair Friday night limited the scoring chances for both Gouverner and Stillwater. Prior to Friday night’s loss, the least amount of points Stillwater scored in a single gamewas 21, which was the Section II championship game against-Cambridge-Salem.
“Gouverneur is a really good football team. We knew that coming in. We knew we had to get some stops,” said Godfrey. “Offensively I thought we did somenice things.”
Stillwater utilized the three headedmonster of MasonSeymour, James Galarneau, and Lu cL es ca ult out of the backfield, just as they had all season. Seymour led the team with 21 touchdowns enteringthe regional matchup, while Galarneau was right behind him with 18.
Galarneau finished with 126 yards on the ground and 12 through the air. Seymour added 68 rushing yards and caught those 12 passing yards.
For Gouverneur, their game was led by quarterback Caleb Farr, who rushed for 138 yards inthewin. Running back Cay den Stowell added 69 yards for himself
“In the first half we were amped up, Our kids were fired up ready to play and we were missing some tackles, flying by guys, and they broke down and they made some nice plays ,” said Godfrey. “We were in the right spot. Our guys got a little gutsy tonight and they got after it. Credit to Governeur they played a fantastic football game.”
The game was tightly contested the whole way, but an opening drive touchdown score for Gouverneurmade it seemas though the game could have had afewmorescores.
Governeur scored the only touchdown of the game at 10:17 in the first quarter on a 23 yard runbyFarr.
On their first drive of the game, Stillwater turned the ball over on downs. Governeur responded to that with another prolific drive that looked to be leading to another score until Stillwater’s Ryan Greene intercepted the ball on the Stillwater six yard line to keep the Wildcats out of a goal line formation.
Nothing came from the Green pick.
Later in the second quarter, a Gouverneur long touchdown run was negated due to a hold, bringing back the Wildcats to the spot of the foul on the 20 yard line. With time dwindling, Gouverneur put together a strong drive to get inside the Stillwater five yard line, but a stalwart Warriors defense held Governeur from scoring before the halftime horn sounded.
The third quarter was very much the same thing. A defensive power struggle plagued the field of two strong offensive units. A turnover on downs here, some batted down passes there, and neither team could string together a momentum building drive.
Gouverneur ended the third quarter on a strong drive that ended the third quarter and set them up for a 25 yard field goal by Mitchell Tyler to open the fourth quarter. Gouverneurnowled by twoscores.
Stillwater responded with a big drive of their own. As the Warriors marched down the field, Seymour and Galarneau combined for 67 yards. The Warriors eventually did reach goal line formation and even found themselves just inches from scoring, but Gouverneur held them off. Godfrey was visibly frustrated with the spotting of the ball and looked as if he believed Stillwater did cross the goal line for a touchdown.
“We were right there down on the goal line at one point,” said Godfrey. “Such is life and youhave tomakeplays.”
God frey had no comment on the kerfuffle.
Stillwaterdidget somegood out of the drive they strung together though. Gouverneur was unable to get comfortable starting their drive from inside their own five yard line and linebacker Rhett Mercier sacked Farr in his own endzone for a safety at 4:11 in the fourth quarter.
The score would be all the Warriors couldget offensively.
Stillwater was able to recover a fumble with sometime left and Gal ar ne au was able to get the offense just 24 yards away from the endzone with time ticking, but the Warriors deep passes. fell upon locked down receivers. They were unable to score, and with it, their season officially ended.
God frey was not disappointed with his team, but happy with the accomplishments they were able to achieve this season en route to winning their first Class Csectional title.
“I’ m so proud of these kids and how hard they fought ,” said Godfrey .“What is there left to say? I told these guys you were undefeated Central champs. You won the first sectional in school history, and you took the regional final to the last play. These guys have nothing but pride and character and they should hold their heads up high, and they will, because they are those types of kids. They are competitive kids. As a coach, I am honored and privileged to have spent every minuted I did with these kids — Ron Jones sent me an email earlier that said you always remember your first really special team and these guys will always have a special place in my heart.”