LESSONS LEARNED IN SUPER BOWL LOSS
Blue Streaks showed character in 28-6 loss to Troy High
ALBANY, N.Y. » Only five football teams will end their season with a win and it will come later in the month of November, away from the Capital Region and against two teams that may have never met.
To be crowned a champion takes talent, health, luck, execution and character. For those who don’t make the trip to the Syracuse Carrier Dome, it is the losses that often reveal the character of those Section II athletes who don’t advance.
In Saratoga Springs 28-6 loss to No. 1 ranked, defending New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA champions Troy High Friday night the Blue Streaks showed what young men can accomplish through both wins and losses.
“I think we only had the ball for four possessions in the first half,” Saratoga Springs Coach Terry Jones said. “We had some opportunities. They’re number one in the state for a reason; they’re a good football team.”
In the first half Troy produced
more than 300 yards in total offense compared to the Blue Streaks 62 yards and scored three times ( four if you count Dev Holmes touchdown that was called back for finger waving on his way to the end zone), as Saratoga found out firsthand how talented the Flying Horses backfield is.
“We prepared them for everything except their actual speed,” Jones said. “Both of them (Joey Ward, Dev Holmes) the whole team, they have great team speed and we knew that coming in, but you can’t replicate in practice and on turf they’re even quicker and faster.
“It’s not just that they’re fast, they’re so quick and they can stop on a dime, jump turn and all those things. They’re tough to bring down. I couldn’t tell you how many times Wards spun tonight while running the ball. When you don’t see that on a regular basis, it’s not something you can simulate in practice.”
In the second half Jones made adjustments to the Blue Streak’s offensive game plan, going for broke and willing to take a risk, relying on senior quarterback Wes Eglintine.
“It’s partly my fault in not going to him earlier, Jake Williams our backup quarterback is out, so if Wes goes down .... so I was a little hesitant and a little reluctant to run him,” Jones said. “Hindsight is 20-20, if we run him and something happens, now what do we do, we don’t have a quarterback.
“There are some things we would all do differently, there are some play calls I would make a little differently, but in the end of the day our kids played hard from beginning to end and that’s what we ask of them. We ask them to give 100 percent the entire game and I think anyone who watched that game knows that they did just that.”
Eglintine finished with a hard fought 55 yards on the ground on 19 carries, 54 of those yards coming on 16 carries in the second half. When he dropped back he threw for 117 yards on nine completions on 25 attempts and was intercepted three times, one at the end of the first half with just two seconds on the clock and the ball near midfield.
Eglintine was lost for the entire season injured on Saratoga’s second possession of its first game, the first of several injuries to the Blue Streaks skilled players that disrupted a season for the 2015 NYS finalists. The Saratoga returners were determined to make this year count.
“Last year was last year, I’m tired of talking about it, but it’s part of the game,” Jones said. “Things happen, but we’re a better team healthy than what we were through that season.
“I thanked the seniors because they were responsible for getting us back here and I do believe that we’re a team that should be playing in this game much more frequently. We’re excited about our underclassmen and kids we have coming up and I told them ‘It’s on you now.’ It’s on them to carry this on and if they don’t they’re dishonoring the seniors.”
The pain will subside for this year’s Saratoga football squad, but each win, each playoff victory will become a part of their memories of being a part of this Blue Streak team.
“This team accomplished a lot, a lot more than most people would ever have given us credit for,” Jones said. “I don’t think too many people had us 9-0 and in the AA playoff championship game at the beginning of the year.”