Troy High explosive against Ballston Spa
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. >> As much as some things change they stay the same.
Ballston Spa and Troy High moved down to Class A football in the latest classification realignment allowing both squad to face like competition, but the road hasn’t gotten easier for the Scotties and the Flying Horses continue to be explosive on both sides of the ball.
Troy High took a two touchdown lead, added two big scores in the second half and its defense didn’t rest on the road, defeating Ballston Spa, 27-14 Friday night.
Xavier Ward capped a sevenplay drive early in the first half with a six-yard run and Xavier Leigh pulled in a 22-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Mike Fazio for the 14-0 halftime lead and the Flying Horses were primed to add more in the second half.
With the ball in Ari HolmesParson’s hands, Troy saw him rip off two scores of 69- and 32-yards.
“A tough start, we waited too long to get it going,” Ballston Spa coach Ray Toohey said.
Ballston Spa got on the board
when quarterback Keegan Zoeller found his favorite target, Tyler Beverly, for a 51-yard pass, setting up a seven-yard run by Zach Washington to cut into the Flying Horses lead.
Late in the fourth, Zoeller put the ball up and over the Troy defense and Beverly’s right shoulder into his hands in the left corner of the end zone, cutting the lead, 27-14.
“Those long passes certainly help, you don’t want to live and die by them, but it did help get some guys out of the box defensively and that was really our main goal,” Toohey said. “It was late in the game, you kind of had to throw anyway, but our main goal was to try to get a little bit less of Troy’s defense right in front of us.”
The subsequent Scotties onside kick failed, but a bad snap on the Troy punt attempt gave Ballston Spa the ball at midfield, but the Flying Horses defense again stepped up.
Forced to look for another score with under three minutes left, Zoeller was forced to drop back and throw the ball and the Flying Horses came in waves, sacking the quarterback on all four attempts.
“I think when we watch this film we’re going to see some blown assignments more than anything else,” Toohey said. “We had a pretty good game plan it’s just a matter of making sure we block the right people.”
Zoeller would finish with four completions for 94 yards and Beverly collecting three of those passes, including the 28-yard touchdown pass.
The Ballston Spa defense couldn’t find a way to contain Holmes-Parson and his ability to break to the outside in the second half, finishing with two scores on 12 carries and 134 yards.
The Scotties are no longer overmatched on paper, spending years as one of the smallest Class AA football squads and facing deeper rosters on the opposite sidelines, but that hasn’t made the 2018 campaign any easier.
“I look at those A’s that we’re in right now and I see a lot of really good teams,” Toohey said. “We’ve played a fantastic Queensbury team (47-6 loss); we played a fantastic Burnt Hills team (27-7 loss), Troy team. Maybe in terms of roster sizes, but in terms of the talent pool, the teams are great.”
The Scotties (2-2 Grasso Division, 2-3 overall) will travel to face Scotia Oct. 5 before returning home Oct. 12 to host South Glens Falls for its senior night. The Flying Horses (3-0 Capital Division, 4-1 overall) will remain in Rennselaer County, hosting Columbia next Friday and Averill Park to close out the regular season.
“We know what we have to do to get better,” Toohey said. “It’s one of those things where we know if we finish thing right we should still be a playoff team and it’s one thing at a time.”