Shen weapons continue to evolve
CLIFTON PARK, N. Y. » Shenendehowa’s 45- 13 varsity football win over visiting Columbia late Saturday night Plainsmen head coach Brian Clawson was able to show off a few more offensive weapons prior to the post- season and the amount he has added makes the offense appear more like a Swiss Army Knife than a one- trick pony.
Each week Clawson is able to pull on another notch, turn out another interesting blade or utility tool that is needed at a point during a game that not only does the job, but does it quickly and sharply.
On Saturday night the latest surprise came from junior quarterback Brendan Belott. It wasn’t his 9- for17 passing night with three touchdown tosses to Cole Vincenzi, James Altenburger or even latest surprise offensive tool Joe Novenche; it was his 78 yards on the ground including a score of his own.
“I was talking to him earlier in the week and I’m like ‘ Our greatest secret weapon rightnow is you running the ball because you haven’t done it yet,’” Shenendehowa head coach Brian Clawson said. “That’s not a secret anymore.
“He’s got great feet and he’s got great acceleration and moves in the open field, he really hasn’t had the opportunity in previous weeks because he has had great protection. When the protection breaks down a little bit, he’s a threat to run the ball and get a first down on a third and long. I think that’s great for our offense to be able to have that advantage.”
During the Plainsmen’s first possession he capped a 58- yard drive with a 25- yard toss to Cole Vincenzi for the early 7- 0 lead. After Columbia surprised the Shenendehowa defense with an Ari Holmes 80- yard touchdown run on the next play, Belott took matters into his own hands.
On the third play of the next possession Belott took off from behind the line of scrimmage and ran up the middle and then towards the Columbia sideline for a 51- yard score.
“That first run I just saw a huge hole, therewas no one there, everyone was covering,” Brendan Belott
said. “The safety was pretty much out of the play, I just had a one- on- one with the linebacker and I could beat him.”
The entire Plainsmen sideline was elated to see their signal caller take off for the score and return unscathed.
“It was cool, everyone was life you finally ran, telling me ‘ Good job’, everyone was giving me high fives, it was cool,” Belott said. “They were all excited.”
He would take off on two more occasions for his 78yard night, running with confidence.
“I was playing slot before early in the season and I guess ( Coach Clawson) liked my speed and I considermyself pretty shifty as a player,” Belott said. “I just haven’t had any big opportunities, big opportunities to run the ball and I had some open holes tonight so I just took them.”
When Belottwasn’t handing the ball off to Shenendehowa’s No. 1 option, Griffin Wallner, who ran for 144 yards on 19 carries, he was finding Vincenzi for a pair of catches for a score along with big man James Altenburger four times for 45- yards and a touchdown.
When another blade needed to be opened, it
was Novenche who broke out during last week’s Niskayuna rout and proved his value Saturday making a catch inches above the turf and turning around for a 35- yard score in the third quarter.
“I made a good move on the linebacker, he cut outside and that freed up the inside and there was one high safety,” Joe Novenche said. “I zeroed in on the ball, I wasn’t going to let that drop, I knew I had open field, I had to get it.”
Early in the fourth Novenche scampered for a 40yard gain to bring the ball down to the six- yard line to set up the Plainsmen’s final score, adding to the list of weapons at Clawson’s disposal.
Throughout the contest Shenendehowa showed some blades that were close to being able to cut deep, but didn’t make their mark Saturday, including two different option passes falling incomplete by both Novenche andWallner, but executed a text book fake punt for an 11- yard gain and keep their late second quarter drive alive.
“Developing depth through the year is key because you never know what is going to happen,” Clawson said. “We’ve got a lot of weapons on offense so I think that different guys step up every week and that makes us harder to defend because of that.”