Shaker tunes up for playoffs in shutout
Blue Bison explosive on offense, defense, special teams in 41-0 win over Columbia
EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. » Just one week after a loss to Troy that Shaker took “personally”, it didn’t take long for the Blue Bison to respond in a big way, albeit against a lesser opponent.
Shaker had two touchdowns less than five minutes into its 41-0 win against Columbia on the road on Friday night. The game set up Shaker to have a home game next weekend, likely against Guilderland, in the Section II playoffs.
And that started tonight with a punt return from Ravion Burt that, he said, was so easy it surprised him.
“I caught it,” said Burt, who had two touchdowns on the evening. “I looked up and there was nobody there basically. I just, like, went. Just went through the motions pretty much.”
That touchdown went for 55 yards. The next two TDs went to Akap Takor, the first of which was a pick-six on defense, the latter was a run on offense. Joe Toutai had a touchdown in the first half, and Logan Souza capped off the scoring with the game’s final score in the third quarter.
A very scary moment came in the fourth quarter when Owen Sleasman had an interception, but as he was running with the ball, he took an extremely hard hit to the head out of nowhere. He had a concussion test and was OK, but the sidelines were silent as he lay on the field.
Still, he was OK. And Shaker got its sixth win of the season in seven tries.
“Any time you go into another team’s home stadium and come out with a win — you know it wasn’t a perfect night,” head coach Greg Sheeler said. “But overall we’re very happy with how the kids played.”
It was the fourth game of the season which Shaker has shut out its opponent. And it was a welcomed sight after allowing a combined 70 points over their last six quarters of game action.
After the game, Sheeler spoke to his team about how the slate was wiped clean now, choosing to hardly even speak about the game that just ended. It was on to the next phase of the season for all intents and purposes.
They did exactly what they were supposed to do on Friday
night, and handled a team that couldn’t handle what they brought defensively. There were three interceptions. Columbia tried to throw the ball all night and couldn’t get anything going.
By the latter minutes of the first half, Shaker was mostly running pass plays, seemingly just to test some things out against opponent.
Now there’s no more testing left to do. Just a championship to chase. To do so, they’ll likely have to go through undefeated Saratoga Springs (7-0) and No. 1 state-ranked Troy (7-0) who beat Shaker two weeks ago.
“This game, we just wanted to win this game,” Souza said. “Sectionals, that’s when our season really starts. Playoffs start. So we wanted to win today, 1-0 everyday. You’ve got to have a short memory. You’ve got to forget about all the stuff that’s happened.”