Saratoga completes perfect regular season
Saratoga Springs’ varsity football team came into a game against La Salle with a perfect regular season on the line.
The Blue Streaks accomplished the feat and did so in convincing fashion. The 40-7 win was led by strong games from running back Ashtone Capone, starting quarterback Wes Englintine and wide receiver and Carter Steingraber.
Steingraber said the Blue Streaks picked up the win by pushing themselves.
“We started off with a good throw,” Steingraber said. “We made a stop first off, we drove down field, Wes threw it up to me and I came down with it. We then let them score. We started slow, but then Coach Jones talk to us, he did a great job hyping us up and we kept working.”
The Saratoga defense started the game strong for Saratoga. La Salle started at their own 33, where Saratoga sacked La Salle quarterback Dermont McDonough for a loss of four yards, Tyree Gonzales ran those four yards back and then McDonough was sacked a second time to end the drive.
The Blue Streaks got the ball at their own 29. Run plays from Capone, Avery Mickle and Steingraber got Saratoga to the five yard line. That set up Englintine’s pass to Steingraber, who made a leaping catch in the end zone to get the early 7-0 lead.
The Cadets scored on their next drive with an 11 yard pass to Sam Carson, 12 yards from Franz Von Stetina and a 26-yard touchdown pass to Gonzales to tie it 7-7 after one quarter.
“Their touchdown in the first quarter was because our two defensive backs got caught in two different coverages,” Saratoga Springs coach Terry Jones said. “One was in man and one was in zone, which happens. It is something we need to clean up, but after that they squared everything away.”
On the first drive of the second quarter, Saratoga managed to score again with Capone getting the ball in the end zone on a three yard run. A missed field goal made it 13-7.
Capone got another touchdown on the Blue Streaks’ next set of drives, scoring from 13 yards out making it 19-7 after another missed extra point.
After the Cadets went 4th and out, Englintine connected with Lewi Clarke on a 37 yard touchdown, Steingraber for a 28 yard pass and Nick Frank in the end zone on a one yard pass to make it 26-7.
La Salle got the ball back at their own 36 and McDonough threw an interception to Christian Kondo on the first play to get it back to Saratoga at La Salle’s 41 yard line. Saratoga managed to capitalize on a 4th and 2 with a 21 yard run from Frank and on the next play; Steingraber got his second receiving touchdown, this one for 10 yards, to make it 33-7 at the half.
On the first drive of the third quarter, Saratoga scored again with Mickle getting his first touchdown of the game going in from four yards out to make it 40-7.
The backups came in after that, with Jake Williams taking over at quarterback.
Englintine went 9-for-12 for 121 yards and two touchdowns.
La Salle couldn’t muster anything else and Saratoga took the win and stay undefeated on the season.
Throughout the regular season, the starting defense allowed only four touchdowns to their opponents.
Jones said defense is something the team needs to succeed.
“You know the old saying, defense wins championships,” Jones said. “You need to have a great defense and I think the teams that are in the playoffs are teams that all have good defenses, so one of the things we talked about was getting sharper offensively and defensively. I am real proud of the way they played and we will certainly have to do that again next week.”
Saratoga stayed perfect (70) on the regular season with the win.
Jones said it was a great thing to see.
“It is certainly doesn’t happen very often to get to this point and we are extremely proud of the kids and the way they played,” Jones said. “We were able to get everybody in the game, everyone who was eligible and I think the kids had some fun.”
Next week, in the first round of playoffs, Saratoga hosts Bethlehem, who finished fourth in the Liberty Division.
Jones said this week will be about his team getting ready for a tough first round.
“We haven’t looked a lot at Bethlehem,” Jones said. “We know they run the ball real well, have a big fullback who wears the No. 50. He is a tank and he has good speed. Defensively, we have seen some scores, I think they played Shaker to 0-0 at the half, something along those lines.
“We haven’t really worried about it, we have peaked a little bit, knowing this wasn’t a divisional game and wouldn’t impact our seedings. We are going to have to play good defense, tackle well, swarm the football and put points on the board. They have a very good defense themselves; they have played well all year.”