Unadilla Valley 56, Oxford 0
NEW BERLIN – Momentum can be a funny thing. And for Unadilla Valley’s football team, that momentum came from a loss.
“We thought we did a little better last week against Greene,” said UV coach Bruce Curtis. “I know we lost 50 to 14, but it was 28-14 going into the fourth quarter. We gained some momentum from that game, and we’ve been more focused in practice.”
The Storm ramped up the momentum late in the first half, when it snuffed out an Oxford fake punt attempt. After getting that key stop, Isaiah Salimbangon scored on a 27-yard run. Adding in the two-point conversion, UV took a 16-0 lead into halftime.
From there, it was all Storm as they racked up four touchdowns and 32 points in the third quarter to turn the contest into a blowout.
Wyatt Meade scored on a TD run – his second TD jaunt of the day – and Meade then threw a 12-yard scoring toss to Billy Barrett and a 40-yard strike to Dalton Allen.
Meade moved to receiver in the fourth quarter and caught a 42-yard TD pass from Shane McMahon. Austin Mumbulo capped the scoring with 64-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
Meade finished with 95 yards rushing and 89 passing, and Jacob Prentice added 93 yards rushing.
“(Stopping that fake punt) did give us a lot of momentum,” Curtis said. “We moved the ball, but I thought it was a sloppy first half. When we scored that TD (before halftime), it settled us down and we were ready to play football.”
The Storm play at Cooperstown next weekend in a non-league matchup. Oxfords plays Unatego-Franklin next Friday.
Score by quarters
Oxford 0 0 0 0 --0
UV 0 16 32 8 --56
UV Scoring summary: Wyatt Meade 48 run (Meade pass to Billy Barrett). Isaiah Salimbangon 27 run (Meade run). Meade 3 run (Meade run). Meade 12 pass to Barrett (Meade pass to Jacob Prentice). Meade 40 pass to Dalton Allen. (Meade pass to Prentice). Shane McMahon 42 pass to Meade (Meade run). Austin Mumbulo 64 run (Meade run).
Individual statistics (Unadilla Valley only)
Passing: Wyatt Meade 3-8-0, 89 yds, 2 TDs. Shane McMahon 1-1-0, 42 yds TD. Isaiah Salimbangon 0-1-0.
Rushing: Meade 13-95, Jacob Prentice 10-93, Austin Mumbulo 3-74, Salimbangon 2-33, Billy Barrett 1-22
Receiving: Meade 1-42, Allen 1-40, Salimbangon 1-37, Barrett 1-12.