Unadilla Valley 24, Cooperstown 12

COOPERSTOWN – What seemed implausible three weeks ago is now a real possibility.

After completing a second straight victory Saturday at Cooperstown, the Storm are now on the cusp of their first-ever eight-man football playoff appearance.

“Winning cures all,” said UV head coach Bruce Curtis. “Our goal at the beginning of the season was to qualify for sectionals, and that hasn’t been done since we moved back to 8-man football.”

While the Storm (2-5) sport a modest overall record, those two wins have come in back-to-back impressive performances, and the 1-1 division mark leaves them tied with Unatego-Franklin for second place in division play.

“We feel a lot better about ourselves,” Curtis said. “There has been more focus the last two to three weeks on assignments. We’ve all done a better job, including myself.”

Cooperstown, while outside Section IV play, was not a completely unfamiliar opponent. UV has squared off in scrimmages against the Hawkeyes for three seasons. Curtis said that gave his team some familiarity with what the opposition would do.

So, early on, UV made sure the Hawkeyes would respect the pass.

That respect came in the opening quarter when Wyatt Meade hooked up with Isaiah Salimbangon on a 44-yard scoring pass. Jacob Prentice, who finished with a season-high 164 rushing yards, tacked on the all-important two-point conversion.

After the Hawkeyes answered with their own TD in the opening quarter, it was all UV the next 24 minutes.

Meade scored on a 17-yard TD run in the second quarter give his club a 16-6 halftime lead, and Meade’s second TD pass of the game to Salimbangon – this one from 13-yards, raised the lead to 18 points.

Overall, Meade had 94 yards rushing to complement Prentice, and was 4 of 8 passing for 94 yards.

Salimbangon hauled in all those completions for a 94 totals yards.

“Everything is on the line and everything we have worked for this season comes down to next week (against Unatego-Franklin),” Curtis said.

Score by quarters

UVall   8   8  8   0—24

Coop  6  0   0  6—12

Scoring summary for UV: Wyatt Meade 44 pass to Isaiah Salimbangon (Jacob Prentice run);  Meade 17 run (Meade run); Meade 13 pass to Salimbangon (Meade pass to Bryton Bice).

UV individual stats

Passing:  Meade 4-8-0, 94 yards, 2 TDs.

Rushing:  Jacob Prentice 23-164, Meade 10-94, Salimbangon 3-10, Bice 1-1.

Receiving:  Salimbangon 4-94.

Leading tacklers:  Landon Drake 10, Meade 10.