Congratulations to the Unadilla Valley Storm football seniors. Pictured from L to R: Dalton Allen, Shane McMahon, Camren Cummings, and Billy Barrett. (Photo by Morgan Golliver)

NEW BERLIN – The Unadilla Valley Storm football team hosted Unatego/Franklin on senior night, where it was also the deciding factor on which team would make the playoffs. Both teams were tied with a 1-1 divisional record prior to this meeting. While UV kept up with the Spartans, they could not stop the run game that has been key at least in the last two games for Unatego/Franklin.

Unatego/Franklin won 42-14 in the final game of the 2023 season for the Storm.

Prior to the start of the game, the Storm honored its four seniors.

Congratulations to Dalton Allen, Shane McMahon, Camren Cummings, and Billy Barrett for your dedication to the UV football program.

“It isn’t the way we wanted it to end for the seniors. But, they played hard, played tough, and played through a lot of injuries,” Coach Curtis said following the game. “ We have some good, young underclassmen, so the future looks good for us. Just too many injuries this year and we didn’t have the players to plug the holes.”

After being down 6-0 at the end of the first quarter, UV had momentum early in the second quarter.

With Unatego/Franklin turning the ball over on downs, it set the Storm up with good field position. Wyatt Meade found Isaiah Salimbangon for a short five yard pass and Salimbangon also caught the two-point conversion. UV held a brief 8-6 lead.

Salimbangon was the go-to guy again on an offensive drive in the third quarter with the Storm on their own 32 yard line. Meade handed the ball off to the speedy rusher, who took it 68 yards for the score.

Salimbangon finished with two carries for 70 yards while also receiving the ball three times for 37 yards with the two touchdowns.

Meade was quick on his feet as well with 10 carries for 101 yards and threw the one passing touchdown. Jacob Prentice had nine carries for 27 yards and made 11 tackles on defense. Camren Cummings led the seniors with nine tackles while teammate Bryton Bice came up with a fumble recovery.

Great effort, UV and best of luck to the seniors.

Score by Quarter:

U/F 6 16 14 6–42

UV 0 8 6 0–14

UV Scoring Plays:

2nd Qtr: Meade to Salimbangon five yard pass. Meade to Salimbangon two-point conversion good.

3rd Qtr: Salimbangon 68 yard run. two-point is no good.

UV-Total Yards- 218 (198 rushing, 20 passing)