Game 2 - 2008 Chenango Forks Varsity Football

Game 2 vs Corning East
Blue Devils pick-off Corning East 13-9!
Five INTs and a good ol' fashioned flea-flicker does in the Trojans

Articles courtesy of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin & The Corning Leader

Defense bails out Forks

Interception leads to go-ahead TD for Blue Devils

By Mike Mangan
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

TOWN OF CHENANGO -- With its offense struggling for the second straight game, Chenango Forks once again turned to its defense to provide a familiar outcome.

The Blue Devils intercepted five passes, including one deep in Corning East territory that led to quarterback Rickey Bronson's game-winning 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, in rallying for a 13-9 victory over the Trojans in a non-league contest Saturday between reigning Section 4 football champions.

On a day in which Forks mustered just six first downs and 183 total yards of offense -- that coming just one week after a 151-yard effort in a 7-0 victory over Waverly -- the seven-time Section 4 Class B champion won for the 75th time in 76 games against Section 4 competition.

"It's not very pretty, but the bottom line is we are 2-0," Forks coach Dave Hogan said. "I think something very positive came out of this. It says a lot about our character when you can be down at halftime and battle back to win the game."

Forks trailed 9-7 after two quarters, and the score did not change until shortly after a key Corning East turnover with just under four minutes left in the third quarter.

On a third-and-7 play from the Trojans' 14-yard line, East quarterback Mitch Keefer rolled out right.

With nobody open, he heaved a desperation pass to the middle of the field toward a trio of Forks defenders, and Jordan Barnett made a lunging interception to give the Blue Devils possession at the East 14-yard line.

Five plays later, Bronson plowed into the end zone on a 1-yard run with 1:01 remaining in the third quarter to give Forks a 13-9 lead.

Forks' other touchdown came in the second quarter via the flea flicker.

It came on Forks' first play from scrimmage following a 24-yard touchdown pass from Keefer to Jeremy Brenning that gave East a 6-0 lead with 10:37 left in the second quarter. Forks' other quarterback in their two-man rotation, D.J. Smith, handed the ball off to Ryan Freije, who promptly tossed it back to Smith.

Smith then heaved a pass to a wide-open Mike Jeske, who caught the ball at the East 40 before out-running several defenders for a 71-yard touchdown reception that gave Forks a 7-6 lead with 10:17 left in the first half.

"It seemed like they had 15, 16 guys on the line of scrimmage, so I said we had to do something," Hogan said. "We gave it a shot and fortunately it worked out for us."

East (0-2) did regain the lead, 9-7, on Jon Gargano's 22-yard field goal with 0.3 seconds remaining in the half, the kick capping a 14-play, 90-yard drive. In the first half, East had 208 yards of offense to Forks' 97 yards.

But in the second half, Forks forced four of its five turnovers and held the three-time defending Section 4 Class A champions to just 59 yards of offense.

"I think it was more a mindset than anything else," Hogan said of the second-half defensive turnaround. "We made some tiny changes, but nothing major. It was time to find out about ourselves. We had to buckle down and get the job done in the second half, and we did that."

Press Football Beat Sportswriters Blog entry on game:

Forks survives......again

The Chenango Forks offense remains a work in progress, but the Blue Devils' defense appears championship-caliber in the wake of a 13-9 victory over Corning East on Saturday.

A week after edging Waverly, 7-0, Forks forced five turnovers - including three interceptions by Mike Jeske - in the victory over the Trojans, rallying for the victory as Rickey Bronson scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter to wipe out a 9-7 deficit. The Blue Devils are now 2-0.

Jeske had a big play offensively as well for Forks, a 71-yard touchdown reception on a flea flicker play that gave Forks a 7-6 lead in the second quarter.

"Mike had a big day, a very big day for us," Forks coach Dave Hogan said.

The Trojans fell to 0-2, but they looked significantly better than they did in a mistake-filled 33-14 loss to Maine-Endwell in Week 1, so perhaps those ready to write off Corning East this season might have to think again.

"Our goal this week was to improve Corning East," Trojans coach Tim Hughes said. "This had nothing to do with Chenango Forks, to be honest, and I think our kids responded. It still hurts to lose, but the Forks coaching staff and those players, they’re the real deal. We know what we’re in for when we come here and I’m just glad we responded. It's tough to lose a game (like this), but we played well."

No article in the online Corning newspaper yet.