RAINY VARSITY FOOTBALL SLC LOOSE TO POTSDAM 10/9/2016

The Potsdam Central varsity football team took its time churning out a 20-8 NAC win over St. Lawrence Central on Saturday at Randy Riggs Field. “We have a real blue collar group that has bought into our system but the big thing this year is, they’ve learned how to win. And for us to be successful, we have to run the ball,” said coach Jim Kirka after the Sandstoners worked their way to a 6-0 halftime lead then reeled off 37 straight offensive plays through the entire third quarter and the first seven minutes of the fourth en route to notching their fourth straight win. While Potsdam won its fourth straight win Gouverneur climbed to 6-0 with a 54-6 win over Malone. In nonleague games East Syracuse Minoa handed Massena its first loss in a 51-10 decision at Watertown High School and Tupper Lake gained its first win in a 24-10 decision played at Lowville Potsdam 20 - SLC 8: Junior Brandon Buffham once again carried the bulk of the offensive workload for the Sandstoners, going for 199 yards on 33 rushes with touchdown runs of 19 and 39 yards. His 19-yard run opened the scoring with 59 seconds left in the first quarter. The drive started on the Potsdam nine after the Larries saw a promising drive of their own end on downs and ended 15 plays later with Buffham sweeping right and diving into the endzone for what held up as the only six points of the first half. The Larries saw a potential 80-yard return for a touchdown on the ensuing kick-off by Devin Barnhart nullified by a penalty and neither team threatened to score again in the first half. The Sandstoners opened the second half with the ball and methodically marched 80 yards to the endzone for their second touchdown with sophomore fullback Jacques Kuno bursting through the line from one yard out on the 21st play of the drive which used up all but nine seconds of the third quarter. Junior Cameron Talcott then connected for a two-point conversion pass to Garrett Mattimore that pushed the lead to 14-0. The Sandstoners then kept the Larries from running their first play from scrimmage of the half when Andrew Butler recovered a fumble on the ensuing kick-off and they took over on their own 35. The drive stalled 17 plays later when the Sandstoners turned the ball over on downs at the SLC 10. The Larries started their first possession of the half with 4:53 left in regulation and were able to put together an impressive 90-yard, 10 play scoring drive of their own that ended with senior Mike Plante charging his way across the goalline from five yards out with 2:13 remaining. Plante then added the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 14-8. SLC attempted an onsides kick but the ball didn’t carry far enough and the Sandstoners took over on the Larries 49. Three plays later, Buffham sealed the win with a 39-yard burst to the endzone with 1:17 remaining. “It’s tough to score when you don’t have the ball,” noted coach Bruce Truax after his squad saw their mid-season win streak ended at two games. “These are the kinds of losses that bug you the most as a coach. Our guys played hard and they did everything we asked of them,” he added. “It just came down to a couple of mistakes here and there on defense. We had a couple of penalties that wound up really costing us too.” Kuno finished with 92 yards on 23 carries while Talcott ran for another 21 yards on 16 tries. For the Larries, Keith Felix went 45 yards on six tries and Kaleb Parker had two carries for 17 yards. The only completion of the game for either team from scrimmage was a 14-yard pass from Luke Collins to Gavin McGrath. The Sandstoners (4-2) close out the regular season on Friday at home against OFA while the Larries (2-4) travel to Malone on Saturday to take on Franklin Academy.