Salamanca rolls past Portville/C-R to grab back-to-back Class C titles

By SPENCER BATES, Sports Editor

ORCHARD PARK — For the second consecutive year, the Salamanca football team has reached the summit of Section 6 Class C, knocking out a long-time rival in the process.

The Warriors rounded out their perfect record in sectional play by knocking out fellow C South competitor Portville/Cuba-Rushford in dominant fashion at Highmark Stadium.

It was the biggest stage of the season for Salamanca coach Chad Bartoszek and his players, but when it came down to it, the Warriors won every little battle they faced en route to a big 40-14 win on Thursday night.

“Absolute pride in our team, our district, our community,” Bartoszek said. “I'm so happy for these kids. The way they played today was special.

GAME PHOTOS

“Every play was a battle. Every play was a fight. We didn't tend to make too many mistakes today. We did a lot of things right. (P/C-R’s) defensive game plan stuffed us up a little bit early. But once we caught one over top to Cory (Holleran), I think that really started to open things up.”

Salamanca, which didn’t need to punt much over the course of the regular season and playoffs, was forced to do so on its first possession of the game as the battle at the line of scrimmage became the focal point for both sides.

However, the Warriors wouldn’t be denied on their second crack at it, and on the back of a good punt return, got on the board with an 18-yard touchdown run from quarterback Maddox Isaac.

The Warriors’ signal-caller came up huge in just about every way on Thursday night, leading an offense which, once it found its groove, hummed like a well-oiled machine. Isaac ran nine times for 118 yards and three touchdowns, one coming after a Josh Allen-esque hurdle before striding into the endzone. He added to his total with a 60-yard passing touchdown to Holleran on the Warriors’ second play coming out of the halftime break.

“(I’m) just a playmaker making plays,” Isaac said. “We have a crowd that just gives me that extra step, gives me that extra energy, and I just use that to my advantage and take it all the way.”

The other two Salamanca touchdowns on the night were scored by Xavier Peters, from 19 and 13 yards apiece.

While Bartoszek knows that his team has been no stranger to big scoring plays this season, there were always some nerves about whether or not they would be able to pull them out in the imposing environment of an NFL stadium. But, according to him, all it took for those to flush out of his system was one look in his players’ eyes.

“My nerves go away when I see these guys,” Bartoszek said. “They they often say, ‘we're just not going to fail, we're not gonna let them beat us.’ And it's hard to put trust in your team that much. But they just keep showing up. That play over top to Cory was a big one to really get them off of us a little bit.”

The Holleran touchdown seemingly opened the floodgates for the Warriors, who entered the interval with only a 19-6 lead, not an insurmountable advantage for a Panthers squad who has touted a dominant run game this season behind star Maxx DeYoe.

The P/C-R running back was the star of the show for his team, as he responded to Salamanca’s game-opening score with six points of his own. Unfortunately, his second score of the night came when the affair was all but wrapped up.

ACCORDING TO Panthers coach Josh Brooks, it came down to some minor mistakes that culminated into a larger problem.

“We showed a few glimpses early of, ‘OK, we can do this,’ and then we'd have one missed assignment, it seemed like every drive,” he said. “It would just become a killer. When you're playing this type of football, if you're losing yards on any down, that really puts you in a tough predicament moving forward on your next play call. Again, we did some things well. We just didn't execute well enough. We've been super physical up front, that's why we've been successful. And Salamanca can certainly match that physicality up front.”

But overall, Brooks said that he has nothing but pride in his players who have continued to defy the odds all season long.

“All these kids (that have been), for two years, a part of this new merger, they've set the tone to what our expectation is,” Brooks said. “It's not easy getting on a bus every day, going to practice and maybe playing one side of the ball, but I think we're really seeing the results with the merger, and it's a credit to those kids who have worked so hard for it. Those kids (that are) graduating, again, everyone wrote them off, and they got all the way to a sectional title game, something they can be very proud of, and we're very proud of them.”

According to Bartoszek, his side’s 33 unanswered points came as a result of their rhythm, something that he has been searching for all season long. The big plays are nice and all, but having been able to develop a rhythm and churn out the result paid dividends.

“Once we get rolling, and once we got first down after first down, that's when we start to really showcase our different athletes, different dimensions,” Bartoszek said. “It's fun to coach when they're really starting to push it through. It was fun to get physical there a little bit.”

Of course the familiarity between the sides played a role in Bartoszek’s thinking going into the final. He knew that it would be the team that made the fewest mistakes that came out on top and even after the big result, he noted his respect for the P/C-R program and anticipates more intense matchups in the near future.

“It took the little details to get through,” Bartoszek said. “I got a lot of respect for (Portville/Cuba-Rushford). They’re here, they're gonna be in the mix for the conference titles for their foreseeable future. We’ll see them again.”

But for now, the Warriors’ attention shifts to the Far West Regional next Saturday at SUNY-Brockport, where they will face either East Rochester-Gananda or Le Roy/Caledonia-Mumford. A win from the latter in the Section 5 Class C Final would set up a rematch of last year’s regional round in which Salamanca won 21-13.

Portville/Cuba-Rushford 0 6 0 8 — 14

Salamanca 7 12 14 7 — 40

First Quarter

Salamanca - Maddox Isaac 18 run; Easton Chudy extra-point good, 7-0

Second Quarter

Portville/Cuba-Rushford - Maxx DeYoe 3 run; two-point attempt no good, 7-6

Salamanca - Xavier Peters 19 run; Chudy extra-point no good, 13-6

Salamanca - Isaac 48 run; two-point attempt no good, 19-6

Third Quarter

Salamanca - Cory Holleran 60 pass from Isaac; two-point attempt good, 27-6

Salamanca - Peters 13 run; Chudy extra-point no good, 33-6

Fourth Quarter