2004 Season Recap

The Bulldogs finished the 2004 season with their third consecutive 4-5 record.

It was a year of much hardship in terms of personnel. Jon Smith would have been a third year starting WR/DB, and he missed half the season after breaking his ankle in seven-on-seven in the spring. Even after returning, he was not strong enough for a full time role, though he was able to pull in 11 passes and a TD. Mike Lounsberry was to be the other starting WR, and he also made a couple starts at DB as a sophomore in ’03. Mike’s family moved to the Albany area before the season. Nick Capiello had a tremendous JV career, and was the game 1 starter at FB and DE, but he tore his ACL after just 3 carries and missed the remainder of the season. He had offseason surgery, and his status for the 2005 season is still uncertain. James Card was a seemingly high potential sophomore coming off very strong wrestling and track seasons, but he moved from the area as well. Card could have added offensive depth as a second FB, and may have competed for a starting LB job. A year earlier, Cedar Shuler and Mike Armstrong left Delhi, and they would have added great depth to the RB and LB crews.

The ‘Dogs came into the 2004 season lacking in receivers and FB’s, but they still had a high quality offensive line (with 4 of 6 returning) and returning TB and QB to work with. The Dog’s were sometimes very effective at moving the football and getting first downs. Delhi averaged just a whisker under 300 yards per game total, with a good amount of first downs in there. The ‘Dogs produced their first 1000 yard rusher since 2001 with sophomore Brenton Hood, who led all 10^th graders in section IV. The lack of Jon Smith’s speed at WR and Nick Capiello’s size at FB showed up greatly however when it came to scoring statistics. Despite the strong yardage per game, the ‘Dogs only scored 19 TD’s on the season, and were shut out twice. Delhi just didn’t have the ability to take their drives to the house, especially early in the season.

One strong positive that came from the personnel issues was discovery and development of other very good players. Jason Wake is probably the best example of this. He entered the season as a backup QB, but in week 2 he came into the Pine Plains game as a change up tailback. While he didn’t score any TD’s, he did average 7 yards per carry, and showed outstanding quickness through the hole with some pretty good lateral movement. He went on to become a regular at running the ball, and was the second leading rusher, averaging 6 yards per carry and scoring 4 of the team’s 19 TD’s on the year. Twin brother Josh Wake also showed the ability to accelerate through the hole, showing some great running particularly against Sidney. Nate Rockefeller came in after Capiello’s injury. He struggled a bit early, but he progressed greatly through the season, scoring 2 TD’s in the season finale against Watkin’s Glen. Taylor Sohns became the main wideout while Smith was out, and he shouldered it well. With some offseason growth, Sohns will be one to watch in the 2005 season.

The Bulldogs came into the 2004 season with much less experience on the defensive side of the ball, and the group stepped up admirably. The only starters to return were DE John Shaw, LB Jeremiah Warren, and parttime starter at DB Brenton Hood.

With Hood struggling with minor injuries through much of the year, the ‘Dogs went with three juniors across the back – Mike Shea, Taylor Sohns, and Jason Wake. While there were definitely some struggles, the boys performed quite well overall, especially against the best competition – they held Sidney to 61 yards on 5 for 11 passing with no TD’s, well below their average performance of 120 yards and 2 TD’s per game. Sohns performed particularly well here in covering Sidney star and D1 prospect Pat Simonds. While he did give up 4 receptions, Sohns provided tight coverage most of the day, and most importantly did not allow any big plays.

Much like the secondary, the rest of the defense did quite well most of the season, with a couple of down performances thrown in, which is typical of a young defense. The defense performed well against Sullivan West, allowing only 2 TD’s to the class B section 9 champion. They allowed a combined 50 points to Sidney and Walton, but made these great offenses work for every inch that they got. The main down performances were Pine Plains and Unatego. Against Pine Plains they only gave up 4 first downs, but allowed TD’s on 4 big plays that went an average of 51 yards. The ‘Dogs performed very well in the first half against Unatego, and were seemingly headed to the locker room looking at just a 6-0 deficit. Then Unatego took an interception to the house to end the half, which completely dropped the heads of the Delhi folk. The tackling greatly dropped off in the second half, and Delhi allowed 3 more TD’s that went for an average of 43 yards. The final was a 34-16 loss. The defense ended the season on a great note however, holding Seton to just 109 yards and 1 TD, and keeping Watkins Glen with powerful runner Brad Hyrnko to just 155 yards (only 42 by Hyrnko) and 1 offensive TD. A strong overall effort was provided by a very young group.