Delhi Opens Division Schedule with Critical Game

 

The Bulldogs open the division schedule with a game against Unatego that is critical to the playoff aspirations of both teams.

 

Unatego is coming off of a season opening tough loss to Walton (30-14) and last week’s win over class B Oneonta (24-20). If their season doesn’t impress you so far, let these facts give you a healthy respect for the Spartans…..

 

1.     The Spartans’ JV team went 8-0-1 last year, and the season before defeated Delhi’s stellar JV team (most of whom are on this team now).

2.     Unatego is hungry for the playoffs. They beat Walton last year, but unexplainably lost to Seton, keeping them out of the playoffs. They are determined to get back in.

3.     Although they lost most of their key contributors from a year ago, the 2004 team was minus the key contributors from 2003’s sectional champion team, and first year coach John Mushtare still guided them to a 7-2 season.

4.     This game has big playoff implications. Assuming Unatego, Sidney, and Delhi all get by Seton and Greene (which is not a great assumption this early – they are both good), the loser of Saturday’s game will have to beat Sidney to have a shot at the playoffs. It is doable, but it is a tall order. The winner has a much clearer path.

 

Unatego’s offense features halfbacks Austin Henchey and Allen Knowlton, who combined for 198 yards on 25 carries last week against Oneonta. They also used 6 other ball carriers for a combined 15 carries and 91 yards in that game, so the ball will get spread around quite a bit. Third year starting QB Kevin Campbell is another weapon. He’s thrown for 121 yards in the 2 games to date, and he has a combined 1290 yards over his previous 2 seasons. One target will be split end Matt Newman, who returned an interception for a touchdown during last year’s game with Delhi.

 

Unatego’s defense has given up some ground, yielding a combined 577 yards and 50 points to Walton and Oneonta. They gave up 350 rushing yards to Walton, and 126 passing yards to Oneonta, though they held Oneonta to 99 rushing yards on 30 carries.

 

Delhi will try to keep up its land assault, as the offensive line has paved the way for the starting backfield of Brenton Hood and Nate Rockefeller to combine for 573 yards, 9 TD’s, and a 10.6 yards per carry average over the last 2 weeks.