By Ted Waddell
ROSCOE — September 16, 2003 – It was a stormy Saturday afternoon for the Roscoe Blue Devils varsity football team, as the visiting Storm of Unadilla Valley/Edmeston rolled to a 28-6 win.
At the 5:31 mark of the opening quarter, Andrew Ross crashed across the goal line to give UV/Edmeston, a Section IV Class D team, a quick 6-0 lead in the non-league contest. A pitchout to Wyatt Wyman on the two-point conversion attempt was successful, giving UV/Edmeston an 8-0 advantage.
A couple of minutes later, Roscoe’s Brenden Hendrickson seemed headed for paydirt on a long pass play, but the ball dropped out of his hands. UV/Edmeston then took over on downs.
With 24 seconds remaining in the first quarter, Roscoe’s Justin Bowers recovered a fumble. But with only six seconds left in the quarter, the Storm returned the favor in the Roscoe backfield.
Early in the second quarter, the Storm failed to make a short yardage fourth down, giving the Blue Devils possession.
After converting a fourth and inches situation on a quarterback keeper, a Bowers’ pass was picked off by UV/Edmeston’s Adam Tilbe.
On the third play of the ensuing drive, however, UV/Edmeston (1-1) fumbled. It was recovered by Blue Devil defender Tyler Schmidt.
With less than five minutes left in the half, Bowers was pulled down for a 10-yard loss, setting up second-and-20 for Roscoe. An incomplete pass to Troy Kirchner created a third-and-20 situation. A fourth down pass wobbled off into never-never land, and the Storm took over on downs.
A bit later, it was back to back-to-back fumble recoveries: Bowers grabbed a Storm’s fumble, and on the next play Wyman landed on a miscue in the Roscoe backfield.
In the closing minutes of the first half, Roscoe’s defense pulled off a couple of consecutive sacks of the Storm’s QB for a significant loss of yardage.
At 2:06 in the third quarter, Wyman punched it into the end zone. Wyman, who rushed for a total of 95 yards in the game, then caught the two-point conversion pass to extend UV/Edmeston’s lead to 16-0.
On the kickoff return, Bowers legged it back upfield on a 42-yard scamper. But once again, Roscoe fumbled it away.
Ross, who finished the day with 74 yards rushing, scored his second TD of the afternoon for the Storm with 9:38 remaining in the fourth quarter. A two-point conversion pass to Greg Wright came up short, but UV/Edmeston was firmly in the lead, 22-0.
At the 3:24 mark, Wright hauled down a TD pass to up the Storm lead to 28-0. A two-point conversion pass to Jon Wright was incomplete.
With less than two minutes remaining in the game, Roscoe’s John Dertinger recovered a fumble in the Storm backfield, giving the Blue Devils possession on the UV/Edmeston 45-yard line.
Following an incomplete pass to Kirchner, Justin Bowers hooked up with Joseph Bowers in Roscoe’s most spirited drive of the day.
On a fourth-and-three play, Joseph Bowers advanced the ball to the Storm’s 24-yard line, but was hammered into the ground for his efforts.
Then Roscoe picked up 30 yards on back-to-back penalties, as the UV/Edmeston’s Greg Wright got tagged by the refs for taunting and unsportsmanlike conduct.
As a result, the Blue Devils suddenly found themselves staring at the goal line from 14 yards out with a miserly 24 seconds left on the clock.
Justin Bowers then connected with Kirchner on an up-for-grabs pass in the end zone.
A two-point conversion pitchout failed, however.
Next up for Roscoe (0-2) is another non-league game against a Section IV Class D foe. On Friday night, the Blue Devils will travel west on Route 17 to Hancock and face the Wildcats in a 7 p.m. contest.
Hancock (2-0) defeated Eldred, 42-15 on Saturday.