By Ted Waddell
ELDRED — October 28, 2003 – The visiting Pine Plains Bombers football team dive bombed the Yellowjackets of Eldred, 34-19, in Saturday’s gridiron contest.
In the opening quarter, the Bombers began the scoring on a field goal, then proverbially added insult to injury with a 6-yard TD in the wake of a fumble recovery to take a quick 9-0 lead.
Eldred (1-6) got on the scoreboard with a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Nick McCormick and a successful extra-point kick. But at the close of the first quarter, the Bombers were ahead, 9-7.
In the second quarter, Bombers’ running back Jayson Millius scampered into the end zone on a 50-yard TD run. The PAT kick cleared the uprights, and Pine Plains (4-4) led 16-7.
Then Yellowjackets’ workhorse running back Vinny Reilly scored on a 3-yard run, but the extra-point attempt came up short to make it a 16-13 ballgame at halftime.
At the 11:14 mark of the third quarter, another Millius TD run put the Bombers up by a score of 22-13.
However, a determined Eldred defense blocked the PAT attempt.
On the following kickoff, the Yellowjackets coughed up the ball, and Pine Plains capitalized on the fumble recovery as Stephen Bingenheimer scored a touchdown with 10:35 remaining in the quarter.
Although the two-point conversion attempt failed, the Bombers had a commanding 28-13 lead.
In the final quarter, James Davis scored for Pine Plains on an option play at 10:08 to give the visitors a 34-13 lead. But once again the Yellowjackets blocked the extra point kick.
At 1:34, Jonathan Counts rushed 10 yards into paydirt for Eldred. On the subsequent two-point conversion, Eldred QB McCormick got sacked while attempting to pass.
Pine Plains stats: Millius rushed for 156 yards on 15 carries, including two TDs; Bingenheimer had seven carries for 74 yards and two TDs and Kyle Odell carried the ball seven times for 41 yards.
Reilly, a senior, lead the Yellowjackets’ rushing attack, gaining 138 yards on 22 carries; Jonathan Counts had 12 rushes for 59 yards and McCormick completed 10-of-13 passes for 129 yards.
Defensively, Reilly was credited with 8 1/2 sacks and Tim Hallock tackled the Bombers’ QB nine times behind the line of scrimmage during the afternoon.
“I think we played good in the first half, but we had a terrible display of football in the second half,” Eldred Coach Frank Kean said.
Looking ahead to a hard week of practice in preparation for this Saturday’s gridiron battle, Kean said, “We’re going to make sure the right guys are out there who want to play.”
Note: Eldred is scheduled to host Roscoe on Saturday night in a Section IX, Class D game. Temporary lighting will be utilized as the Yellowjackets and Blue Devils meet in the 7 p.m. contest.