By Rob Potter
FALLSBURG — September 10, 2010 — One way or another, history was going to be made in Friday night’s non-league, varsity football game at Morningside Park in Fallsburg.
Either the host Fallsburg Comets were going to win their first-ever football game at the varsity level or the Onteora Indians were going to record a victory to stop their 31-game losing streak.
Unfortunately for the Fallsburg players, coaches, cheerleaders and fans, it was Onteora’s losing streak which came to an end.
Onteora (1-0) scored a touchdown in each of the first two quarters and added two more TDs in the third quarter on its way to posting a 28-0 victory over the Comets.
Tony Florida gave the Indians a 6-0 lead when he ran for an 11-yard touchdown with 50 seconds left in the first quarter.
With 3:42 to go in the second quarter, Onteora extended its advantage to 12-0 when Donnie Van Buren scored on a 13-yard touchdown run.
Less than a minute into the second half, junior linebacker Chris Pollo intercepted a Fallsburg pass and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown. Florida then ran for the 2-point conversion to make it a 20-0 game.
The Onteora lead increased to 22-0 with 7:11 remaining in the quarter when the Comets were lined up to punt deep in their own territory and the snap to punter Sebastian Sanchez went out of the back of the end zone.
After Fallsburg (0-1) kicked off to Onteora following the safety, the Indians drove 48 yards for their final touchdown. Pollo capped the scoring drive with a 5-yard run.
Pollo led the Indians’ offense by rushing for 88 yards on 10 carries. Greg Delgado ran eight times for 47 yards, while Florida and Van Buren finished with 20 and 18 yards rushing, respectively.
The leaders of the Onteora defense were Tyler Barringer, Joe Friedel and Taylor Oakes. Barringer had nine tackles and two quarterback sacks, Friedel recorded six tackles and two sacks and Oakes made three tackles and two sacks.
“This is our first win in quite a while,” Onteora Coach Justin Kight said. “Our quarterback, Jack Tumen, and the offensive line did a great job tonight. And Tyler Barringer was all over the place on defense, he was making tackles and sacking the quarterback. As a team, we played very good defense.”
Kight praised the Comets for the way they competed for the entire game.
“I know what they are going through, we have been there,” said Kight, explaining that this is the Indians’ third year back on the varsity level after not having a team for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. “Fallsburg played well and they kept playing hard. The are going to improve a lot in the next couple of years.”
Kenneth Jaycox led the Comets’ offense with 92 rushing yards. Shakree Gibson added 15 rushing yards for Fallsburg.
Sabastian Sanchez and Russell Corley paced the Fallsburg defense with seven tackles and six tackles, respectively.
“We started out OK, but as the game went on, we started to slow down a bit,” Fallsburg Coach Adam Ramirez said. “We were able to move the ball on offense and played pretty good defense.
“There is room for improvement,” he added. “We will work hard on getting better.”