High school football: General Brown has chance for history in Saturday's state Class C final
Dec. 2—DEXTER — The General Brown football team continues to chase history as it enters Saturday's state title game.
In a season that began back in training camp in the summer heat of training camp in late August, the Lions find themselves playing in December.
General Brown will attempt to achieve its ultimate goal of winning a state title when it plays Section 9's James I. O'Neill in a Class C state semifinal at 6 p.m. Saturday at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse.
The Lions (11-1), who are making the program's first state final appearance since 2010, are also looking to become the first team from the school to win a state title in football.
"It's an amazing opportunity," General Brown junior defensive end Devin Hicks said. "It's my first time playing in a state championship game and honestly it's the first time for all of us to get to play in a game like this. It's exciting."
"It's awesome," Lions senior tailback Gabe Malcolm said. "We've only got here one other time and last time we lost, so hopefully this is an opportunity to avenge that loss."
In their state playoff march, they've knocked off the then- No. 1-ranked team the past two weeks, including last Saturday's 29-20 win over Section 6 champion Lackawanna.
Now, second-ranked General Brown has another dragon to slay in James I. O'Neill (11-2) — the state's latest top-ranked team.
The Raiders, who feature a diversified offensive attack, are coming off a 41-22 state semifinal win against Section 2's Warrensburg/North Warren/Lake George last week.
"They are a pretty good team, they're multi-dimensional," General Brown head coach Doug Black said of O'Neill. "They've got a great running back who is a big kid in the backfield who has more than 1,000 yards (rushing) and then their quarterback, he can throw the ball all over the place. They're very fast."
O'Neill, which is located downstate in the Hudson Valley near West Point, is led by senior quarterback Nick Waugh, who has passed for 2,671 yards and 31 touchdowns and has ran for two scores.
Senior running back Jordan Thompson propels the Raiders' ground game, rushing for 1,037 yards and 18 touchdowns.
"They're about a 50-50 pass and run team, if not maybe a little bit more towards the passing side," Lions junior lineman Gabe Rawleigh said of O'Neill. "And they're about the same size as us."
They also sport a dual threat at wide receiver with junior Marek Arbogast, who has totaled 46 catches for 970 yards and 11 touchdowns, and senior Jadon Spain (60 catches, 858 yards, 9 TDs).
"Not an ideal matchup for us, we'd rather see someone that likes to run the ball," Black said. "But it's going to have to be something that we adapt to and try to stay focused on that quarterback and stay alert and drop back on defense and cover those receivers."
"I think it will come down to we've got to have good coverage and we've got to get pressure on the quarterback," Hicks said. "We've got to tackle well against their running backs as well."
General Brown will counter with its own style of offense, which features a balanced running game, paced by senior running backs Malcolm and Kaleb Natali, who have combined to score 35 touchdowns. Natali has generated 1,263 yards and 19 touchdowns on the ground and Malcolm has totaled 1,146 rushing yards and 14 scores. Senior fullback Sheamus Devine has churned out 983 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns.
Sophomore quarterback Aiden McManaman has rushed for five touchdowns and passing for 773 yards and seven through the air.
Malcolm and Natali each ran for a pair of scores, with Natali finishing the job with both of his touchdowns in the second half as General Brown bounced back from a halftime hole to down Lackawanna in the semifinal.
"I was very surprised," Natali said of General Brown's postseason success this year. "At the beginning of the season, we didn't really have any aspirations for the team, most of us were just hoping for an above-.500 season. But we ended up doing way more than that and I couldn't be more proud."
Defensively, the Lions also rallied to shutout the Steelers in the pivotal second half, to reach the title game.
Overall, General Brown has allowed 140 points this season, for an average of fewer 12 points per game, including yielding 77 points in five playoff games. They've also recorded four shutouts this season.
"Defensively, we felt we had some good team speed but it was going to come down to tackling and understanding assignments," Black said. "And again the same thing as the offense, as each game has gone on these kids have gotten better and better understanding what we want out of them from a scheme standpoint. And physically they're just very good football players."
"We usually stick with our usual defense, but we've definitely been working on our secondary, moving them around to different places to try and prepare for their pass game," Rawleigh said.
Clearly, the Lions have made strides on both sides of the ball, including making vital improvements on the offensive and defensive lines.
"They've come a long way since August," Black said. "We started preaching to them then that we wanted to see them get one percent better everyday and I think they took that to heart. The line has done a great job, Gabe Matteson is a transfer and he's done a great job for us and blended in with (Armondo) Orcesi and Wyatt Held's a first-year football player starting for us at left tackle."
General Brown also has a sense of the history involved in its state playoff run.
The 2010 squad was the first from the area to reach a state title game in football, with the Lions ultimately losing to Section 1's Bronxville in the final.
"So hopefully we can keep with that and accomplish something new," Malcolm said.
General Brown is looking to take one step further, looking to finish off its journey.
"I really don't look at those things," Black said. "My focus always has been since I started coaching was the kids, and as long as they are working hard, happy and unselfish, I couldn't ask for anything more than that."
"Not really, we don't get onto that as much," Natali said of the history of the program.
In 2014, Indian River became the first team from the region to win a state title in football.
The last time General Brown football made it this far into the state playoffs, Black was an assistant coach with the team.
Black was in his third year of coaching under the late Steve Fisher, before he took over as head coach in 2015.
"I say this to everybody, he built this program and we're just the stewards of it right now," Black said of Fisher said. "But it's just the tradition of what he built and we're just continuing that and these kids, whether they realize it or not, they're benefiting from the foundation that he built."
"He instills the values of General Brown football in each and every one of us, which is pretty awesome," Malcolm said of Black.
Black sees plenty of parallels between the 2010 and 2022 Lions' teams.
"I think so," Black said. "The regional games, the quarterfinals and semis were both hard-fought battles, one-score games back in 2010. And our last two games have been very physical battles that we really had to work our way through in (those) second (halves), so I think it's pretty similar."
These parallels also include invaluable intangibles, including strong team camaraderie and chemistry.
"There's a lot of similarities and really not so much from what we do on the football field," Black said. "But they were very unselfish, that 2010 team was another team that didn't care who got the credit, as long as the ultimate goal was accomplished and we won games. And this year's team has taken on that same identity."
General Brown has also been backed by plenty of support from both the school and the community during the playoffs.
"The community is doing so much for us," Natali said. "They've been great."
Hicks added: "It's been amazing because we're just like a family the way we've bonded together. All the games we've played have been fun, but at the same time we know we're going to have to play even better this time."
