Section 4's key moments, top players from Week 7 of HS football season

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Union-Endicott's big-play offense has delivered plenty this season. On Friday night it was the Tigers' defense that led the way to bring home another division championship for the storied program.

Latrail Jones intercepted a pass with under three minutes left to cap a stellar night for the defense and help preserve U-E's 12-7 victory over visiting Vestal in a game that decided the Section 4 Division II champion and home field throughout the four-team Class A sectional tournament.

More:Section 4 Week 7 football scoreboard

Defending sectional champion U-E (6-1) ended up division play at 3-0. Vestal (4-3) closed at 2-1 in division, good for second place.

"It was a classic U-E, Vestal football game," U-E coach Tommy Baleno said. "It was a great atmosphere. The student body in the stands were going crazy, everybody was excited about it. The players played hard, the coaches coached hard. It was just a great thing to be part of."

U-E's win gives the Tigers a home game against winless Ithaca in the semifinals in two weeks. Vestal will host Horseheads in the other semifinal.

Tioga also celebrated a division title Friday thanks to a 28-21 win over Delhi in a meeting of unbeaten Division V Class D teams. The defending Class D state champ Tigers (8-0) wrapped up the top seed for the four-team Section 4 playoffs. Tioga is ranked first in New York in Class D and Delhi (6-1) is sixth.

Elsewhere, Elmira (5-2) sent Section 3's Fayetteville-Manlius (7-1) to its first loss, 31-16; Corning (4-3) was a 20-7 winner over Horseheads (4-4); Chenango Forks (7-1) rallied from a 7-0 halftime hole for a 12-7 win over Newark Valley; and Maine-Endwell improved to 7-0 with a 48-6 win Saturday over Johnson City.

Shout-out to standouts

• Nick Lang carried 10 times for 64 yards for Union-Endicott and his 67-yard punt return for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter ended up the deciding touchdown. Cooper Hughes added 54 yards on 10 carries for U-E and Jaheim Jackson caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Max Sementelli.

• Camden Schaffer hit Jack Gannon for a 25-yard touchdown in the third quarter to help give Vestal a 7-6 lead against U-E.

• Corning wingback Logan Booker carried 31 times for 172 yards, scoring on runs of 7 and 2 yards as the Hawks took a 14-0 halftime lead.

• James Freeman of Corning carried 19 times for 79 yards and caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Brady Hughes to put the Hawks up 20-0 with 3:43 remaining.

• Elmira's Johnnie Garcia scored on a 55-yard run and a 67-yard punt return to pace a 31-point first half for the Express. Amir Williams added a 15-yard touchdown run and Kayon Flint scored on a 5-yard run for Elmira.

• Ian Watson of Horseheads gained 114 yards on 11 rushes, capped by a 37-yard touchdown. Horseheads' Josh McCawley ran 13 times for 66 yards.

• Holden Ryan of Norwich carried 26 times for 197 yards and a touchdown as the Purple Tornado rallied for a 23-20 win over Owego Free Academy.

• Owego's Steven Bidwell ran for 119 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries in the loss to Norwich.

• Quintin Bowman ran 11 times for 78 yards and a touchdown in Susquehanna Valley's 29-13 triumph against Oneonta.

• Devante Rivera had an 84-yard kickoff return for a touchdown for Susquehanna Valley.

Garnes a defensive force for U-E

Union-Endicott's defense limited Vestal to 147 yards of offense as the Tigers won their sixth in a row and snapped a four-game winning streak for the Golden Bears.

U-E's Musha Garnes had two quarterback sacks and three tackles for loss.

Baleno said the Tigers did a good job containing Vestal stalwart running back Liam Nealy.

"The guys really stuck to the game plan, they really did their job and kind of worked together and never really gave up and stayed focused for four quarters," Baleno said.

Maxim Gazdik led U-E with eight tackles, Dillon Kelly notched seven tackles and a sack, and Qymani Viera-Powell had six tackles and a sack.

Corning in control from start

Corning opened its win against Horseheads with a 15-play, 78-yard drive that ended up in the zone thanks to Booker's 7-yard touchdown run. The Hawks' second drive ended up with a missed 25-yard field goal and their third produced another Booker touchdown and a 14-0 lead.

"We controlled the tempo," Corning coach Mike Johnston Jr. said. "I thought we did a really good job on the defensive side of the ball, we were solid on special teams and establishing field position. Offensively I really liked our toughness."

Corning ran 63 offensive plays to 49 for Horseheads, which hit one of 11 pass attempts against Corning's defense.

More offensive woes for Raiders

Horseheads failed to find the end zone last week in a 23-0 loss to Vestal. While the Blue Raiders did some good things offensively in the second half Friday, it took an impressive play from Watson with 1:50 left to avoid another shutout.

Blue Raiders coach Kevin Hillman pointed to a dropped touchdown, a fourth down in which the running back missed the play call, and a play in which a lineman failed to pull as examples of mistakes Horseheads can't afford to make.

"We've got to play pretty much a perfect game to be able to do things, especially against good competition, and we didn't do it," he said. "You've got to give your hats off to those guys though. They did a good job over there. They held us to basically no points until the end there."

Express too much for another Section 3 foe

Elmira's first-half offensive explosion Friday led the way in the Express' second decisive victory this season against an opponent from Section 3. Earlier this season Elmira (5-2) was a 62-28 winner over Rome Free Academy, with the Express scoring its final points midway through the third quarter.

For opponents that can't match up physically with Elmira at the line of scrimmage, trying to handle the team's double-wing offense is often a daunting task. Section 4 foes on Elmira's schedule see the double-wing regularly with the Express and Corning, but it becomes that much more difficult to handle for defenses not accustomed to defending it.

"We came out and did what we wanted to early on," Elmira coach Jimmy McCauley said. "When those things happen, we're able to get some other guys in, which is always a good thing. ... I thought we did a really nice job of doing what we're supposed to do when we're supposed to do it."

Fayetteville-Manlius entered Friday's game with two shutouts and another game in which it held its opponent to six points. F-M is ranked sixth in New York in Class A.

Comeback wins for SV, Norwich

Susquehanna Valley (4-3) and Norwich (6-2) put on their rally helmets Friday night in coming up with come-from-behind victories.

Norwich faced a 20-12 deficit heading into the fourth quarter against Owego. Just seven seconds into the quarter, Braden Hagenbuch scored on a 10-yard touchdown run and Steven Dowdall added a tying 2-point conversion.

Spencer Root's 33-yard field goal with 6:48 produced the deciding points.

Susquehanna Valley started slowly against Oneonta, facing a 13-0 deficit through one quarter before scoring the final 29 points. Rivera's kickoff return to open the second half put the Sabers up for good, 14-13. Ian Harder's 32-yard touchdown run with 6:30 left was the final touch on the rally after Anthony DiRosa's 6-yard TD run and a 2-point conversion made it 22-13.

Injuries piling up late in season

Johnston looked over at one point at the Corning sideline and had 12 players unavailable because of injury. The list grew when starting fullback/linebacker A.J. Thomas went down with an apparent knee injury in the second quarter that sidelined him the rest of the night and possibly longer.

"It’s not funny, but I kind of laughed, we’ve got 12 kids – seven of them would be starters both ways – that are not even playing football right now," Johnston said. "I laughed late in the game and we made a tackle with a freshman and three sophomores in gang tackling. I loved the way they played tonight. They played with a lot of passion and heart."

Two of Horseheads' most explosive backs, Garrett Elston and Bradock Salisbury, were out last week against Vestal and limited against Corning. Elston carried three times and Salisbury had six rushes.

"It’s just me being a little bit cautious," Hillman said. "Don’t ask them because they won’t like it, but there’s times when I’ve got to sit back and think about the kids’ health."

Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Recap of Section 4 high school football Week 7