Semipro football: Red and Black falls in road game against Syracuse Strong
Jun. 24—SYRACUSE — The Watertown Red and Black experienced a tough road loss Saturday night.
The Syracuse Strong defeated the Red and Black, 27-13, in a Gridiron Developmental Football League game at Henninger High School.
Syracuse, which improves to 4-0, has now won both meetings against Watertown this season.
The Red and Black, which had won its previous two games, fell to 3-2.
Eric Beyler connected on a 37-yard field goal for Watertown to open the scoring in the game in the first quarter. The field goal was set up by a blocked punt from Cory Smith.
The Red and Black later carried a 10-7 advantage into halftime after Jarryd Souffront hauled in 22-yard scoring pass from Jason Williams in the second quarter.
Watertown appeared to score on a 15-yard touchdown run by Jamal Finkley in the third quarter. Finkley fumbled the ball and teammate and offensive lineman Mike Edwards recovered the ball in the end zone, but the score was waved off by the officials.
Watertown's coaching staff was clearly displeased with the officiating in the game as a whole.
"This is by far the worst officiating game I've seen in any sport," Watertown offensive coach Jerry Levine said. "These guys actually stole the game from us. And it's too bad — we outplayed them."
Beyler added a 32-yard field goal in the third quarter, but Watertown did not score the rest of the way.
Souffront, who is listed as a wide receiver, is a former Syracuse player as well as a West Genesee graduate.
Williams completed 21 of 41 passes for 280 yards and was intercepted once. Zach Todd led Watertown's receiving game with 82 yards on six catches, Keegan Queior totaled 78 yards on seven receptions and Chris Furr caught two passes for 61 yards.
Williams also paced Watertown on the ground, rushing for 26 yards on three carries.
Defensively, Smith recorded a sack and was in on 12 tackles, Jeremy Machia was in on 14 tackles and Justin Kuhn was in on 10 tackles.
Earlier in the season, Syracuse defeated Watertown, 31-9, on June 3 on George Ashcraft Field at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds.
Syracuse is the reigning champion in the GPFL and Watertown, which is in its first season in the league, won the Empire Football League championship the past two seasons.
After a bye next week, the Red and Black will travel to play at the Charlotte Colonials on July 8.
Following another bye, Watertown will wrap up its regular season by hosting a pair of games against the Troy Fighting Irish on July 22 and against the Upstate Predators on July 29, with both games at the Fairgrounds.
