After a near miss against Amsterdam one week earlier, the Scotia-Glenville football team gave rookie head coach Mike Turgeon his first victory.
Brett Evensen rushed for 137 yards and a touchdown, and Corey Carnevale added two scoring runs to lead the Tartans to a 36-14 victory over Averill Park last Friday.
We’re extremely happy with our performance. The kids played hard and played well, said Turgeon.
Scotia-Glenville’s double wing offense racked up nearly 400 yards against Averill Park, with the running backs contributing the bulk of the yards. Besides Evensen, the Tartans received big contributions from Carnevale (77 yards), quarterback Dakota Aker (40 yards) and tailback Josh Matthews (38 yards).
Turgeon said the offense has come around in year 2 of running the double wing formation, which places three running backs in a tight formation behind the quarterback.
`We did some good things last year, and we only lost two guys from last year (to graduation),` said Turgeon. `So, the guys are a lot more comfortable with it now.`
Evensen got Scotia-Glenville (1-0 division, 1-2 overall) on the scoreboard quickly. The senior broke free for aa 72-yard touchdown run early in the first quarter to make the score 6-0.
The Tartans then struck for three touchdowns in the second quarter. Carnevale capped the first two scoring drives with touchdown runs of 1 and 7 yards, and Evensen caught a 14-yard scoring strike from Aker late in the quarter. Scotia-Glenville also converted all of its two-point conversion attempts to increase its lead to 30-0 at halftime.
Aker capped the scoring for Scotia-Glenville with a 39-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Andrew Bezjian had a pair of touchdown runs in the fourth quarter to get Averill Park on the scoreboard, but that was all the Warriors could muster.
The win over Averill Park came a week after Scotia-Glenville nearly knocked off defending state class A champion Amsterdam. The Tartans had a 20-7 lead in the second quarter before the Rams rallied for a 30-20 victory.
Scotia-Glenville hits the road for its next two games. The Tartans visit Bleecker Stadium in Albany Thursday to face Bishop Maginn. Then, they go to Rotterdam on Sept. 29 to play Mohonasen.
`We’re 1-0 in our division (after the Averill Park win),` said Turgeon. `Our goal is to take one game at a time, and our focus is on Maginn Thursday. They’re a good team.“