The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake football team is in the Class A Super Bowl for the third year in a row, but it wasn’t easy to get there.
Troy scored two touchdowns in the second quarter to tie the game at 14, but three Paul Layton scoring runs in the second half helped the Spartans pull out a 35-20 victory over the Flying Horses in last Friday’s semifinal.
Nick Henderson got things going for BH-BL (9-0) late in the first quarter. After a Troy drive stalled at the Spartans’ 1-yard line, Henderson found a seam in the Flying Horses’ defensive line and took off on a 99-yard touchdown run to give BH-BL a 7-0 lead.
Erik Vuillaume doubled the Spartans’ lead in the second quarter with a 7-yard touchdown run, but Troy (7-2) quickly cut into BH-BL’s advantage. Quarterback Zach Dolan connected with Dan McLaren on a 75-yard scoring strike to get the Flying Horses on the scoreboard. Then, Dolan capped a Troy offensive series with a 1-yard run late in the second quarter to tie the game at 14.
Layton used his feet to put BH-BL back in the lead. The senior quarterback scored on a 5-yard run in the third quarter and added a 9-yard run early in the fourth quarter to re-establish the Spartans’ two-touchdown advantage.
Dolan wasn’t about to allow Troy to go down without a fight. He found a hole in BH-BL’s de-fense and took off on a 60-yard touchdown run to get the Flying Horses within striking distance at 28-20. However, Layton directed another BH-BL scoring drive one he capped with a 22-yard touchdown run to seal Troy’s fate.
Layton finished with 143 rushing yards and 102 passing yards to lead BH-BL into Saturday’s Super Bowl against unde-feated Bishop Maginn at Colonie Central High School.
In other Sectional football action last Friday, LaSalle bounced back from a 26-0 deficit to beat Saratoga 41-39 in the Class AA semifinals.
Tailback Leejay Pollacchi had a big game for Saratoga Springs (7-2). Pollacchi carried the ball 33 times for 333 yards and scored five touchdowns including a 60-yard run that put the Blue Streaks ahead 39-27 at the end of the third quarter.
LaSalle quarterback Mike Murray ran for a touchdown and threw for another in the fourth quarter to cap the Cadets’ comeback and propel his team into Friday’s Class AA Super Bowl.“