Watervliet's Dom Diaz (5) goes horizontal to corral the ball in the Cannoneers 54-7 romp of Voorheesville. (Tom Killups-The Record)

Now that was a statement win.

A week after a disappointing 14-6 season opening loss to Chatham the Cannoneers dominated from start to finish en route to a 54-7 win over Voorheesville.

The Cannoneers scored five times in the first half for a 34-0 lead before the second team took over.

Senior Caleb Gleason ran for 29 yards on two carries, caught a 40 yard touchdown pass and returned an interception 23 yards for a score.

"The offensive line did a great job," Gleason said. "I had two carries and the holes were huge. Whenever you can get the offensive line to control the line of scrimmage like they did you know you're obviously going to have a good day."

The Cannoneer running game certainly did have a good day rushing for 192 yards thanks to the work of the O-line.

"The line did a total 180," Watervliet quarterback Chris Hughes said of the difference between week 1 and 2. "We had the line of scrimmage moving three or four yards down field before we even handed the ball off."

Watervliet quarterback Chris Hughes eludes the Voorheesville defense in the Cannoneers home opener. (Tom Killups--The Record)

The Cannoneers proved to be a deep team in the win finding as much success with their second and third team players as they did with the starters. Junior Varsity call up Ryan Manning scored the first touchdown of his varsity career and Ahshad Thompson ran for two scores.

"We had pretty much every single running back we have on the team touch the ball," Gleason said of the plethora of backs to see action for Watervliet.

The Cannoneers travel to Catholic Central on Friday for a South Division match up. Kick off is 7p.m.

--Ryan Kircher

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Anthony Fogarty (23) eludes a Cobleskill-Richmondville tackler during the Tigers 26-0 Class B victory on Saturday. Quarterback Mark Gallerie (5) looks on. (Mike McMahon - The Record).

From 0-9 to 2-0. That is how most of the Cohoes seniors feel. Two seasons ago, the Tigers finished 0-9 and most of this year's seniors played that season during their sophomore year.
But after countless hours in the weight room, on the practice field and at various camps, the Tigers are roaring their way into Reinfurt Division play.

Fogarty, a sophomore, had a big day on Saturday after the Tigers' starting backfield came out with injures on the first drive of the game. Even as an underclassman, Fogarty has felt the struggles the seniors have gone through and admitted that it gives him a little extra motivation.

"It feels pretty good," Fogarty said of the 2-0 start. "We're more like a family now. We’re working together, we’re running together, we’re practicing together and it feels good – like a family."

"We worked hard all offseason," said senior running back Steve Weaver. "We went to three camps, worked all offseason and we always work as hard as we can in practice."

Gary Gill (2) celebrates his third quarter touchdown reception with Sean Litlejohn (left). Cohoes improved to 2-0 on the season with the victory. (Mike McMahon - The Record)

Through two games, Cohoes has outscored its opponents 58-6. On Saturday, the Tigers held the Bulldogs from Cobleskill to 15 yards of total offense.

With a three-deep backfield of Weaver, Fogarty and fullback Tom Durant, the Tigers are content to grind it out on the ground, the old-fashioned way.

"Our backs are special," Ducharme said. "The backs we have are hard-nosed running kids and we have a few of them. But our offensive line, we feel, can match up with any (defensive line)."

The Tigers know they'll have to keep the intensity high in practice as they prepare to face Albany Academy on Saturday. They know they can't take this early success for granted.

"Academy is a very good team, they have a lot of skill athletes," said Ducharme. "Coach (Tony) Fruscio is over there. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be a dogfight. Any week in the Class Bs is going to be a dogfight."

-- Will Montgomery
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Marcus Hepp (21) scoots past a Burnt Hills defender during Friday's Class A football game in Burnt Hills. (J.S. Carras - The Record)

The Spartans 60-14 victory over Lansingburgh on Friday night was downright shocking. We knew Burnt Hills was again loaded coming into the 2008 season - but no one expected that outcome against a Lansingburgh team that has been consistently amazing this decade.

BH-BL quarterback slashed his way through the Lansingburgh defense - taking it around the corner on keeper plays and finding receivers like Keaton Flint open downfield.

The solace for Lansingburgh was that this was a non-division game. Their five-game Southeast Division schedule starts on Friday when the Knights host Mohonasen.

After losing players such as Kenny Youngs and Kareem Jones to graduation in recent years - once-in-a-generation players that happened to step right in for one another - it is time for the Knights to become a defense-first football team. With backs like Hepp and Santell Mauzon, Lansingburgh can still pound it out and wear down the clock, but their defense needs to keep opposing offenses off the field and off the scoreboard for that approach to work.

-- Will Montgomery

The Troy Flying Horses looked impressive in a 34-6 road win over old rival Amsterdam Friday night. Amsterdam scored a touchdown on the first possession of the game but was then held scoreless the final three quarters of play.

Troy excelled in its typical hard nosed approach dominating the Rams on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Fred Fitch ran for 145 yards and three touchdowns for the Horses. Fitch now has five touchdowns in the Horses two wins.

While the game was one-sided on the scoreboard it was hard fought throughout. The crack of helmets and pads colliding could be heard the whole 48 minutes of play. The two schools did the old Big 10 rivalry proud neither team giving an inch and both more than willing to make the hard hit.

I think The young Amsterdam team will be heard from sooner rather than later.

Troy comes back home to host 0-2 Scotia-Glenville on Saturday. Kick off is 1:30p.m.

--Ryan Kircher