Maginn at 'Burgh, Section II Class A semifinal

Lansingburgh High School senior running back Jake Luce runs with the ball during Friday's Section II Class A semifinal against Bishop Maginn. Luce ran for three touchdowns and 183 yards on 11 attempts in the 30-8 triumph for the Knights. (Photos by J.S. Carras - The Record).

TROY — The Lansingburgh High School football team had had enough of the come-from-behind victory.

After needing rallies each of the last two weeks, the Knights took care of business early against Bishop Maginn in Friday’s Section II Class A semifinal game.

Jake Shaw recovered an Antoine Johnson fumble on the second play of the Griffins’ first drive and Shaw booted a 32-yard field goal on the ensuing set of plays.

Anthony Fogarty made a shoestring tackle on fourth down to stop Bishop Maginn’s resulting 11-play drive and Jake Luce ran 65 yards to the end zone on the second play of Lansingburgh’s next set of downs. The Knights made that head start hold up in a 30-8 victory at Lansingburgh High School.

“The past two weeks, we played sloppy. It was bad conditions and we just weren’t ready for the game,” Luce, at right, said. “Last week, I don’t know, we just didn’t come out in the first quarter to play. Today we did and it showed. It definitely showed.”

Luce, a senior who converted from left offensive guard to fullback midway through the season, finished Friday’s game with 183 rushing yards on 11 attempts, scoring three touchdowns.

“I got the big man Mark Tracey right in front of me,” Luce said of his senior left tackle. “He just opens the holes up and I run right through them. Mark Tracey, he opens the holes. That’s why I love that kid. He should be getting more credit than I should. He’s the one that opens the holes. I just run the ball.”

Lansingburgh senior running back and defensive back Anthony Fogarty runs with the ball against Bishop Maginn Friday night in Troy.

Anthony Fogarty added 90 rushing yards on 11 attempts and Marcus Little ran for 82 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries for the Knights, but the biggest offensive weapon Lansingburgh had Friday night was its defense.

Video highlights from this game are available online at www.troyrecord.com

Lansingburgh forced four Maginn turnovers – Fogarty and Tom Blake intercepted passes thrown by Maginn quarterback John Sica and Mackenzie Carpenter added a fumble recovery – and the Knights forced the Griffins to turn the ball over on downs three times.

Bishop Maginn (5-4), the Southeast Division’s No. 3 seed, had upset Northwest Division No. 2 Amsterdam in the Class A quarterfinals last week. Matthias McKinnon paced the Griffins with 102 rushing yards on 24 attempts and Isaiah Phillips added a 93-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter.

A Lansingburgh defender tackles Bishop Maginn's Antoine Johnson during Friday's Section II Class A semifinal game.

Lansingburgh (8-1), the Southeast Division’s No. 1 seed and ranked No. 24 in the latest New York State poll, advances to its eighth Section II Super Bowl appearance since 2002. The Knights will face Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (9-0), the No. 3 ranked Class A team in the state, Saturday at 7 p.m. at Shenendehowa High School.

“For these kids, that’s been the mission,” said head coach Al McNall. “The mission was, we had them Week One and we wanted them in Week Ten and here we are.”

Burnt Hills posted a 25-15 victory at Lansingburgh on opening night. The Spartans have appeared in the New York State Class A championship game two years in a row.

“There is a lot of legacy here,” McNall said. “Every team that comes through, they want to uphold that and we’ve been pretty successful.”

“It means the world to us,” Shaw, at left, said of a chance to play in the Super Bowl. “It’s what we work for every day.”

“It’s tradition. It’s where we want to be,” said Luce. “We talked about toady being our last home game, the last game we’re ever going to play on this field. We had to make it count. We definitely did.”

LANSINGBURGH 30, BISHOP MAGINN 8

Bishop Maginn (5-4) 0 0 0 8 — 8
Lansingburgh (8-1) 10 6 7 7 — 30
First Quarter
L — Jake Shaw 32 field goal (6:49)
L — Jake Luce 65 run (Shaw kick) (0:08)
Second Quarter
L — Marcus Little 1 run (Shaw kick blocked) 8:53
Third Quarter
L — Luce 54 run (Shaw kick) 6:30
Fourth Quarter
BM — Isaiah Phillips 93 pass from John Sica (James Lawitz pass from Sica) 10:32
L — Luce 1 run (Shaw kick) 7:04
Individual Stats:
Rushing: Bishop Maginn (47-159): McKinnon 24-102, Johnson 16-47, Sica 2-6, J.Williams 1-4, McCarthy 4-1. Lansingburgh (36-355): Luce 11-183, Fogarty 11-90, Little 14-82.
Passing: Bishop Maginn: Sica 6-17-2-146-1; Lawitz 0-1-0-0-0. Lansingburgh: Grillo 5-10-0-13-0.
Receiving: Bishop Maginn (6-146): Phillips 2-105, Lawitz 2-21, McCarthy 2-20. Lansingburgh (5-13): Pryor 2-13, Luce 1-9, Little 2-(-9).

• Notes:Lansingburgh public address announcer Rich Sheffer continues to be the most accurate in the business from his perch in the Lansingburgh press box. He's also very fair in announcing player names from the opposing team, which is a nice touch.
• Lansingburgh's Anthony Fogarty had a big hit in the game (check the video for that) and Quincy Michael added a big hit late in the fourth quarter as well.
• Here is a series sequence that explains how the drives in the game broke down:
• Jake Shaw recovered a Maginn fumble after the Knights punted on their first possession. Shaw's field goal on the next drive put 'Burgh up 3-0.
• Fogarty stopped Maginn's Shaquille McCarthy on fourth down on the Knights' 28-yard line later in the first quarter. Luce scored on a 65-yard run two plays later.
• Fogarty intercepted a John Sica pass on Maginn's next drive. Marcus Little scored on a one-yard run on 'Burgh's following series.
• Maginn again turned the ball over on downs and 'Burgh's next drive sputtered as the second quarter ended.
• Mackenzie Carpetner recovered a fumble for Lansingburgh at the end of an 11-play drive for Maginn to open the third quarter. Luce scored two plays later on a 54-yard run.
• Shaw made a tackle for a loss on fourth down on Maginn's next drive, forcing another turnover on downs. 'Burgh was forced to punt on the next drive and Maginn scored its lone touchdown after that.
• Luce scored on a one-yard run to cap an eight-play drive later in the fourth, which essentially put the game out of reach for the Griffins.
•  I asked Jake Shaw how special it was for him to be able to play in the Super Bowl in 2010, after having to miss the game last year. Jake Luce hit him in the eye with a badminton shuttlecock in gym class last year, forcing Shaw to sit out the Knights' final few games. (For highlights from their response, view the video above).
• Quotes from the notebook: "It’s definitely more fun being a running back," Luce said. "I get to score touchdowns and run people over, you know what I’m saying? It’s not really a big transition. I’m sure anybody could do it. He could do it (nods at Shaw). It’s not too hard. All you have to do is get the ball and run."
• "When we made that switch, we took Jake from the guard and put him at the tackle spot," said McNall. "What that does is give us another dimension that people have to look at. With the hard work of offensive coordinator Jeff Pasinella and Mike Drinkwine with the offensive line, we've gotten to the point now where we can run both offenses pretty good."
• "Burnt Hills is Burnt Hills," said McNall. "They’re the big gun in Section II. If you don’t aspire to play them, you probably shouldn’t be out here. I think for the first week, welcome back to the As, here’s your first game, Burnt Hills, we played that game pretty well, but we turned the ball over and made some mistakes. You can’t do that against Burnt Hills."
  

TONIGHT
Class AA semifinals
E3 Shenendehowa 24, E1 Ballston Spa 14
Class A semifinals
N1 Burnt Hills 31, N3 Queensbury 14
S1 Lansingburgh 30, S3 Bishop Maginn 8
Class B semifinals
W1 Schalmont 21, R2 Albany Academy 7
R1 Ravena 27, W2 Hudson Falls 14
Crossover games
Corinth 25, Ichabod Crane 14
Cobleskill 34, Hudson 7
Schenectady 12, Guilderland 7
Amsterdam 36, Scotia-Glenville 18
CBA 49, La Salle 25

Sat., Oct. 30
Class AA semifinals
L3 Niskayuna at L1 Troy 1:30 p.m.
Class C semifinals
At Stillwater High School
N2 Greenwich vs. S1 Chatham 2 p.m.
S2 Fonda-Fultonville vs. N1 Hoosick Falls 7 p.m.
Class D semifinals
At Schuylerville High School
3 Whitehall vs. 2 Rensselaer 1 p.m.
4 Fort Edward vs. 1 Cambridge 7 p.m.
Crossover games
Mechanicville at Granville 1 p.m.
Coxsackie-Athens at Cairo-Durham 1 p.m.
Tamarac at Voorheesville 1 p.m.

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