Glens Falls tops Gloversville in football battle of Class B unbeatens

GLENS FALLS — Glens Falls took advantage of its opportunities, and Gloversville could not, in the Indians’ 27-0 Class B North Division football win Saturday at Putt LaMay Memorial Field.

The Indians (2-0 division, 5-0 overall) scored two touchdowns after making interceptions, and took advantage of a short field another time in a battle of unbeaten squads.

After a sloppy first quarter in which both teams committed a lot of penalties, it looked like Gloversville (2-1, 5-1) would have a golden scoring opportunity first when defensive end Devon Sisco made a diving interception at the Glens Falls 7-yard line early in the second quarter. Gloversville, however, threw an interception on the next play.

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After that, the Indians had a 14-play, 93-yard drive capped off by running back Caiden Wilkinson’s 1-yard touchdown run in which he bobbled the ball, but grabbed control of it and fell forward into the end zone. The big gainer on the drive was a 37-yard run by Wilkinson (33 rushes, 140 yards, 2TDs), who got a great block from receiver Alex Cygan.

Glens Falls held Gloversville to 27 yards rushing in the first half, and twice intercepted the Huskies. Things never got better for Gloversville, which finished with 55 yards rushing on 28 carries and just 62 yards passing with three interceptions.

“They won the battle up front, for sure,” Gloversville coach James Robare said. “We’re big, we’re aggressive, and they did a nice job of stalemating us in the first half, and whatever happened in the second half happened in the second half. Today, I tip our hats to them.”

“I thought our guys were really dialed in,” Glens Falls coach Pat Lilac said. “We spent a lot of time this week — coach [Mike] Macura and coach [Rob] Girard and coach [Jeff] Bennett — really figuring what Gloversville likes to do, and I think we took away their weapons and tried to make them go to other things.”

Glens Falls was particularly proud of holding Gloversville’s top running back, Kyle Robare, to 56 yards.

“The Robare kid is a physical kid, and we didn’t want to allow him to get into space,” Lilac said. “Don’t let him get a head of steam going, try to stop him at the line of scrimmage, and I thought we did a fantastic job of that.”

A punt that the wind grabbed in the third quarter gave Glens Falls the ball on Gloversville’s 29. Eight plays later, quarterback Carson Rath snuck in from one yard out to make it 14-0 with 4:16 left in the third.

Glens Falls made it 21-0 with 9:47 left in the game on a 43-yard pass from Rath to Kellen Driscoll, who made the catch at the 35, shed a couple of tacklers and sprinted down the left sideline the rest of the way. The 6-foot-3 Driscoll, also a skilled basketball player, also had two interceptions.

After Glens Falls’ Calob Duers returned an interception 44 yards down to the Gloversville 16, Glens Falls used six plays to make it 27-0 on Wilkinson’s second score, a 2-yard run.

James Robare was left to wonder ‘what if’ about the team’s first-half opportunities.

“Normally we’re making big plays in the first half, and there were chances for us to make big plays. We just didn’t make them. We were open, guys just didn’t catch the ball,” James Robare said.