Massena settles in to capture semifinal
MASSENA — The Massena Central varsity football team finally made itself at home on the newly-renovated Mike Nicholas Field.
"We've been playing good football but we've been coming up just short. This win has been a while coming. Now we have that monkey off our backs and we move forward from here," said coach Anthony Diagostino after the Raiders turned back Potsdam Central 23-14 on Monday night in the semifinals of the Section 7/10 Football Class A playoffs for their first win in four tries on their new home turf.
After honoring the nine seniors playing in the final home games of their varsity careers, the veterans returned the favor by leading the Raiders past the Sandstoners.
Massena is scheduled to play top-seeded Malone in the Class A final at 1 p.m. Saturday in Malone.
Along with quarterbacking a balanced Raider offense, Taylor Elsner showed some outstanding versatility in leading the winning effort. He connected with classmate Benjamin Thomas for a 21-yard touchdown strike that opened the scoring with 1:01 left in the first quarter. He then kicked the extra-point to give the Raiders a 7-0 lead that would stand heading into the fourth quarter where Elsner added a 19-yard field goal with 10:24 remaining.
The Sandstoners, who were stopped inside the Massena 10-yard line late in the first half and limited to just nine offensive plays on their first three possessions of the second half, took advantage of the only fumble of the game to score their first touchdown with 5:49 remaining when Zac Linsky bolted in from three yards out.
Massena responded with a decisive 72-yard scoring drive that ended with senior Evan Raymo bolting his way up the middle into the end zone from nine yards out with 2:31 left. Elsner then sealed the win by pulling off his second interception of the game on the Potsdam 45 and returning it down the right sideline for a touchdown that pushed the lead to 23-6 with 1:52 left.
"Evan just showed some outstanding all-around leadership tonight," Diagostino said.
The Sandstoners gave their fans one last season highlight when senior Shane McHenry connected with classmate Paul Buchanan on a 39-yard touchdown off a halfback option pass with 10.7 seconds left. Junior quarterback John Coleman then hooked up with sophomore Josh Adams for a two-point conversion that closed out the scoring.
"Our kids played hard," said Potsdam coach Jim Kirka after his squad finished at 4-4 overall. "We just made too many mistakes again and Massena did what they had to do to win."
Elsner connected on seven of 10 passes for 95 yards and junior Adam Malone led the Raiders in rushing with 101 yards on 14 tries while Raymo finished with 57 yards on 14 tries. Trevor Bacon pulled down three passes for 42 yards as the leading receiver.
Linsky, who is one of several Sandstoners to be hit by the wave of flu that forced the postponement of the game from last Friday to last night, wound up as the leading rusher for Potsdam with 51 yards on 10 carries.
Sophomore Jesse Bradish handled the bulk of the rushing workload in the first half but injured his right ankle on only his second carry of the second half to finish with 32 yards on 13 tries. Coleman completed four of his 11 attempts for 76 yards and ran the ball another nine times for 49 yards. Adams had 68 yards on three catches.
The Raiders improved to 4-5 with the win and will now only have four days to get ready for Malone.
"This win is something that we've been chasing for a while. It shows that if we play well, we can be successful," Diagostino said. "We had a good game against the Malone the first time. We just have to play our game."
