Raiders' bus to put on mileage

Instead of playing a team from Section 10 or 7 this weekend the Massena football team will travel to Ithaca for a nonleague game against Section 4's Little Red at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Massena, which defeated St. Lawrence Central 21-2 in its home opener last Friday, has not played a team from out of the area during the regular season since the early 2000s.

"We both had open schedules," Red Raiders coach Anthony Diagostino said. "Next year, if everything stays as is, we won't have a bye. We only have them every couple years."

Ithaca gained 413 yards rushing last weekend in a 65-21 romp of Southside. Senior Riley Lasda led the Little Red with 241 yards rushing. He also scored six touchdowns.

"It's something different," Diagostino said of facing Ithaca. "I'm not sure how (the players) feel about it right now. I remember the first time I told the guys we had Ithaca on the schedule one said it was just another team for us to beat. That's some of the attitude.

"I don't really know anything about them. I have met with their coach (Ed Redmond). We exchanged film, so we kind of have an idea of what we both do offensively and defensively."

The game will give Massena a taste of what it would be like if the Red Raiders have to prepare for a state tournament opponent later this season.

"That's kind of how we take it," Diagostino said. "If we plan on winning Section 10 and moving on we have to play teams we don't really see on a regular basis."

The Red Raiders will also take precautions to not be travel weary by kickoff time.

"It's a longer trip, about four hours," Diagostino said. "We'll leave early Saturday morning and as we make the drive we'll stop a couple times to let the guys get out and get their legs under them a bit. We'll take our time getting down there."

MILLER'S LONG ROAD BACK

Canton senior running back Jesse Miller had an impressive opening game to the 2010 season, rushing for 175 yards on 17 carries and scoring three touchdowns in a 43-6 win over Seton Catholic last Saturday.

Even more impressive was that Miller had to come back from several knee surgeries that cost him to miss most of the last two seasons before he even took the field for practice this fall.

"He's put in a ton of work to get that knee where it is," Canton coach Austin Weakfall said. "There were a ton of trials and tribulations that went into getting that knee where it is. He was very explosive off that knee. He took some shots in practice that made us wince. But the way he carried the ball on Saturday was pretty amazing.

"The guys rallied around that. This is a guy who has gone through some major surgery twice and has responded. His goal is to play college football. He's a hard worker. He's done drills. He's put in all the work needed to get where he is today."

NEW-LOOK WILDCATS

For the past 20 years the Gouverneur football team has either had a paw print or some kind of Wildcat logo on its helmets.

This year the team is going retro with a helmet that sports a 'G' similar to the logo used by the National Football League's Green Bay Packers, except Gouverneur's 'G' is not encircled.

"Years ago Gouverneur did wear something similar to the Green Bay Packer 'G,' " Gouverneur coach Sean Devlin said. "We got back to the roots of Gouverneur football."

The team also made a cosmetic change in their jerseys, switching their home tops from blue to yellow. They have both blue and yellow pants.

"The kids really like them," Devlin said. "They look real sharp and fit real tight. We went with gold to change it up a little bit."