Red and Black confident entering postseason

The Watertown Red and Black left Glens Falls after a 21-7 loss on Aug. 13 as a 1-4 team that had nearly as many turnovers, 19, as points, 20.

When the semipro football team returns to Glens Falls at 7:30 tonight for an Empire Football League first-round playoff matchup with the Greenjackets, it will do so as winner of four of its last five games, averaging over 40 points per contest in that span.

“We weren’t supposed to be in the playoffs,” said Red and Black coach George Ashcraft. “People wrote us off after the fifth week of the season when we were 1-4. They shouldn’t have.”

The fifth-seeded Red and Black (5-5) has reached the EFL title game in each of the last two seasons, and four of the last five years. And though it looked next to impossible to get that far just six weeks ago, Watertown quarterback Brian Williams said that this year’s team is just as capable of pulling it off.

“The opportunity to seize our moment has happened later on in our season (this year),” Williams said. “So it’s only different in that respect, but whether it’s this year or last year, when playoffs start we still feel like we have the opportunity to win a title, just like we felt in years prior.”

Following the loss to the Greenjackets, The Red and Black went on the road to get its first on-field victory of the season over Montreal, and then posted three blowout wins at home before dropping its regular season finale to Albany, 20-15, a team they lost to by 23 points earlier in the year.

“I think it’s a true testament to what we’ve done the last month, the hard work that the players have put in,” offensive coordinator Ammbrose Souza said. “As long as we continue to keep pressing and do what we’ve been doing, I don’t think there’s a team in the league that can hang.”

“I think that if we can go into this game with the attitude we’ve had for the last month and a half, we’re going to be fine,” Ashcraft said.

Since defeating Watertown, Glens Falls (6-4) has lost to Syracuse, 44-10, and Plattsburgh, 31-13. The Greenjackets were credited with two forfeit wins over Vermont to lock up the fourth seed, but don’t have an on-field victory in the league since beating the Red and Black almost two months ago.

“It’s a team that we feel, if we execute our game plan, we definitely have an opportunity to beat,” Williams said. “Whether it’s home or away.”

The winner will play at top-seeded Syracuse (10-0), which earned a first-round bye, in next Saturday’s semifinals.

“This is a three-week season now,” Ashcraft said. “Our goal is to play at least three games, that’s our goal. If you lose, you’re a spectator for the rest of the year, and we don’t want to be spectators.”