Schenectady 46, Albany 6
A dreary Saturday with weather across upstate New York that was in one word, crap, certainly affected the attendance in this one that I would have expected to normally be greater. The weather did clear up for the nearly three hours this one took at Bob Ford Field on the SUNY Albany campus, but it may have done the home team Falcons a disservice by holding off. Schenectady's aerial game and playmakers were able to get loose time and time again, reeling off 33 straight over the last 2 & a half quarters.
At different points of the game, the Schenectady Patriots showed they could win this game in multiple ways. They flexed the ground game to start off the evening, utilizing a 9 play, 65 yard drive that was exclusively fueled on the ground to get on the board. Keenan Chandler sparked with carries of 7, 24, and 13 on his first 3 touches. Colby Youngblood finished it off with runs of 20 and 4, the latter being a TD run 4 minutes in to give Schenectady a 6-0 lead. Turnover issues that plagued Albany last week reared its ugly head again on the ensuing possession, and that would be the case throughout the night. After a big Tysheem Morris return put them near midfield, the snap on the first play from scrimmage sailed above Reed Drucker's head (would've sailed above Dwight Howard's, too) and after a scrum, it was possessed by a Schenectady defender. Tack on a personal foul after the play - penalties were an issue for both sides - and Schenectady had it at Albany's 11 yard line. Patriot QB Brandon Gwinner hooked up with his favorite target, Alex Rodriguez, for an 11 yard TD pass to quickly bump it to 13-0. After the teams traded 3 & outs, the Falcons had easily their most sustained & successful drive of the season to that point. A 14 play, 61 yard drive that chewed up over 5 minutes of clock ended in a Denzel Keyes 4 yard TD run to make it 13-6. Albany was able to score despite committing three penalties on the drive - 2 of them resulting in a 1st & 15 situation, and the 3rd backing them up from the 1 yard line to the 6. As was the case for a lot of the game, it didn't take Schenectady long to recover. On a 3rd & 17, Gwinner aired one out to Rodriguez, this one turning into a 65 yard point getter. On the 2nd play of Albany's ensuing drive, Drucker's pass was picked off by Vincent Winfield and taken back 35 yards to the house. In case you're counting, 13-6 turned into 26-6 in the matter of a minute. The excitement on the Falcon sideline quickly turned into 'here we go again'. Another big return set up solid field position for Albany, but the story of this drive was a microcosm of the game itself. At one point in the short drive, flags were thrown on 3 straight plays - back to back offsides penalties against Schenectady, followed by an Albany hold that totally negated the 2 Patriot penalties. On the play after the hold, Drucker was picked off again and a 58 yard return set Schenectady up at the 15. Albany's defense held and made the Patriots turn it over on downs, but after a couple quick first downs for Albany, Schenectady's defense made them turn it back over on downs. The 3rd consecutive Falcon turnover late in the half proved costly when Gwinner and Rodriguez hit paydirt a 3rd time, this time a 33 yard TD play. They connected on the same exact route that was called the previous play, where a defensive pass interference set them up with much better field position.
After an Albany punt, Schenectady marched down to their opponents' 11, where their drive stalled and they turned it over on downs. Albany's offense quickly coughed it right back up when a fumble was recovered by Schenectady at the Falcon 18. The Patriots would make good use of such field position, when Brandon Gwinner hit Jayquan Beckford for a 13 yard TD pass on 4th & 5, making the score 39-6. Albany fumbled on the first play of its ensuing drive - the 6th of their 8 giveaways on the night. Once they got the ball back, a Tysheem Morris-fueled drive got them to the 25 of Schenectady, where another drive stalled thanks to penalties and a turnover. Two straight false start penalties pushed them back to 1st & 20, and Morris went to the end zone on 2nd & 14, where Colby Youngblood was waiting, along with a perfectly timed jump to grab it. Even when the Falcons got it back on Schenectady's 29 on their next drive, it was fumbled away on the 1st play of the drive. Jahvontay Brown finished the scoring on Schenectady's last drive, when he waltzed 23 yards to the house with around a minute remaining. The last 3 quarters of the game certainly did sting, and the final points rubbed only the roughest, most painful salts in the wound.
Schenectady QB Brandon Gwinner went 8/17 in the air and 135 yards, but half of his completions were touchdowns compared to no interceptions. His favorite target, Alex Rodriguez, had 5 receptions for 112 yards and 3 TDs. He had a pile of running backs taking some reps, with Keenan Chandler and Colby Youngblood running the show in the 1st half and Jahvontay Brown & Kyle Bacon taking it over later on. Chandler had 7 carries for 44 yards early in the game before getting hurt in the 2nd quarter and missing the rest of the game. The visiting Patriots amassed 328 yards from scrimmage on 53 plays, and Albany managed not much over half of that (197) on 52 plays. Penalties were running through like looters after Hurricane Katrina: Schenectady was penalized 10 times for 87 yards, 4 of them were offsides penalties. Albany gave up 87 yards on 11 penalties, and 3 of those were half the distance penalties inside the 25. Tysheem Morris was a bright spot for Albany as he was in Week 1, shaking off a rough throwing day while under center (1/7, 16 yards, INT) by picking up 115 yards on the ground in 15 carries, along with making 2 receptions for 39 yards. He's a kid you like to watch - smaller and shifty, but plays violently. If he realizes he isn't going to make his way around you, he tries to run you over instead and put through his fair share of shots on both ends of the field. His style also means he takes his share as well, which would hurt Albany mightily because they don't have anyone else that can make an impact like him. Sure, Albany needs to get better. They need a better performance than that - and you can't say it was all Schenectady's doing. Sure, their play had a part in that. Schenectady beat Albany, but Albany also beat Albany. Half of the 8 turnovers were unforced giveaways, and that won't fly. If they want to get off this slide and finally win a game in Class AA, they'll have to work on the little things first.
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