Academy Rolls

Albany Academy 48, Ichabod Crane 7

The Cadets of Albany Academy were coming into Valatie looking to even up their record, and the Riders of Ichabod Crane were hoping to break into the win column. A rough start kept on getting rougher, and it left the Ichabod Crane coaches stretching for any kind of silver lining.

This one was pretty apparent from the start. Ichabod Crane needed weapons of mass destruction to stop Vinny DiCaterino. A 2nd & 13 was no problem for AA, as DiCaterino hit Jimmy D'Lorio with 10 & 13 yard completions, followed by the person who I'm dying to call VD (but I won't) running it 34 yards to the house. Jordan Lockridge missed the PAT - probably IC's form of karma for him scoring the opening goal for Academy's boys soccer team against IC this past Monday - and it was 6-0 less than two minutes in. By the way, Jordan (or J-Lo, as I heard people yelling at the soccer game) didn't miss another one. Ichabod Crane had one of their many false starts in a 3 & out on the ensuing drive, but Academy couldn't muster anything for a while. As a matter of fact, the teams traded 3 & outs a couple times back and forth as AA suddenly forgot how to snap/catch snaps out of the shotgun, fumbling 3 of them in rapid succession. Ichabod Crane took over at the Albany Academy 28 late in the 1st, but an Alex Lambert pass was picked by D'Lorio. On the first play of Academy's return drive, DiCaterino broke free and the 6'3", 240 pound quarterback listed as a running back took it 85 yards to paydirt, putting the Cadets up 13-0. The Riders continued to have issues, not picking up a 1st down until there was less than 4 minutes left in the half. However, it was 20-0 at that point, as DiCaterino went 4/4 on a drive and hit D'Lorio on the money over the top for a 34 yard score. A Rider drive that made it to the Academy 32 ended with another Lambert pick, this time to Sal Arena. Academy threatened to score again, but Dakota Harvey was brought down at the 5 after a long run on the last play of the half - it would've been called back on a hold if he scored, but the penalty was declined. DiCaterino threw for 103 yards and ran for 124 more in the half, and Academy outgained Ichabod Crane 252-34 in the first 24 minutes.

Big shocker, nothing changed. Ichabod Crane received the ball to start the 2nd half, and with a new QB (Cody Farrell), the same result took place. After a no-gain run and an incomplete pass, D'Lorio picked off a pass and took it the remaining 23 yards to the house, putting AA up 27-0 in a heartbeat. They finally got the ball rolling with a 27 yard run from Brandon Cross, but it stalled from there and a Farrell incompletion turned it over on downs. They had another chance after AA 2nd half QB Will Bennett was picked off by Ryan Block in Academy territory, but they turned it back over on downs. They went back and forth with this until Academy struck again. The guests, up 27, were certainly airing it out; every 3rd quarter play was a pass. Bennett had a 17 yard completion to Lamine Gueye, which set up a 44 yard bomb to Sal Arena to put them up 34-0. The next time they got the ball, Dakota Harvey got to the outside and ran 79 yards to the house, stretching it to 41-0 with over 9 minutes remaining. The Riders finally got on the board on their next drive, a 10 play one spanning 65 yards that was exclusively on the ground besides an incompletion. 6 different people had carries, and 7 of the 9 carries were for 5 yards or more. Zach Cole finished it off with an 8 yard spurt, getting Ichabod on the board at 41-7. Of course Academy would respond, though. It was Harvey again, bursting 56 yards on the 2nd play of the drive bringing it back to a 41 point game. Cole had 2 more carries for 23 yards on the ensuing drive, but time ran out before anything could materialize.

Get Your Weight Up play of the game - When Albany Academy got off the bus and had enough able bodies to play the game. That was about what it took.

#ByTheNumbers - Do we need to go there? Alright... Ichabod Crane ended up running 19 more plays than their counterparts, but they had 170 yards on their 63 plays while Academy had 481 on their 44. 100 of those 170 yards came in the 4th quarter; then again, 136 of Academy's came in the 4th too on just 3 plays. The QB disparity was loud enough on the field to deafen you. Vinny DiCaterino, who did it for the 1st half, went 8/13 for 103 yards and 2 TDs along with 7 carries for 124 yards and a rushing TD. In the 2nd half, Will Bennett went 4/8 for 105 yards along with a TD and a pick. Altogether, here was the disparity:

Albany Academy QBs: 12/21, 208 yds, 3 TDs, INT; 7 carries for 124 yards, TD
Ichabod Crane QBs: 1/10, 13 yds, 3 INT; 9 carries for -10 yards

That'll do it. Dakota Harvey did most of his damage in the 2nd half for Academy, ending with 193 yards on 8 carries and 2 TDs. For Ichabod Crane, no one dominated the ball. 53 of their plays were on the ground, and they had 10 different players get a carry. The most productive of the ten were Brandon Cross and Zach Cole - Cross had 10 carries for 64 yards, including the 27 yard one, and Cole had 7 carries for 46 yards and a TD. Cole didn't get his first carry until late in the 3rd. This one was over from the start, which is what the doctor ordered with undefeated Schuylerville next on the list.