Schuylerville Falls Short in Class C State Championship

On Friday night the Black Horses lost to the Chenango Forks 21-0, but they hold their heads high on what was a historic run for their program. 

“Schuylerville football isn’t going anywhere, it’s here to stay,” said senior quarterback Owen Sherman.

Before this loss, the Black Horses had won 20 straight games. The Chenango Forks were the last team to beat them, and it was for the Class B State Championship in 2019. This time around it wasn’t any easier for the Black Horses.

“I thought we played hard, but they were the better team tonight,” Sherman said. The defense played well, they were on the field for what seemed like all game. The offense just wasn’t able to capitalize on their few chances.

“We had our opportunities on offense to score but the bottom line is you can’t put up numbers like that on offense and expect to win,” said Sherman.

Schuylerville’s head coach Bowen had nothing but great things to say about his quarterback. “At the end of the day, starting quarterbacks are measured by their wins and losses and Owen has compiled a pretty impressive one,” said Bowen. Dating back to 7th grade, Sherman’s school football career only consisted of two losses, both at the Dome against the Forks.

“Your body of work has spoken for itself, it’s something to be unbelievably proud of. The reality is there have been very few football players in the history of Section 2 that have accomplished what those guys have accomplished in the course of their time,” said Bowen about his seniors.

Bowen also had a message to his returning players, “These guys (Chenango) are the gold standard, and they’re not going anywhere… so if we want to get to this point we know the work that we got to put in,” said Bowen in a message to returning players.

Many would argue the biggest turning point of the game came in the first half when Schuylerville was trailing 7-0, Sherman ran it in the endzone from Chenango’s 20-yard line but it was called back due to an offensive face mask.

“One of the things that we’ve been able to do this year when we’ve had those types of penalties in inopportune times, we’ve been able to overcome that and against a team of the caliber of Chenango you’re not going to overcome those…” said Bowen.

The Black Horses wouldn’t get close to the endzone again until the last minutes of the game. Bowen at times was very frustrated with the officials for possibly missing consecutive false start calls against the Chenango offensive line.

Chenango eventually wore out Schuylerville’s defense while killing the clock in the second half and was able to increase their lead to 21 with four minutes left. Schuylerville drove down the field in the fourth quarter but it was simply too late.

“We had a great group of seniors who had great careers in all different areas of the field. I think the young group will be back here, there’s a lot of talented kids coming up and they’re going to work to get better,” Sherman said about this group.

Schuylerville was the only team to represent Section 2 at the NYSPHSAA State Championship at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY this year.

The returners plan to waste little time reflecting, and instead of figuring out how to improve, to climb this mountain again.

For the seniors, an incredible run was made so congratulations. This run will be remembered as one of the most dominant runs in Section 2 history.