By Keith Harrington
The first season of the Warrensburg-Lake George football merger produced a dream season. The newly annointed Wolvrines program had been absolutely dominant, often times putting up video game like numbers.
Saturday things appeared to be going as usual for a half in the Class C semifinals against James I. O’Neill, but the Raiders reeled off four straight scores in the second half to rally for a 41-22 victory at Middletown High School’s Faller Field.
Warrensburg-Lake George jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Tristan HItchcock bulled his way into the end zone for a 4-yard run with 7:56 to go to give the Wolverines a 6-0 lead. The conversion run was stopped.
Brody McCabe connected with Luke Sheldon on a nine yard TD pass and the duo hooked up for the conversion as well to give the Wolverines a 14-0 advantage with 1:30 to play in the stanza.
Marek Arbogast got O’Neill on the board when he returned the ensuing kick off 65 yards for a touchdown to cut the Raider’s deficit to 14-6 after a quarter.
In the second, Jordan Thompson scored on a 2-yard run to pull O’Neill within 14-13 after the PAT kick by Arbogast with 2:54 to go before the break.
The Wolverines responded with a 1-yard scroring run from Caden Allen to take a 22-13 lead to the half after the extra point kick from McCabe.
The third quarter was all Raiders. First, Jadon Spain hauled in a 47 pass from Nick Waugh to cut the lead to 22-20 after the extra point kick from Arbogast.
Just under two minutes late Waugh tossed a short pass to Arbogast who used a dazzling run to score from 46-yards away to give O’Neill their first lead at 28-22 after Waugh passed to Thor Swanson for the conversion.
Thompson closed the quarter with a 13-yard scoring run with 3:19 remaining to give O’Neill a 34-22 edge. The conversion pass failed.
Thompson scored his third touchdown on a 20-yard pass from Waugh to round out the scoring in the fourth. Arbogast added the PAT kick.
The O’Neil defense stifled the usually unstoppable Warrensburg-Lake George in the second half.
McCabe led the Wolverines with 177 yards rushing on 36 carries.
Andrew Jeckel had an interception for the Wolverine defense. NIck Jeckel recovered a fumble.
Waugh passed for 202 yards for O’Neil.
Warrensburg-Lake George ends an outstanding season with a record of 12-1.
11-2 O’Neill will face General Brown for the Class state crown Saturday at the JMA Wirless Dome in Syracuse.
