A dominant all-around performance led to a blowout victory.
The Saratoga Blue Streaks defeated the Niskayuna Silver Warriors on Friday night at Saratoga Springs High School by a score of 49-6 in Saratoga’s first victory of the season in their 2016 Homecoming Game.
Saratoga started early, scoring their first touchdown of an eventual seven on the night less than three minutes into the game on a seven yard rush touchdown for Cam Adams, which would be his first of two on Friday.
“We worked hard this week. Our (offensive) line really worked hard this week and made really easy holes for me to run through,” Adams said.
They would go up 16-0 just six minutes later on a 22-yard rushing touchdown from Austyn O’Neil, and then it was 23-0 just two minutes later after Dylan Capone picked up a fumble and brought it to the house for a defensive touchdown, something that the Blue Streaks have struggled with all season.
That would be Saratoga’s only touchdown that was not rushing. The Blue Steaks wound up scoring on six of their seven drives throughout the contest.
“We’re a spread offense, but we’re looking to run the ball to set up the pass, and the pass to loosen up the run a little bit, that’s always our goal,” Saratoga head coach Terry Jones said postgame.
Saratoga led 23-0 at the end of the first quarter then took a 37-0 lead going into the locker room with a 30-yard rush touchdown from Adams again, and Nick Ingles took the ball 16 yards to the house to open up the game with eight seconds remaining in the first half.
They would continue their dominance with the running game in the second half as junior running back Avery Mickle got into the end zone with two and a half minutes remaining in the third quarter to extend their lead to 43-0 and the “running clock” was turned on, making for a quick rest of the game. Mickle scored a second touchdown, this time for 60 yards as time expired in the contest, and did not attempt an extra point to try to reach the half-century mark.
The Silver Warriors, however, did get on the board late, scoring a touchdown on a three yard rush by David Jones to make it 43-6 at that point, as their extra point was fumbled. However, they did show some life on that drive, as the touchdown ended a 10-play, 60-yard drive.
As part of the Homecoming festivities, part of the 1986 Blue Streaks football team that went 9-0 returned to Saratoga and were honored in an on-field ceremony at halftime.
With the win, Saratoga picks up their first victory of the season after dropping their first four of the season, jumping to 1-4 on the year with two weeks to go.
“When you’re in our situation, the first one’s the toughest. We got that out of the way, so we’ll go back to work after tomorrow and start getting ready for Shaker. We’ll worry about them come Sunday,” Jones said.
The Blue Streaks will be back in action on Friday, October 7, taking on Shaker at home. That game will begin at 7 PM.
With their loss, Niskayuna falls to 0-5 on the 2016 campaign. They will take on Ballston Spa at home next week, with that game also beginning at 7 PM.
