BALLSTON SPA, NY –– In a game where both teams were coming off of blowout losses, they each needed to establish themselves and set a tone for the rest of the season. The Shen Plainsmen were able to do that in a big way on the road at Ballston Spa, taking a huge 42-0 decision.
The Plainsmen (1-1, 1-1) used a big defensive game to propel themselves to a victory, as they stopped Ballston Spa (0-2, 0-2) from doing anything offensively. Scotties senior quarterback Christian Leva took 4 sacks in the first quarter, as the offensive line struggled all night.
Shen got the scoring going when they forced Ballston to punt from their own end zone and fielded the ball on the Scotties’ half of the field. They took advantage of the short field, and senior John Cady scored on a run from 5 yards out to make it 7-0 Plainsmen. This would stand as the score after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Shen’s defensive dominance continued, and they received the ball with a short field yet again, and junior quarterback Cole Vincenzi found 6’8″ tight end Mike Pizziketti for an 18-yard score to extend the lead to 14-0. A 22-yard run by Nick Cosgrove would extend the Plainsmen lead to 21-0 at halftime.
The second half would be more of the same, as Shen would get scores from Griffen Wallner, Mike Spulnick, and a defensive touchdown from Cosgrove. Ballston did have a good drive going early in the 4th that was started by senior running back Eli Washington’s 52-yard run, but it ended when Leva was intercepted at the Shen 4-yard line.
For Shen, they bounce back from last week’s 33-7 loss to Troy to improve to 1-1 this season. It was the first career win for quarterback Cole Vincenzi, who replaced senior Mike Spulnick in the second half last week and never looked back.
“I think it was good for us confidence-wise, to get us back on track after a tough loss last week.” Senior Nick Cosgrove said. “It was real good for team morale to get big wins like this one, now that we’re back on course it’s time to get on a roll and pick up some wins in the upcoming weeks.”
For Ballston, they are shutout for the second consecutive game to open the season. They are the only team in Class AA to have not scored yet this year, with their new hybrid offense. The once-powerful program that was Ballston Spa football appears to be falling. The team was 44-20 from 2004-2010, but have gone 18-29 from then on, including their 2 games this season. The team’s last winning season was 2011, when they finished 5-4. They’ll have a huge game next week at home vs Bethlehem (1-1, 1-1) as they try to get back in the standings. For Shen, they will face off at home against Niskayuna (0-2, 0-1) in a game in which they will be heavily favored. The Silver Warriors are 0-2 and have lost their games by a combined score of 109-7. It will be interesting to see how Ballston responds from another big loss, and also to see if Shen can use this win to propel them the rest of the year.
