Woodlands Falcons Capture Section I Class C Title 35-0 Over Rye Neck
A new chapter in Woodlands High School sports history was written on Sunday afternoon when they defeated the Rye Neck Panthers 35-0 at Mahopac High School to capture the Section 1 Class C Football Championship and the school’s first Section 1 Title since the inception of the State Tournament in 1993.
Throughout this season the Woodlands Falcons have been praised for their offensive exploits, but it has been their defense which has really been making its mark over the last several games. Over the last five games the Falcons have only allowed 26 points and have shut out their opponents twice in that time span.
“Our defense honestly has been underrated the whole season. We didn’t get enough attention. Our defense was probably just as good as our offense I believe,” said Falcons senior defensive end Desean Downey after the game.
Falcons’ head coach Mike Meade also believes his team’s defense has not received enough attention and the praise it deserves. He used these feelings to motivate his team leading up to the Rye Neck game.
“We stressed that all week, that they were getting all the attention for their defense and I’m saying what about our defense. Our kids were psyched,” said Meade.
In this game the Falcons took control early and never looked back. They had a 22-0 lead at halftime thanks to running touchdowns by fullback D’Andre Tilford and quarterback Justin Riccio. After Riccio’s touchdown the Falcons were successful on a two-point conversion. Their third touchdown of the game came on a pass from Riccio to wide receiver Dylan Eddy.
The Falcons added two more touchdowns in the second half. Senior running back Ray Jackson who has scored numerous touchdowns during the 2012 season added another against the Panthers. Senior wide receiver/ running back Ron Richards scored the final touchdown of the game.
Richards and linebacker Kourtney Blanding were honored after the game as the offensive and defensive players of the game.
At this game it was amazing to watch how well tuned the Falcons played especially considering they missed a couple days of practice caused by Hurricane Sandy, which wrecked havoc to the area and canceled classes for the majority of the week for most Westchester public school districts. Meade was shocked by his team’s enthusiasm to hit the practice field this week after the massive storm hit the area.
“My kids called me and asked me when we were practicing, which was a switch for me,” said Meade. “I usually have to call them and figure out where they are. They were asking us when we would be practicing. So they were ready to go. In fact this probably helped us deal with this situation by being together as a family.”
Downey echoed his coach’s sentiments in terms of excitement to practice last week.
“Since it was a short week it just gave us more motivation to work even harder to get ready and make history,” said Downey.
Meade and Downey were thrilled with the outcome on Sunday but there is no time to rest and look back at these accomplishments just yet. There is still a lot of work to do.
“We had three goals in mind when we started this whole mission. One was to get to the playoffs, two was to win the playoffs and three was to win the state. We have some unfinished business. We’re going to do what we can to get to this third win,” said Meade.
“It feels good that we were the first to win the championship since 1993,” said Downey. “Hopefully we can just keep going forward.”
The Falcons are a well-oiled football team with numerous players that contribute and come together every week to win football games. They have won all nine of their games this season.
This football team resembles the 1986-1987 Giants that won the Super Bowl over Denver Broncos. Yes, that Giant team had several stellar players in outside linebacker Lawrence Taylor, inside linebacker Harry Carson and quarterback Phil Simms, but what made the team click and succeed so much were the role players that supported their team. Without the strong effort by players such as Mark Bavaro, Joe Morris, Maurice Carthon, Carl Banks, Leonard Marshall, George Martin and Sean Landeta to name a few, there was no way they would have won the Super Bowl that year.
As this season progresses the Falcons seem to get stronger and they improve each week as a football team on things they had trouble with a week earlier, which means trouble for future opponents.
The Falcons have taken a step closer to getting to the New York State Football Championship, which is held annually at The Carrier Dome at the University of Syracuse on Thanksgiving Weekend. This weekend at Mahopac they will face O’Neill High School which won the Section 9 Class C Championship.
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