High School Football Week 3: Corning, Vestal, Elmira ride big offensive efforts to wins

Updated with reports on wins from Vestal, Owego, Elmira, Thomas A. Edison and Bainbridge-Guilford.

With its schedule ready to ramp up, the unbeaten Corning football team has reason to feel good the about the season so far after putting up 10 touchdowns Friday night in a 73-6 home victory over Binghamton.

Corning (3-0) led 52-6 at halftime, then scored on three of its first four offensive plays of the second half. A running clock was used starting in the final two minutes of the first half.

The Hawks ran 29 official offensive plays in putting up 425 yards, all on the ground.

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Brenden Jardin-Reed carried four times for 114 yards, opening the scoring with a 48-yard TD.

James Freeman ran for 121 yards and four touchdowns on 11 rushes. He added a 45-yard punt return for a five-touchdown evening.

Hawks fullback Clayton Smith ran for 85 yards and a touchdown on five carries.

Tajwan Sides gave Corning a second punt-return touchdown, from 59 yards. The Hawks' other TDs came on runs from Noah Hutter (23 yards) and Tahj Haynes (42 yards).

"We tried to keep it very basic," Corning coach Mike Johnston Jr. said. "It’s always nice when kids come to practice every day and they get an opportunity to play. They’ve been able to do that for the first three games for the most part. At least two of the three games."

Friday's effort followed a 60-6 victory over Edison Tech of Section 5 and last week's 32-20 triumph against Union-Endicott . Section 3's Cicero-North Syracuse, which beat Corning in state quarterfinals in 2019, 2021 and 2022, is up next at 7 p.m. Oct. 4 at Corning. C-NS is 2-2 this season.

"We’re doing some good things, we’re beating teams we probably should beat, and we’re taking care of business as far as that is concerned," Johnston said. "We’re going to get into the meat of our schedule in these next couple weeks. We’re going to find out who we are.

"We have C-NS, Horseheads and Elmira in that order in the next three games. The biggest thing is we have to go out and put a game plan together and go out and execute it and get people as healthy as we can get them and go play hard. We’re going to be challenged."

Jayden Chin ran for 91 yards on 15 carries for Binghamton (0-3), with 73 coming on a touchdown that brought the Patriots within 16-6 midway through the opening quarter.

Dowdall, Hagenbuch spark Norwich past Susquehanna Valley

Steven Dowdall passed for 189 yards and Braden Hagenbuch ran for 116 and two touchdowns on 10 carries as Norwich erupted for 38 first-half points in a 45-7 victory over Susquehanna Valley on Friday.

Dowdall completed 10 of 12 passes, highlighted by a 61-yard strike to Zack Parker. Dowdall contributed 54 yards and a touchdown on six rushes.

Parker caught three passes for 105 yards and ran for a 2-yard touchdown.

Tiernan Lindsay added two touchdown runs for Norwich (2-2) in the Division III opener for both teams.

Maddox Kopko hit Aiden Howard for a 30-yard touchdown to get Susquehanna Valley (1-2) on the board in the fourth quarter. Kopko completed seven of 23 passes for 156 yards. Howard had four catches for 81 yards.

Express dominates second half against Ithaca

Ithaca was even with visiting Elmira 14-14 at halftime as the Little Red made a bid for its first victory ever against the Express, but Elmira reeled off 31 points straight in the second half and pulled away for a 45-14 victory Saturday.

Kayon Flint rushed for 191 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries for Elmira (2-1). He scored on runs of 6, 34 and 65 yards, with the latter two coming in the third quarter.

Breyan Brooks added 89 yards and a touchdown for Elmira, and Julian Colon had a 47-yard TD run. The Express opened the scoring with a 34-yard touchdown pass from Zach Conklin to Brandon Bertelson.

Ithaca quarterback Noah Butler completed four of four passes for 72 yards on the opening drive, capped with a 15-yard TD to Leo Fiorello. But Butler left the game shortly after with a leg injury.

Edward Peck's 2-yard TD run with 1:16 left in the first half helped Ithaca even the score 14-14. Jasmir Robbins had six catches for 91 yards for the Little Red.

Express coach Jimmy McCauley said his team had too many missed blocks and mental errors in the first half. He also wasn't happy with what he called "selfish" errors and penalties late. But bottom line was coming away with a victory.

"You’re going to play Ithaca and I know what Ithaca’s been," McCauley said. "But I think (Ithaca coach Khiry Brown) is doing a good job. You can’t show up and just think you’re going to win. That’s not how it works. Whether you win by one or win by a lot, there’s a lot that goes into a win. We’re dealing with high school kids. They’ve got lives going on, they all come from different backgrounds.

"A win is a win. It is hard to win. Maybe we didn’t play as well, but we found ways to get in the end zone, we found ways to stop them, we found ways to win. At the end of the day that’s all that really matters."

U-E falls short against Section 3 opponent

Union-Endicott's bid to break into the win column ended up short Friday night in a 12-6 loss to Section 3 foe Auburn.

All of the scoring came in the opening quarter. Logan Barnes hit Je'Sire James with a 25-yard touchdown for the Tigers' touchdown, which followed TDs on a 7-yard run and 28-yard pass from Auburn.

Zakari Wells-Taylor ran for 50 yards on 15 carries to pace U-E (0-4). Vincent Ferraro contributed 11 tackles to the defensive effort.

Quick start boosts Vestal against Johnson City

Vestal scored four touchdowns in the opening quarter Friday on the way to a 54-16 victory over Johnson City.

Julian Adams had 18 carries for 156 yards and three touchdowns for the Golden Bears (2-2), who led 40-8 at halftime.

J.T. Gannon caught four passes for 97 yards and two touchdowns. He added 11 tackles, including six solo stops, to go with an interception and part of a sack on defense.

Vestal's Josh Kweller completed eight of nine passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns, the third going to Jace Gannon for 18 yards. J.T. Gannon, his brother, caught a 58-yard touchdown pass and dashed 25 yards for his second score after outleaping a Johnson City defender.

Also for Vestal, Cayden Kitchin contributed a 75-yard TD run and Daniel Castro had a 1-yard TD run to cap a 72-yard drive in which he carried 14 times.

Felix Morales had a 75-yard touchdown dash for Johnson City (1-2).

Owego handles Horseheads to improve to 3-0

Joseph Palladino ran for 168 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries Friday as Owego Free Academy ran its record to 3-0 with a 35-14 victory at Horseheads.

Blue Raiders quarterback Dom Cardinale completed nine of 18 passes for 80 yards. He added 55 rushing yards.

Cardinale hit Lucas Mosher for a 7-yard TD to bring Horseheads (2-2) within 14-7 late in the first quarter.

Patrick Laney's 81-yard kickoff return proved Horseheads' other touchdown.

Bainbridge-Guilford remains unbeaten

A 40-6 victory over Harpursville/Afton on Friday night gave Bainbridge-Guilford a 4-0 record. The Bobcats led 32-0 at halftime.

Connor Davy ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries and completed six of 12 passes for 135 yards and three touchdowns. Declyn Marshfield had three catches for 56 yards and two TDs, and Isaiah Hampton caught a 23-yard touchdown pass and ran 26 yards for a TD.

Edison rolls to first victory

After losing its first two games to formidable opposition from Wellsville and Trumansburg, the Thomas A. Edison eight-man team broke out Saturday in its home opener, handing Unatego/Franklin/Unadilla Valley (3-1) its first loss by a 48-0 score.

The Spartans had 385 yards of total offense. Greg Golden carried 23 times for 184 yards and four touchdowns. Mark Cornacchio had 45 yards and a touchdown on three carries; Reyes McAtee ran for 39 yards and a touchdown on 10 rushes to go with two catches for 45 yards; Niko Cheplick had a 7-yard TD on his only carry; Jace Shiller ran for 42 yards on eight carries; and Drew Slaven was 5-for-6 passing for 28 yards.

Zachary Piper led the TAE defense with nine tackles, followed by Golden with eight and Mason Mawhir with seven.

"I’m very happy with our team. We won all three aspects of the game," TAE coach Kyle Erickson said. "We dominated offensively, defensively and special teams. We were focused this week and just excited for the way we played. Our offensive line really carried us today. We were basically able to do whatever we wanted to with the offensive side of the football and a lot of that was on our offensive linemen."

Edison dressed only 13 players and Erickson added, "I'm just proud of our kids and how hard we're fighting and working."

Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare . You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com . To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today

This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: High School Football Week 3: Corning, Vestal, Elmira ride big offensive efforts to wins