Way to Go, Trojans!

From a story by Scott Kindberg in the Post-Journal, November 30, 2008:

SYRACUSE – When Southwestern High School football coach Jay Siranni was a young assistant at Maple Grove in 1998, he often heard his boss, Curt Fischer, talk about how the best players perform their best in the biggest games.

They both got to see that first hand on Saturday at the Carrier Dome.

On the New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s biggest stage, the Red Dragons and the Trojans proved to the rest of the Empire State that the best Class D and Class C teams do, indeed, reside about 12 miles apart in Chautauqua County.

Maple Grove junior Chris Secky, the most valuable player, tossed three touchdown passes to senior Joe Caporale and ran for two others to lead the top-ranked Red Dragons (13-0) to a 55-7 rout of No. 2 Moriah (12-1) in the Class D final.

Meanwhile, Southwestern junior Zack Sopak, who also earned MVP honors, threw for a pair of touchdowns and ran for another to lift the No. 1-ranked Trojans (13-0) to a 35-7 throttling of Croton-Harmon (11-2) in the Class C championship.

The title was the second for Maple Grove – it earned its first 10 years ago – while Southwestern earned its first.

”It’s truly overwhelming,” Fischer said. ”I told our team before the game that there are two (Class D) teams on top of the mountain here today. Who’s going to push the other one off to be on top? Fortunately, we’re standing on top of the mountain today.”

Well, as it turned out, the Red Dragons are happy to share a place on the summit with the school on the other side of Chautauqua Lake.

”Chautauqua County should be proud of these two teams,” Sirianni said.