Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer
The Wolverines of Warrensburg-Lake George-Bolton finished a second straight undefeated football regular season beating 5-2 Canajoharie/Fort Plain, 50-26, on the road last Friday.
Last year the 8-0 Wolverines lost in the Class C state semifinals. This year they want to advance further.
They’re in Class D now and are ranked number three in New York State.
On Friday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m, they will host Cambridge-Salem (4-4, No. 21) in the Section 2 semifinals. The Wolverines are the Section 2 number one seed.
Head Coach Mike Perrone is being sure not to overlook Cambridge-Salem, even though his Wolverines beat them 54-0 on the road on Oct. 7.
“Those guys have been a dominant force in small school football for many years,” he said of Cambridge-Salem. “We’re going to get their best effort for sure, so we’ve got to get locked in and prepared.
“You take it game by game. You’ve got to take each game and each day as it is in front of you.”
Perrone said the bye week going into the playoffs is huge. “We want to try to rest up and get healthy. We have a lot of small lingering injuries that hopefully we can recover from.”
Warrensburg-Lake George-Bolton has outscored opponents 413-46 for the season. They’ve scored the most points and given up the fewest points in Class D.
Perrone credits his team’s balance and depth.
“In small school football there’s often teams that have one, two, three key players, and if you try to take them away and limit them you can have success.”
But the coach says of his Wolverines, “We have so many guys on offense that can touch the ball and score the ball and we have a great offensive line.
“And then defensively we have so many guys that can make plays. So if you’re trying to key in on one person and take one person away, I think we have a lot of different answers. And that’s pretty tough in small school football.”
At the helm on offense is senior quarterback Caden Allen, whose 1,106 passing yards are the most in a season in Warrensburg School history and fourth most in Class D this year. Allen is averaging 138.3 passing yards per game with 19 touchdown throws.
“Caden Allen at the quarterback position has been playing absolutely flawless,” Perrone said.
His prime target has been junior tight end Jack Welch, whose 584 receiving yards are tops in all of Class D.
Welch, in his first year playing football at the varsity level, averages 73 receiving yards per game and scored 10 touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Stevie Schloss has 39.2 receiving yards per game and has three touchdowns.
On the ground, the Wolverines wreak havoc with Ben Sheldon and Gavin McCabe, each averaging more than 100 yards rushing per game.
Sheldon, a junior, racked up 888 yards scoring 15 touchdowns. His 17 TD’s overall are second in all of Class D. McCabe, a senior, has rushed for 106.4 yards per game, scoring eight touchdowns.
Junior Nick Jeckel from the fullback position is “a bigger body who can really be physical when he’s running,” Perrone said.
On defense, Jeckel leads the team with 10.4 tackles per game and is the sack leader, with four. Junior linebacker Bobby Starratt averages 9.4 tackles. McCabe, also a linebacker, has 5.8. Junior defensive lineman Max Hohman leads the team in tackles for loss, with 22.
The Wolverines continued their success despite a lot of player transition. Of their 33 players, 15 are new to the varsity roster this year. Bolton school joined the Warrensburg-Lake George team this year.
“I don’t know how many people expected us to be in the same position this year, just because we graduated so many talented kids and starters from last season,” Perrone said.
“So I think a lot of opposing coaches expected us to have a rebuilding year.
“But credit to the kids, as soon as last season was over they started working out, getting into the weight room, watching film, and doing all of those things to get themselves prepared to have a similar season to last year.
“For a high school program I would be surprised if anybody works harder than these kids on watching film and preparation.”
Perrone says, “We have an exceptional group of kids and a good group of seniors, and we want to keep this thing rolling just so we can keep on spending more time with these kids and staying together as a family.”
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