When talking with folks around the area in the lead up to this year’s 45th Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic Game, many agreed that this year’s Pennsylvania team was among the best assembled in recent years.

The class of 2018 certainly lived up to that billing on Saturday night, as the Pennsylvania All-Stars defeated their counterparts from New York 37-22 in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score suggested.

For head coach Todd Silfies of Kane, it was the icing on the cake for a group of young men from different backgrounds that found common ground on the gridiron.

“We talk about playing with each other,” Silfies said. “These guys are coming together from all these different schools to play with each other. Through the two and a half weeks and just the bond that they formed, they weren’t playing with each other, they were playing for each other. That’s a special thing.”

Pennsylvania opened the scoring on a play that was only too familiar for Silfies: former Kane standouts Reed Williams and Ray Maze connected for an easy three-yard touchdown pass on the game’s first drive.

But New York would respond with a heck of an uppercut, as Olean’s Daunte Jeter took the ensuing kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown. A 39-yard field goal by Zach Linderman (also of Olean) gave the Empire staters a 9-7 lead after 15 minutes.

But in the second quarter, the PA team began to truly show off the kind of talent they had thanks to the passing skills of Williams and Otto-Eldred’s Sawyer Drummond. The duo combined to go 22 of 35 for 304 yards and four touchdowns and an interception.

The second and third touchdowns came courtesy of Drummond in the second quarter, who found Bradford’s John Eakin for an 11-yard touchdown to make it 14-9, and then later a 58-yard bomb to Neil MacDonald of Ridgway that made it 21-9.

Williams got back in on the action to close out the half. After a fumble recovery by Kane teammate Angelo Costanzo, he found MacDonald for a 36-yard scoring strike that gave PA a 29-9 halftime lead.

“Reed Williams is kinda known for chucking it around, but I’m really proud of Sawyer Drummond as well,” Silfies said. “He really dove into that offense. He played a whale of a game.”

As the recipient of two of those touchdown throws, MacDonald — who finished with six catches for 131 yards — was thrilled to be able to contribute to the big win — even if it meant teaming up with old rivals.
“It was extremely nice to go out on top, especially with all the people around and play with the people that you were enemies with for so long,” he said.

On the other side of the ball, it came as little surprise that the representatives from Kane and Ridgway, the two dominant programs in recent District 9 play, were the ones making big plays on defense.

In addition to Costanzo’s fumble recovery, Ridgway’s Andy Breier and Max Cowan both came away with interceptions.

“Ridgway, Kane kids… you’re talking about a lot of District 9 Championships amongst those guys,” Silfies said. “Coach (Mark) Heindl and Ridgway, they’re known for their defense. We like to think that we are too.”

Coach Heindl was in attendance for the game, and was visibly emotional afterwards about getting to see the core of his back-to-back District Championship teams play one last game together.

“Just to watch these kids play again one more time, it is emotional to see,” he said. “They represented Pennsylvania well, and Ridgway and Johnsonburg. It’s a special group and they definitely left their mark on the program for years to come.”

Silfies had similar feelings about getting to coach his last high school game with nine of his former players.

“We won them together, but they won me 45 football games in their high school career,” Silfies said. “The guys who played in the (Frank) Varischetti (All-Star) Game made it 46 and now this makes 47. That’s an awful lot that they’ve done for their coach. To do it for my last time with them on their last time, it’s a special bond that we have.”

With the game well in hand, PA took the foot off the gas a bit in the second half, though Williams would add six more points on a one-yard QB sneak.

New York found its way back on the scoreboard with a pair of touchdown passes (37 and 10 yards) from Brock Blecha to Griffin Chudy (both from Franklinville-Ellicottville).

“I thought coach Bartoszek did a nice job in getting his kids ready to play and keep fighting,” Silfies said.

Kane’s Erik DeLong finished as PA’s leading rusher with eight carries for 50 yards, while MacDonald, Eakin, Maze, Dylan Close (Otto-Eldred), and Tim Beimel (St. Marys) all had least 30 yards receiving.

Brian Burns (Southwestern) led New York with 64 yards on 14 carries, while Chudy finished with four catches for 71 yards and two touchdowns.

The Big 30 Game is a special event for everyone involved, but for someone like Silfies, who participated as both a player and an assistant coach in the past, it’s even more so.

“I’ve been coming to this game since I was a little kid,” he explained. “We talked in the meeting last night, as a high school football player, I was average and I hustled, so I got an invite to the game, and I was waiting on that invite to the game. So I was really humbled to get the invite to lead the team, to be able to come back and be the head coach of a game that I spent my whole senior year praying that I would be invited to play.

“It was a heck of an experience and I’m really proud to have had the opportunity to coach the young men that I did.”

BY QUARTERS
NY  9 0  0 13—22
PA  7 22  0 8—37
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: NY 18, PA 16; Rushes/Yards Rushing: NY 49-96, PA 27-111; Yards Passing: NY 208, PA 304; Comp-Att-Int: NY 16-29-2, PA 22-35-1; Penalties: NY 8-50, PA 7-90; Fumbles-Lost: NY 1-1, PA 1-1; Total Yards: NY 304, PA 415; Offensive Plays: NY 78, PA 62

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Passing: NY: Brock Blecha 11-17-124-2-1, Trent Gray 4-11-53-0-1, Austin Grinols 1-1-31-0-0; PA: Reed Williams 10-15-181-2-0, Sawyer Drummond 12-20-123-2-1

Rushing: New York: Caleb Riordan 8-9, Brian Burns 14-64, Jacob Lipperst 3-2, Griffin Chudy 4-16, Brock Blecha 13-5, Trent Gray 4- -2, Austin Grinols 2- -5, Nick Johnson 1-7; PA: Neil MacDonald 1-4, Tim Beimel 3-19, Erik DeLong 8-50, John Eakin 3-13, Angelo Costanzo 1-2, Reed Williams 4- -19-1, Dylan Close 1-2

Receiving: New York: Griffin Chudy 4-71-2, Kyle Murray 1-4, Austin Baker 1-22, Nick Johnson 1-5, Austin Grinols 3-26, Michael Nye 3-23, Brian Burns 2-26; PA: Dylan Close 4-32, Ray Maze 4-33-1, Tim Beimel 2-53, Carter Julian 1-13, Neil MacDonald 6-131-2, Noah Myers 1-5, John Eakin 3-37-1

Scoring summary

First quarter

PA: Ray Maze, 3-yard pass from Reed Williams (Seth Harrington PAT), 9:46

NY: Daunte Jeter, 88-yard kick return (PAT no good), 9:33

NY: Zach Linderman, 39-yard field goal, 5:31

Second quarter

PA: John Eakin, 11-yard pass from Sawyer Drummond (Seth Harrington PAT), 14:31

PA: Neil MacDonald, 58-yard pass from Sawyer Drummond (Seth Harrington PAT), 3:58

PA: Neil MacDonald, 36-yard pass from Reed Williams (Ray Maze pass from Reed Williams), 1:48

Fourth quarter

PA: Reed Williams, 1-yard run (Ray Maze pass from Reed Williams), 14:25

NY: Griffin Chudy, 37-yard pass from Brock Blecha (Zach Linderman PAT), 10:51

NY: Griffin Chudy, 10-yard pass from Brock Blecha (2-point conversion failed), 0:15