’Jacks football completes season sweep over Ti
TUPPER LAKE — The Tupper Lake football team rallied from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit and defeated the host Ticonderoga Sentinels 20-18 on Friday.
Tupper Lake scored 14 points in the final quarter to win their fifth straight game. The Lumberjacks tied the game on a 1-yard run from Luke Robillard before the junior back ran in the game’s lone two-point conversion.
“After our halftime adjustments, we came out playing a more solid third quarter moving the ball down the field, but unable to score,” Lumberjacks head coach Dennis Klossner said. “Our defense did a wonderful job keeping Ticonderoga out of the end zone.
“Our kids kept their heads up and played like a team the whole game, played with a lot of pride and in the fourth quarter, we owned,” he added.
Robillard led Tupper Lake with a career-high 265 yards on the ground on 44 carries, scoring two touchdowns. He now has 715 rushing yards this season. Robillard also led the charge defensively with a team-high 12 tackles.
“The team played a hard-fought game with great effort all four quarters,” Klossner said, whose team improved to 5-1 overall, marking Tupper Lake’s first five-win season since 2011. “I am very proud of the kids and very excited for them and the success that they are having this season.”
The Lumberjacks’ Kyler McClain, who returned two interceptions for touchdowns the last time Tupper Lake faced the Sentinels, had seven tackles in Friday’s win. Fellow juniors Brayden Shannon and Bryce Hutt recorded five tackles each and CJ Levey, also a junior, had four tackles.
On the offensive side, Shannon had 56 yards on nine attempts and scored one touchdown. McClain had one carry for 9 yards and junior quarterback Wyatt Godin had 10 yards on two attempts.
Shannon found more success in the return game. He returned two kickoffs for a combined 69 yards. He also had one punt return for 29 yards.
“Brayden does a great job returning and Ticonderoga stopped kicking to him as he was getting closer to returning one for a touchdown,” Klossner said.
Godin finished the game by completing two of his eight passes for 16 yards. Senior wideouts Tyler LaPlante and Logan Flagg each had one reception for 8 yards.
Ticonderoga’s Tommy Montalbano opened the scoring on a 20-yard run in the first quarter. The Sentinels took a 12-0 lead early in the second quarter on a massive 90-yard run from Montalbano.
While trailing, Robillard scored his first touchdown of the game on a 6-yard run to make the score 12-6. However, with the second quarter winding down, the Sentinels senior quarterback completed a 62-yard pass to Tyler Fleanor to extend his team’s lead to 18-6 before the intermission.
After a scoreless third quarter, Tupper Lake’s defense stepped up, shutting down Ticonderoga on two fourth-down plays and kept them off the scoreboard.
Shannon’s 6-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter began the Lumberjacks’ comeback. The score was 18-12 after Shannon’s touchdown.
“Offensively, we were able to get two touchdowns and a convert on the hard nose running of Luke Robillard,” Klossner said.
Klossner also credited lineman Bauer Callaghan, Jesse Dattola and Copper Cuttaia for coming away with key blocks to set up the score. He added that Flagg, LaPlante, Shannon and Cohen Gerstenberger also had solid blocks during the late stages of the game.
After Robillard scored the touchdown and the two-point conversion to give Tupper Lake their first lead of the night, the Lumberjacks defense held strong again, shutting down a fake punt. With the ball back in Tupper Lake’s hands, the team ran out the clock to seal its third straight win over the Sentinels this season.
The Lumberjacks won its first three matchups against Ticonderoga by scores of 34-18 on Sept. 9 and 34-22 on Sept. 22.
The Tupper Lake football team will wrap up their season on the road against the Waterville Eagles on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The recently named Eagles, are 2-4 this year.
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Tupper Lake 20, Ticonderoga 18
Lumberjacks 0 6 0 14 — 20
Sentinels 6 12 0 0 — 18
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Scoring
First Quarter
TI — Montalbano 20 run, (Conversion failed)
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Second Quarter
TI — Montalbano 94 run (Conversion failed)
TL — Robillard 6 run (Conversion failed)
TI — Fleanor 62 pass from Perron (Conversion failed)
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Fourth Quarter
TL — Shannon 4 run (Conversion failed)
TL — Robillard 1 run (Robillard run)