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Times Telegram
WESTMORELAND — The top two seeds won convincingly at Section III’s Class D football semifinal doubleheader Saturday, and No. 1 Lowville Academy and No. 2 Dolgeville will meet in the November 14 championship game in Syracuse University’s JMA Wireless Dome.
Dolgeville and Lowville Academy, along with Cazenovia, the No. 1 seed in Class C, gave the top seeds a sweep of the spots in next weekend’s championship games for classes AA, A, B, C and D, and the eight-player division, after 48 teams entered postseason play that started on the eve of Halloween across Central New York. Class AA Christian Brothers Academy of Syracuse and Liverpool, Class A Whitesboro and East Syracuse-Minoa, Class B New Hartford and Syracuse Institute of Technology, Class C General Brown, and eight-player Frankfort-Schuyler and Morrisville-Eaton all won Friday semifinals on their home fields.
Class D was the lone division playing its semis at a neutral site, the newly-turfed field at Westmoreland High School that opened during the season.
Lowville Academy (10-0) enters championship weekend unbeaten, joining Christian Brothers Academy (9-0), New Hartford (10-0), Cazenovia (10-0) and Frankfort-Schuyler (10-0).
Dolgeville (9-1), winner of four consecutive titles dating back to the return to traditional fall competition following Fall II 2020-21 season played in the spring of 2021, will be defending a 2024 championship, as will Christian Brothers Academy, Whitesboro, Frankfort-Schuyler and General Brown (9-1). New Hartford knocked out Indian River, the team by which it had been beaten in the last two Class B finals, Friday.
The eight-player final kicks off championship play November 14 with classes D and A following at 5 and 8 p.m. in one tripleheader. Class C starts another trio of games at noon the following day with classes B and AA playing later.
Class D: Dolgeville 42, Cato-Meridian 14
Jacob Moore scored four touchdowns, the first on a pass from quarterback Tim Gomez who later scored two touchdowns of his own, and Dolgeville’s Blue Devils earned another crack at Lowville Academy’s Red Raiders, the only team that has beaten them this season.
“We’ve looked to them all year for leadership,” third-year head coach Justin Daukontas said of Moore and Gomez, two of the team’s returning starters, “and the younger kids have leaned on them for that.”
Dolgeville’s Blue Devils intercepted two Cato-Meridian passes in the first quarter and started the second leading 14-0 with the ball at the other Blue Devils’ 33-yard line, threatening to score again. Cato-Meridian would stop Dolgeville twice on runs starting inside the 1, and took possession in the proverbial shadows of its own goal posts, starting a length-of-the-field drive that ended with a 26-yard touchdown pass from Perry Planck IV to Ryan Pollock, the back who had escaped the end zone with inches to spare on the first two plays of the drive.
“It was a little adversity when we didn’t get that touchdown,” Daukontas said, “but the kids didn’t waver. Things were OK; there was a lot of time left.”
Moore ran 8 yards for his third touchdown in the final minute of the second quarter and Dolgeville led 21-6 at halftime.
Cato-Meridian (6-4) cut into its deficit in the third quarter with a safety and a Logan Merriam touchdown run. Dolgeville’s Wyatt Eggleston had broken up a fourth down pass after Cato-Meridian had driven to the 17-yard line.
After the change of possession, a holding call negated a run for a first down and pushed Dolgeville back before Gomez appeared to slip in the backfield and was tackled by Miles Muhlnickel for the safety.
Merriam’s touchdown followed Dolgeville’s free kick, and a second failed two-point conversion left Cato-Meridian trailing 21-14 with Dolgeville driving to start the fourth quarter.
Gomez ran 7 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter, and he returned an interception for another score four minutes later.
Now trailing 35-14, Cato-Meridian drove and had a first down at the 1-yard line before two runs lost yardage and Planck threw incomplete on fourth down from the 5. Gomez then handed the ball to Moore who ran 95 yards for his fourth touchdown on the next play, effectively clinching the win with six minutes left to play.
Gomez had thrown a 20-yard touchdown pass to Moore on a fourth-and-12 play to cap the game’s opening drive and start the scoring. Moore ran 11 yards for a touchdown following a Theo Williams interception later in the first quarter.
“The kids came out hungry,” Daukontas said.
Lowville Academy was a 22-6 winner over Dolgeville at home in Week 3.
Dolgeville has scored more than 40 points in five of seven games since that loss, averaging 46.1.
Lowville Academy has allowed no more than 22 points in any game and has held six opponents to eight or fewer; the Red Raiders’ win in Saturday’s first game was their second shutout of the season.
The Class D championship game will be played at 5 p.m. November 14 following the eight-player game between Frankfort-Schuyler and Morrisville-Eaton.
Dolgeville will be trying to add a 22nd title to its Section III-leading total. Lowville Academy has won five Section III championships, all in Class C, and the most recent in 2019.