2001 Chenango Forks Varsity Football

Roy Deyo ran for 104 yards and three touchdowns as Division IV champion Chenango Forks (8-0, 5-0) breezed at Waverly (2-6, 2-3).

Deyo scored on runs of 46, 16 and 39 yards. Chris Spencer added 96 yards rushing, including a 25-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter that made it 28-0. The Blue Devils piled up 412 yards on the ground.

From the online version of the Elmira Star-Gazette.

Chenango Forks 42, Waverly 7: Chenango Forks ran up 42 points in the first half, then played its second string for the second half of the Section 4 Division 4 game.

Ranked fifth among New York state's Class B teams, Forks (8-0, 5-0) rushed for 412 yards on 43 attempts. More than a dozen players ran the ball for Forks, led by Roy Deyo with 104 yards on eight carries for three touchdowns

From a recently discovered online site from the Waverly area (added 10/3/2002:

Chenango Forks Shows Might in Waverly 
Posted by: Administrator on Oct 27, 2001 - 08:20 AM

Living up to its advanced billing, state-ranked Chenango Forks pancaked the Waverly Wolverines Friday night, the unbeaten and playoff-bound Blue Devils now 8-0 after their convincing 42-7 Section 4 Conference verdict. Evening Times article follows...

State-ranked Blue Devils live up to advanced billing

By GLENN ROLFE--Times Sports Editor

WAVERLY -- Deviled egg?

Not quite.

Living up to its advanced billing, state-ranked Chenango Forks pancaked the Waverly Wolverines Friday night, the unbeaten and playoff-bound Blue Devils now 8-0 after their convincing 42-7 Section 4 Conference verdict.

While Mike Palanza's touchdown on a nifty 45-yard run with 1:02 left erased the egg from Waverly's side of the Memorial Stadium scoreboard and gave the Wolverines a moral victory in the second half, the outcome was all but decided before the halftime show by the Waverly Marching Band.

"They were extremely fundamentally sound. I was very impressed," said Waverly coach Jason Miller.

Up 14-0 after one period, the Blue Devils struck like lightning for 28 second-quarter points, getting touchdown runs of 38 yards by standout tailback Ron Deyo, 75 yards by quarterback Chris Spencer and 48 yards by Steve Tronovitch, and a spectacular catch by Zack Tarnowski, who beat double coverage and turned a pass from Chris Spencer into a nine-yard scoring play.

Just how efficient in the first half were the Blue Devils, ranked fifth in the New York State Sports Writers Association's Class B poll?

Chenango Forks had five TDs in the books after running just 18 plays. The first half ended with the Devils owning a 42-point lead, and a 379-47 edge in offensive yardage.

"We've been getting better every week offensively. That's what we tried to this week is not take a step back," said Chenango Forks coach Kelsey Green. "It's a big win for us obviously, it got us into the playoffs. We preached all week that we just have to keep getting better and better, and continue the direction we're going in."

Deyo, a speedy and equally elusive 5-9, 160-pounder, logged 113 yards on seven carries. He scored his team's first three TDs, on romps of 46, 17 and 38 yards. Deyo got one carry in the second half.

Brick-solid defense, anchored by 225-pound noseguard Kelsey Jenks, limited Waverly to one first down in the first half, that late in the second period on a 32-yard pass play from quarterback Matt Lewis to Tony Santi.

"As crazy as it sounds, we thought we were going to be able to not only play with them, we thought we could beat them. So that was a disappointing first half," said Miller. "They are so fundamentally sound defensively. They square and they are extremely explosive offensively. I knew they were fast but I was really taken by how fast they were, and how many of them. I mean you cannot focus on one guy. They execute the option very well. Speed was the factor."

Palanza, held to 18 yards in the first two quarters, found better ground gains in the second half.

Early in the fourth period, speedy Kyle Douglas had a 27-yard gain, but the Blue Devils recovered a fumble on the play -- temporarily keeping the Wolverines off the board.

Waverly hit paydirt on its final possession, with running backs Palanza and Tyler Gutierrez getting the all the calls on the six-play, 71-yard march. It was capped by Palanza's tackle-breaking 45-yard jaunt, which made him only the second running back this season to rush for over 100 yards against Chenango Forks.

The first half, however, was all Blue Devils, who scored on six of eight possessions. Three TDs came in a four-minute span, and their last TD -- Tarnowski's nifty catch-and-run -- capped a hurry-up offense strategy in which they marched 78 yards in seven plays, overcoming an 11-yard loss on a sack by Wolverine defensive tackle Joe Dishler.

Jason Shaylor and Dishler also recovered two lost fumbles by the Blue Devils.

Waverly, in turn, turned it over three times, once via a fumble, and twice on interceptions by 'Forks linebacker Jamie Hoover and safety Coy Reynolds.

The loss snapped a two-game win streak by the 2-6 Wolverines, who close out their season next Friday night at Sidney.

The Blue Devils will be in Class B playoffs, their opponent to be determined in this weekend's play.

"Their (Forks') ranking is certainly justified," said Miller. "They are a very class act. I think they are humble, but they are very confident."

"Our goal coming into the game was to win," Miller added. "At halftime we set some different goals. Let's try to get some first downs and let's try to get a score, and we did. And we shut them out. We did accomplish some of the goals we set out to do at halftime, and that's what makes me proud of this group."

Chenango Forks rushing:

• Hoover 6-50
• Baxter 5-39
• Deyo 8-104, 3 TDs
• Carle 3-0
• Juriga 5-38
• Pendleton 4-5
• Spencer 4-96, 1 TD
• Green 3-16
• Batty 1-10
• Lance 1-6
• Tronovitch 1-48, 1 TD
• Voorhis 3-10

Waverly rushing:

• Palanza 18-121, 1 TD
• Douglas 6-33
• Lewis 2-(-7)
• Gutierrez 10-15

Chenango Forks passing:

• Matt Juriga 1-for-3, 21 yards
• Spencer 2-for-3, 30 yards, 1 TD

Waverly passing:

• Lewis 3-for-10, 101 yards, 2 int.

Chenango Forks receiving: 

• Hoover 1-21
• Deyo 1-11
• Tarnowski 1-19, 1 TD

Waverly receiving:

• Palanza 1-64
• Santi 2-37

JV Score: Chenango Forks 35-7