Story and photo by: Aidan Joly
On homecoming night, Saratoga used a dominant first half to cruise to a win on Friday against Albany, winning 40-12.
It took less than three minutes for the Blue Streaks to get on the board as they marched up the field in their inaugural drive and ended it with a one-yard rush touchdown from Ashton Capone. He scored a second touchdown later in the first nine minutes of the game on a three-yard rush that made it 14-0.
The scoring continued in the second quarter as Nick Frank started it off with a bang. He rushed 39 yards to the house to make it 20-0 quickly. Frank has become a big part of the Saratoga rushing corps with injuries piling up for the Blue Streaks over their past couple games.
“Everyone got injured, and coach (Terry Jones) decided to try me out, and it was really nice to try to score and get the ball for once, try to prove myself,” Frank said.
“It’s great having depth, but once you start getting into your depth, you don’t have it anymore, and that’s part of the issue that we’ve been working on,” Jones said.
The run game kept going for Saratoga with Carter Steingraber rumbling 20 yards to the end zone to extend the Blue Streak advantage. Steingraber scored a second touchdown later in the frame on a nine-yarder to make it 33-0 just before the halftime break.
Albany scored for the first time in the fourth quarter just after Saratoga’s Ben Koppi scored his first touchdown of the season, making it 40-0. The first of two Albany touchdowns came from QB Steven Mincy to Caleb John from 30 yards out. That touchdown snapped Saratoga’s defensive scoreless streak that lasted over 140 minutes, nearly three games’ worth of time. The last time they had allowed a touchdown came in their Week Three game against Guilderland before pitching back-to-back shutouts.
The Falcons scored again on another pass to John for 24 yards that made the game 40-12.
With the victory, Saratoga finishes the Empire Division series undefeated at 6-0.
“This is a tough division, I just told those kids. To go undefeated in this division in the regular season is no small feat, it doesn’t happen a lot,” Jones said.
Saratoga will close out regular season play in a non-divisional game against La Salle in Troy on Friday, October 13, and the game will begin at 7 p.m.
Albany falls to 0-6 on the season. They will close out their regular season on the road against Guilderland, also on October 13 at 7 p.m.