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Southern Tier Diesel @ Finger Lakes Impact
June18, 2011
By Jeff Madigan
Olean Times Herald
WATERLOO – The Finger Lakes Impact may be new to the
Northeastern Football Alliance, but they are putting
together some big wins in their brief career in the league
thus far.
The most recent was a 70-6 win over the Southern Tier
Diesel Saturday night at Tom Coughlin Stadium in Waterloo.
“We played flat all game,” said Diesel linebacker and
coach J.R. Bennion. “It was ugly, and it’s disheartening
because that’s not Diesel football.”
Injuries wrecked the Diesel, as Bennion said he was
without three starters going into the game and may have lost
an additional three or four during the game, including top
offensive players Fred Knight, Donnie Moore and Shannon
Knight. Bennion said some of those injuries may be
season-ending, or if not, then those players could miss a
few weeks.
Despite being without some of their top offensive stars,
the Diesel’s passing game was rather effective. Jason
Folland had seven catches for 104 yards while John Evener
also had seven catches with 112 yards.
The Diesel’s touchdown came in the second quarter on a
33-yard pass from Shannon Knight to Seth Knight. Shannon
Knight finished 16-of-45 for 278 yards with one touchdown
and four interceptions. He was forced to pass a lot, as the
Diesel had just 19 rushing yards on 11 carries. The defense
also struggled, as the Impact scored a season-high 70
points, the most allowed by the Diesel since the Lockport
Rage (who are now in another league) scored 50 on Sept. 20,
2008.
“It looked like (some of our) guys were intimidated by
Finger Lakes,” Bennion said. “They are a good team and a
good organization, but we did not put a good product out on
the field (Saturday) night.”
JoeRoy Baker had five carries for 187 yards and two
touchdowns, one of which was a 70-yard touchdown run on the
first play of the game. His other touchdown came on the
first play of the second half (64 yards).
Finger Lakes leads the West Division at 3-0 and has
scored 112 points in its last two games. Next up for the
Diesel is the Buffalo Gladiators (1-2), who were the
fortunate recipients of a forfeit victory over the Southern
Tier Warriors last week.
The Diesel and Gladiators have met six times, and
Buffalo has won each of the games, all by 21 points or more.
Last year, in two meetings, the Gladiators outscored the
Diesel, 51-0.
“We need to come back mentally from (the Finger Lakes)
loss,” Bennion said. “Hopefully we get some guys back from
injuries, too. It will be a test of resiliency and mental
toughness. We need to put that game in the past. We all need
to look at ourselves and see what we can do better.”
The Diesel and Impact will meet again July 30 at Bradner
Stadium. Kickoff is set for 5:30 p.m.
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