Groton football makes return to the playoffs

Last season was a bitter pill to swallow for the Groton football team. Despite posting a 6-2 record, they missed out on the playoffs since they did not finish in the top two in their division. This time around, the Red Hawks made sure their hiatus from postseason play only lasted one year.

With the two 8-man football divisions combining this year, the Red Hawks made it in as the fourth and final seed in the Section IV tournament. Head coach Nick Dyson felt that last year’s shortcoming only added as fuel to get over the hump, especially for the seniors.

“We’ve had a couple seniors that have not been healthy all year, but really that’s been the motivating factor to get them back healthy in terms of their rehab and whatnot,” Dyson said. “They’ve been working hard at it, icing, getting back healthy to make sure that they’re back for the [playoff] game.”

The Red Hawks needed to win their final game of the regular season against Newfield in order to punch their ticket to the playoffs. After starting the season 3-0, they entered that game losing four out of five, including a defeat to Trumansburg where they were more pass-oriented. But going back to their usual run-heavy style worked like a charm with a 70-16 victory. That’s the most points they’ve scored in a single game this century, a feat not even the dominant 2022 sectional title-winning team could reach.

“All season, we’ve been trying to find our identity,” Dyson said. “We kind of knew what it was supposed to be all year, but we tossed the ball around a little bit more than we wanted to throughout the middle of our season, and we truly knew that that wasn’t our identity. We talked, we threw the ball five times, and really on the ground that’s where our focus was. I think we racked up over 437 yards of rushing in the game, so that’s who we are. That’s what motivates us to be the team that we are, and that’s what Groton football is all about.”

Groton football is also about being physical, something that was especially evident towards the tail end of the campaign.

“We always get the comments from the opposing head coach, ‘Hey, you guys are really physical.’” Dyson said. “But in the past couple of weeks, you could really see in the opposing head coach’s eyes that the words coming out his mouth were genuine that we’re a physical football team.”

That style of play is something Dyson has been used to all his life. He both played and was an assistant coach for Tioga, a team that prides itself on their strength and has been a major reason why they’ve won three straight state titles and an even longer streak of sectional titles. Dyson has continued to implement that style two years into the job at Groton.

“Growing up, that’s what football meant: being physical, controlling the time of possession, having more turnovers on the defensive side, getting those turnovers than we let up on the offensive side of the ball,” Dyson said. “If you eliminate the pass, you’re automatically going to do a couple of those things. You can check those things right off, and if you’re successful at them, you’re going to be successful at the end of the day and in the game.”

In terms of personnel, the Red Hawks have been quite versatile under center. Jaiden Mitchell (senior), Gage Seamans (junior), and Kameron McClain (freshman) have all seen time at quarterback and have all ran the offense to great effect.

The hefty running game is spearheaded by Lane Darling. The sophomore ended the season with over 120 carries and 1,000 rushing yards while scoring 14 touchdowns.

“The first four games we didn’t see a whole heck of physicality out of Lane,” Dyson said. “But ever since that time, he’s flipped the switch. As a sophomore, he’s a captain of ours, and I think he finally realized that in the fifth and sixth weeks that he’s captain of this team. Throughout the offseason, Lane has been the leader of this team in the weight room, in our offseason workouts. And now in weeks six through nine, we’ve seen him as the true identifiable leader on the football field. He’s led us to a couple of really nice victories out there, whether we won the game or not. But it’s his work ethic that has really risen to the level that we need it to.”

The win over Newfield set up a date at top-seeded Moravia in the 8-man semifinals on November 9. Unfortunately for the Red Hawks, things did not go to plan. They were down 37-0 at halftime before ultimately losing to their rivals 64-8. 

Despite a tough ending to another solid season, there were some positives to take away, namely with Colin Brockway. The freshman recorded a rushing touchdown and an interception. With only five seniors graduating, expect the Red Hawks to rise up the rankings and make deeper postseason runs in the near future.