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Randolph rolls past Newfane to claim Class D title

AMHERST - Alexander Garland, Randolph's leading rusher, was limited due to an injury heading into Thursday's Section VI Class D final at Broadview Stadium.

Freshman Cole Morris took full advantage of his opportunity.

Morris rushed 30 times for 206 yards and three touchdowns as Randolph turned a 15-8 halftime lead into a blowout, beating Newfane 49-16 at the University at Buffalo.

"I had 110% confidence in Cole. He hits the hole harder than any other running back I've ever blocked for," Cardinals senior Carter Conley said. "He's an incredible talent as a freshman."

The championship, the Cardinals' 13th in program history, sends Coach Nate Armella's team into next Friday's Far West Regional in Brockport.

"It's a family. It's a brotherhood. We don't have one bad egg on the team," Armella said postgame. "It's one of the best teams I've been around. When you look at our championship teams, the teams that have won sectional and state titles, they have that bond."

Garland, who has rushed for 1,300 yards and 20 touchdowns on the season, "tweaked something" in last week's semifinal win over Wilson, according to Armella. As it turned out, Morris was a pretty solid Plan B.

After the Panthers' Jake Morello returned the opening kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown and Rian Czaja added the two-point conversion, Randolph marched 66 yards in nine plays, capped by a 1-yard touchdown plunge by Morris. A two-point run by Morris tied the game with 6:38 left in the opening quarter.

"We have a lot of confidence in Cole," Armella said. " ... He runs hard and he sees the field well."

Newfane took its first drive of the second quarter to the Randolph 12-yard line when Morello ran 31 yards, but Davion Johnson made a touchdown-saving tackle. Then, after a 5-yard run, two holding penalties and a pair of Morello runs, Newfane threw incomplete into the end zone on fourth-and-10 from the 12-yard line.

"It's that kind of effort and that kind of mentality that these guys have," Armella said of Johnson's chase-down tackle. "They popped a big one ... and then they didn't score. That's huge."

Five plays later, Johnson ran for a 59-yard touchdown run that made it 15-8 after Isaac Pihlblad's point-after kick.

The Cardinals never looked back.

On the opening drive of the second half, Randolph drove 88 yards in 13 plays, capped by a 11-yard touchdown pass from Johnson to Grady Huntington.

"We wanted to come out on that opening drive and kind of flex our muscles a little bit," Armella said. " ... We ran our bread and butter, the line bought in and kept their eyes up ... and we ran hard."

The Panthers fumbled on the first play of their next two drives and the Cardinals quickly answered, first on a 28-yard touchdown run by Garland -- his back-to-back carries on the drive were his only two of the game -- and then on a 19-yard scoring pass from Johnson to Carter Conley.

"We came out on defense pretty slow, but after a little bit we started reading plays, getting downhill and proved we were the more physical team," Conley said. "We took a few of their key players out of the game because we were more physical."

Morris added touchdown runs of 17 yards and 1 yard in the final quarter as Randolph began planning for next Friday's New York State Public High School Athletic Association quarterfinal.

"Last year didn't go the way we wanted it to go. We went 5-4, we lost a home playoff game on our field and we were out-physicaled in that game. Right after that game, we talked to the guys who were coming back and told them they had to hit the weight room," Armella said. "We had to be bigger, faster, stronger and the more physical team this year. I think we were, week in and week out."

"We've been working for seven or eight months," Conley added. " ... We had a team meeting in January where the coach held up a blue patch and we said 'this is what we're fighting for this year.'"

NOTES: Johnson ran 18 times for 161 yards as Randolph totaled 411 yards rushing and 485 total yards of offense. ... Newfane had just 182 yards of offense, 75 coming on a touchdown pass from Jesse Hughey to Czaja in the fourth quarter. ... Easton Pence, Huntington and Conley each had a fumble recovery for the Cardinals.

Newfane 8 0 0 8 - 16

Randolph 8 7 21 13 - 49

New-Morello 75 kickoff return (Czaja run)

Ran-Morris 1 run (Morris run)

Ran-Johnson 59 run (Pihlblad kick)

Ran-Huntington 11 pass from Johnson (Pihlblad kick)

Ran-Garland 28 run (Pihlblad kick)

Ran-Conley 20 pass from Johnson (Pihlblad kick)

Ran-Morris 17 run (Pihlblad kick)

Ran-Morris 1 run (pass failed)

New-Czaja 75 pass from Hughey (Henning pass from Hughey)