Salamanca wins road shootout with Clyde-Savannah, 48-32

After being shutout in consecutive weeks, the Salamanca offense rebounded in a big way on Friday night.

With 435 total yards, the Warriors defeated Section 5’s Clyde-Savannah, 48-32, on the road as quarterback Lucas McKenna threw for three touchdowns and ran for three more.

McKenna threw for 150 yards (11-for-17) and ran for 180 on 17 attempts. Isaac Brown scored twice, running for 99 yards on 11 carries and catching four passes for 63 yards. Lucas Brown and Jarrett McKenna also had touchdown catches.

“We were able to get back to some of the things we had success with early in the year,” Warriors coach Chad Bartoszek said. “Lucas was running the show. We started having success early running the ball and they went to Cover 0 and sent everybody so we had to throw it at times and that just created some holes for people, some of our weapons on the outside and it was fun to get the ball around to some different people and see our kids having fun again.”

Photo Courtesy, Levi Sponeybarger - SCCSD

The Warriors (3-3) scored their first two touchdowns off of short fields after recovering back-to-back kickoffs, but neither were onside kick attempts.

“We lost both of our kickers the last couple weeks," Bartoszek said, "so we had Kody Shinners kicking and he squibbed a couple over and we ended up with them and we capitalized on both. So it was a great way to start.

"They kept answering, though, with (Camden) Chance, No. 5, he had a couple just great runs. He was breaking tackles and out-running everybody.”

Salamanca’s offense looked more like the at-times flashy unit from its 2-1 start to the season, before shutout losses to Portville and Clymer/Sherman/Panama.

“We have had success at times throughout the year and just unfortunately we ran into two really good teams the last two weeks and two really good defenses,” Bartoszek said. “We talked about the snowball rolling and what happened to our confidence the last two weeks. Well, early on, this week we got it going in our direction and our kids started to believe a little bit and trust in what we were doing and have some fun with it.”

Clyde/Savannah replaced Maple Grove in the Warriors’ schedule after the Red Dragons moved to eight-man football in August. Winning made the nearly three-hour bus ride back feel better, Bartoszek acknowledged.