By Mike Wertman<br><a href="mailto:mike.wertman@journal-register.com">E-mail Mike</a>
OLEAN — Unleashing a punishing ground attack, the Lyndonville Tigers rolled to a 31-0 victory over the Southern Tier Diesel on Friday night to clinch the Northeast Football Alliance regular season championship at 9-1.
“It’s amazing. It’s the best we’ve ever done,” Tigers owner and offensive coach Harold Suhr said his squad’s first regular season championship.
Lyndonville put a lock on outright possession of the regular season crown and the No. 1 seed for the upcoming playoffs by combining the win over Southern Tier with the Troy Fighting Irish scoring 12 points against Albany in a 34-12 loss to the Maulers.
Those 12 Irish points insured that Lyndonville will beat out both the 8-1 Maulers and the 9-1 Monroe County Sting, a 32-10 victor over the Syracuse Shock, for the title based on the tie breaker of fewest points allowed for the season. The Tigers allowed 101 points, the Maulers 103 (with one game to go) and the Sting 115.
“It’s been an amazing season and everything has fallen into place,” Suhr said whose team will now enjoy home field advantage throughout the playoffs. “It’s really something because the two teams we beat out for the title, Albany and Monroe, are both defending national champions so this is really something special for us.”
Joel Fidanza, Ricky McVay, Mike Bond and Erick Kleckler all took turns rushing for touchdowns to spearhead the Tigers ground assault.
“We just ran the ball down their throats,” Suhr said. “We only threw one pass and that was to a tight end.”
Interceptions by McVay and Mike Manicki, his league leading ninth pick of the season, along with a fumble recovery by Jon Gorom and three sacks by Bond, highlighted the shutout effort by the Lyndonville defensive unit which allowed a touchdown or less in six of the 10 league games this season.
Both the McVay and Manicki interceptions came inside the Lyndonville 20 stopping two of the Diesel’s best scoring chances.
“Our defense is blending good,” Suhr. “We needed the win and we needed the shutout as points against in the key stat the league uses in determining seedings for the playoffs.”
The Lyndonville ground attack took charge at the outset as Fidanza ran 25 yards for one touchdown and Bond 42 for another score to propel the Tigers out to a 14-0 first quarter lead.
The Tigers boosted that advantage to 24-0 at the half on a 23-yard touchdown scamper by McVay and a 37-yard field goal by Mat Shockey who also kicked all four extra points.
Klecker rounded out the Lyndonville scoring with a big 50-yard touchdown burst in the third quarter to make it 31-0.
The Tigers special teams also had a big night as McVay had three long 40 plus yard punt returns to put Lyndonville in scoring position.
Since the league has regular season games to make up on Sept. 12 and 19, the playoffs are not scheduled to start until Sept. 26 when the Tigers will likely host the Watertown Revolution in the quarterfinals.
