TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN ‑ I have covered pro, college and high school football for the Kitsap Sun for most of my 51 years writing sports and there are some games that really are remarkable. One game that I didn’t cover was Sunday’s Section VI Class D semifinal game between my old hometown school, Portville Central High School (New York) vs. Salamanca at Portville. For some reason that game reminded me of the 1981 Stanford at Washington college football game. I can’t totally recall the Stanford-Washington game but the Huskies jumped all over Stanford in the early going and had like a 35-7 lead early in late in the third quarter and Husky coach Don James started subbing in his second and third unit players in what seemed to be a rout. Well, he underestimated Stanford quarterback John Elway, who was born in Port Angeles and would go on to star with the Denver Broncos and become the teams’ president and general manager (he will relinquish his GM title this year). Elway got hot and threw the ball all over the field to lead the Cardinal back to within 35-31. The Huskies finally got some breathing room on a late touchdown and won the game 42-31, but James was not pleased with himself. He was steaming mad in his post-game media appearance and vowed to never do that again. I thought he was going to have a heart attack he was so vividly upset. That brings me to Portville’s game Sunday. The Panthers were unbeaten (5-0) and had won games 34-0, 60-6, 62-14, 20-0 (a forfeit) and 54-14 two weeks ago against this same Salamanca team. If you are keeping score, that is a collective 230-34 score for the shorten season due to COVID. So you would expect the explosive Panthers would demolish Salamanca in their second match-up in this playoff game. In a perfect storm, Salamanca scored on a 12-yard quarterback run with 54.5 seconds to go to shock the Panthers 6-0. It is unbelievable that almost like Elway going crazy against subs to carry the Cardinal to near upset. Portville had not practice in nearly two weeks because of the virus and two of its players were still in quarantine for the game. It also was unbelievable that it snowed and rained on Sunday (May 9) leaving the Portville football field messy and sloppy, slowing down an explosive running game. All of that combined to help the Salamanca Warriors go from a 54-14 throttling to a 6-0 upset. That’s 46 points in difference between the two games. That doesn’t happen very often. In fact, I don’t remember it ever happening in my nearly 51 years of watching football games. The Stanford-Washington game comes close, but nothing like this one. It will be difficult to explain for the next 20 years or so how your team can go from scoring 54 to being shut out against the same team two weeks later, but it happened. Good for Salamanca, which lies within the Allegany Indian Reservation of the Seneca Nation. … I’m tired of these national stories promoting or predicting a Russell Wilson for Aaron Rodgers trade. Get over it. It ain’t going to happen. It’s the most stupid story I have heard lately, although there are plenty of them going around on social media it seems. What I’m worried about is the Republican Party becoming a Nazi party, limiting voting throughout the country and throwing itself behind 45, a cult leader who is hurling the party and himself toward a 1930s style Germany uprising led by another cult leader, Adolph Hitler. IF 45 gets back full time on social media, we may be doomed to become Germany 2.0. If there is one person who stands for evil and the antichrist, it is 45. As prelude to a 45 takeover, some stories are out promoting Biden as a robot that can’t think for himself and is a stooge for socialism and communism. We are in serious trouble and danger if any of this becomes reality. Hang on, the ride is going to get bumpy. In the meantime, stay safe.
Stay well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.