At Section III football media day, new Central Square head coach Kevin Kalfass and his players spoke about the new triple-option offense that was being installed in preseason camp. Redhawks quarterback Nick Ransom expressed excitement at the new offense because of the decision-making it would require him to do.

On Saturday night in the Carrier Dome, though, Central Square’s triple option offense wasn’t even the best in its game. That belonged to Chenango Forks, five-time New York state champs in Classes B and C. Central Square is in Class A this year, featuring a higher enrollment than Forks. But drawing from less enrollment than Central Square didn’t slow down the Blue Devils.

In the end, the better triple option won on Saturday. Chenango Forks outgained Central Square 273 to 118 on the ground en route to a 34-12 victory in the Kickoff Classic. It was not the start the Redhawks wanted to the Kalfass era after he left his offensive coordinator job at Jamesville-DeWitt to coach Central Square.

“That was times where we messed up was not doing your job,” Ransom said. “Executing each play.”

Things couldn’t have started much better for the Blue Devils. Sal Frontera intercepted a pass thrown by Ransom and took the ball back inside the 10-yard line. Then Jakob Topa ran around the right end and in for a nine-yard score.

Following a Ransom fumble soon after, Stephen Shepard found a hole up the middle and raced 58 yards for another Forks touchdown. Central Square fumbled again following that score, and the Blue Devils cashed in again. Lucas Scott ran for 14 yards to find paydirt, powering his way into the end zone and Forks led, 21-0.

“Just keep your head up and keep playing,” said Ransom on his approach once behind. “That’s our mindset. Don’t stop, keep moving. Just keep going, don’t look back.”

Central Square worked its way back to close out the first half. Ransom made up for his turnovers as he rolled right and unleashed a bomb off one leg. The ball just made it over an outstretched defensive back’s arm and into the hands of Zach Havens for a 48-yard touchdown.

“I was rolling out and pressure was coming so I had to keep rolling out,” Ransom said. “I saw my teammate Nick was covered and I knew that and I looked over at Zach and I see him, he had his hand up and I just threw it on the run and had a good pass.”

Then, as the half wound down, the Redhawks mounted another good drive that ended in a 7-yard touchdown pass from Ransom to Cruz Springer. Two failed conversions meant that Central Square had cut its halftime deficit to nine.

But the Redhawks wouldn’t score again. When Scott broke through for a 26-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter, Central Square fell down 16. Scott finished with 138 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries. His bruising style of running allowed the Blue Devils to keep burning clock.

That forced Central Square to throw, probably more than they would have liked out of their triple-option setup. The Redhawks attempted 22 passes to the Blue Devils five. Ransom said it’s difficult to work back from that early deficit when the triple option is predicated on running.

“We can do better on the passing part,” Ransom added. “We’ve just gotta do better on the defense part so we’re not always behind and stuff.”

Before Central Square’s 8 p.m. kickoff, the game preceding the Redhawks featured Jamesville-DeWitt. J-D is where Kalfass assisted prior to getting the Redhawks head job. As J-D coaches left the field after their loss, they made sure to get Kalfass’ attention and give him thumbs up before his first game in charge of the Redhawks.

But on Saturday night, it didn’t matter whether Kalfass was on the Central Square sideline or the J-D sideline. Both teams lost to opponents from Section IV. Both teams dealt with growing pains in their first game in a new offense. Even faced with those facts, though, Ransom was optimistic after the nightcap.

“I thought overall, we did well for the first time,” Ransom said. “But we always can improve every game.”

Published on September 1, 2018 at 11:51 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3