For the third time this season, Moravia football is set to square off with Trumansburg. This time the stakes are at its highest, as the two teams play in the NYS 8-Man Football Regional semifinals at 9 a.m. Saturday at Vestal High School.
Moravia entered last week off a loss to Trumansburg in the Section IV finals, but bounced back with a 50-6 win against Section IX champion Sullivan West. Moravia head coach Fred Ott believes the loss served as a reset mentally for his team.
“I really felt that loss in the sectional final showed the kids we can’t just show up and play football –– we have to play Moravia football,” Ott said. “We had to get back to that physicality, getting hats to the ball and I really felt like we did that.”
Moravia played without leading receiver Joe Baylor in the win, but Ott expects Baylor to suit up against Trumansburg. In his absence, Eli Landis emerged with his best game of the season. He racked up 299 total yards and scored three touchdowns for the Blue Devils, presenting another weapon the Blue Raiders defense will have to account for this week.
While Trumansburg won the most recent meeting, it was the Blue Devils who were 32-27 winners when the teams met in the regular season. Moravia scored 18 unanswered to win the first meeting, but faltered in its comeback effort the second time due to five turnovers.
“When the weather gets a little colder it’s a little harder to hold on to the football and Trumansburg does a really good job of trying to punch the ball out,” Ott said. “We’re definitely working on some ball security to try and avoid those mistakes and those turnovers as we go forward. I think we all know that’s a pretty different game if we don’t turn the ball over five times like we did. When you’re in the playoffs, whoever wins the turnover battle usually wins the game, so we have to really minimize that as much as possible.”
The Blue Devils have had their sights set on making it back to the state finals after falling 36-0 in last season’s final. Despite being the lone team left in the field to not win a sectional championship, Moravia has no doubt it belongs on this stage.
“In the 8-Man football world, pretty much everyone knew who the top four teams were,” Ott said. “I don’t think it’s a surprise we’re there probably for anybody. There are probably some teams out there that don’t think we really deserve to be here because we got in with the wild card, but I think most people realize we are one of those top four teams. We think that. The wild card was a great second chance and we’re going to try and use that to our advantage as much as possible. It would have been nice to win back-to-back sectional titles, but if we can win this game and get to that final and go for all the glory, that would be a great thing.”
The winner of the Section IV showdown will advance to face the winner of Pembroke (V) and Frankfort-Schuyler (III) in the 8-Man Regional Finals at 3 p.m. Dec. 7 at Moravia High School.
