WELLS BRIDGE _ A healthy Brendan Pidgeon proved too much for Unatego to handle Friday night.
Senior tailback Pidgeon rushed for 132 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries to lead the Yellowjackets to a season-opening, 28-6 Section Four Football Conference non-division win at Unatego.
Pidgeon, who sat out the first half of last season with a broken right leg and missed the bulk of the second half with an injured left ankle, used power and speed to overwhelm the Spartans.
"I felt really, really good for the first time in almost a year," Pidgeon said. "It's been a while. It feels good to have everyone up front making holes. You run straight and you gain yards. You put those injuries out of your mind. They are last year. Get it out of your mind, start fresh and play the game."
Pidgeon, whose 32-yard touchdown run in the third quarter helped Oneonta to a 21-0 lead, said his legs and ankle felt fine. He sat with the bulk of the Oneonta starters for much of the fourth quarter.
"He's deceptively quick," third-year Oneonta coach Adam Hoover said. "He's the type of football player when you see him run, you know he's running fast but you don't realize how fast until you see the defenders not getting closer but getting farther way. ... Our line did a great job for him, but at the same time, there were a couple of times where they had us defended pretty well and he was able to make something out of nothing."
The Spartans, who won the Section Four Class C championship last season, couldn't figure out Oneonta's defense, either. Unatego finished with 62 rushing yards but were held to minus-7 through the first three quarters.
Unatego had 94 total yards.
"Our defense was really good," said Oneonta's Ian Kelley, who had two sacks. "We were pinching the holes, doing what we were supposed to do and basically executing what we needed to do."
The Yellowjackets also pestered Unatego quarterback Cody Renwick, forcing him to rush his passes. Renwick finished 2-for-7 for 27 yards, and Cody Komenda was 1-for-5 for 5 yards.
"We were a little afraid of their pass," Hoover said. "(Renwick) is pretty good and they have the athletes if they get it there, they can run with it. So we wanted to make sure if he's going to throw it, he's going to throw it quick. We did a pretty good job getting the pressure on him."
Unatego coach Art Rigas said Oneonta's lines took control.
"They beat us off the ball," Rigas said. "They took it to us today. Their offensive line did a nice job blocking. ... We ran into a pretty good football team tonight and they kind of exposed right now where we need work."
Fullback Dalton Smith opened the scoring with 6 minutes, 12 seconds remaining in the opening quarter, when he pushed his way through from 5 yards. Matt Marcewicz's extra point made it 7-0.
The Yellowjackets capped a seven-play drive at the end of the second quarter, when Pidgeon went through a hole up the middle, bounced off some Unatego defenders in the secondary and scored on a 15-yard run. Marcewicz's line-drive extra point made it 14-0.
Pidgeon put it away in the third.
He took a handoff behind the line on a third down, hurdled a couple of downed linemen, split the Spartans' secondary and went 32 yards untouched for his second TD.
"I just kept my feet moving," Pidgeon said. "The holes were huge, so that takes away a lot of the work for me. Just a little instinct, jump and run as hard as you can."
Oneonta capped its scoring in the fourth quarter, when Doug Dimartin went through the line and cut back to his right for a 13-yard touchdown with 10:06 remaining.
Unatego avoided a shutout with 8 seconds left, when Komenda hit Dale Rifenbark on a 5-yard pass.
"For the first game, we had some kinks here and there, but we were able to work through them," Hoover said. "Anytime you play Unatego, you know they are going to come out and hit. They are the defending sectional champions and they lost a few guys, but they are never a team you go into lightly. To go out here against them and play like that against a pretty good team is a positive. We have some things we have to work on, but it's a lot nicer to start off on a win and have to work on these things than to start out with a loss and have to work on them."
Oneonta 28, Unatego 6
Oneonta7 7 7 7 _ 28
Unatego0 0 0 6 _ 6
FIRST QUARTER
O _ Dalton Smith 5 run (Matt Marcewicz kick) 6:12
SECOND QUARTER
O _ Brendan Pidgeon 15 run (Matt Marcewicz kick) 1:37
THIRD QUARTER
O _ Brendan Pidgeon 32 run (Matt Marcewicz kick) 6:29
FOURTH QUARTER
O _ Doug Dimartin 13 run (Matt Marcewicz kick) 10:06
U _ Dale Rifenbark 5 pass from Cody Komenda (kick blocked) :08.
Oneonta rushing: Brendan Pidgeon 17-132, Matt Marcewicz 9-36, Dan Broe 3-7, Dalton Smith 9-19, Doug Dimartin 3-26, Cory Hunter 2-12, Ian Clemons 1-1, Philip Wright 3-17, Justin Borggreen 1-1.
Unatego rushing: Tyler Newman 1-29, Erik Barber 2-29, Kyle Ray 3-9, Cody Renwick 7-(-24), Cody Komenda 2-9, Cody Chambers 1-0.
Oneonta passing: Dan Broe 3-for-8, 49 yards.
Unatego passing: Cody Renwick 2-for-7, 27 yards; Cody Komenda 1-for-5, 5 yards.
Oneonta receiving: Michael Gilmore 1-15, Kasey Hogan 1-22, Brendan Pidgeon 1-12.
Unatego receiving: Chet Davis 1-20, Dale Rifenbark 1-5, Kyle Ray 1-7.
___
P.J. Harmer can be reached at pharmer@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 229.
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