Our first order of business: Congratulations are due to everyone associated with the North Tonawanda football program for what has been — and we’re happy to say continues to be — a fantastic season.
Saturday’s win at Ralph Wilson Stadium was equal parts exhilarating and eye-popping.
The Lumberjacks’ opponents, Lancaster, had shared the Western New York No. 1 ranking the entire season. Both teams were undefeated and it looked to be a real clash of the titans.
Mostly it was North Tonawanda that looked liked titans, pulling off an astonishing 54-7 victory. The margin of victory was a record for the Section VI Class AA title game — no team has ever won by such a lopsided margin.
North Tonawanda scored five touchdowns — in the second quarter.
With such a lopsided win in what was supposed to be a difficult game, we can’t help but hope it puts into perspective some of the talk surrounding the future of the T-NT game.
Yes, Tonawanda lost 68-7. Yes, they lost by an equally large margin last year, too.
But if NT is blowing out schools their own size or larger, it pokes a rather large hole in the argument that the T-NT game isn’t fair based on the size disparity between the two schools.
As we’ve said all along: This is the best North Tonawanda team in the school’s history. It happens to have coincided with a low water mark for the Warriors.
The two schools will come closer together in the seasons to come.
We might make a slight suggestion to those who have carped about the T-NT game: Rather than putting energy into bemoaning the state of the rivalry, how about we all get together behind a North Tonawanda team that has a legitimate shot at a state championship.
Go Jacks!
