By David J. Hill<br><a href="mailto:hilld@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail David</a>
North Tonawanda, NY — Only a handful of prep football teams still are playing for their season-long goal of a state title. One of them is North Tonawanda.
“It’s cool. I was thinking the other day we’re the only team in Section VI and Section V doing this right now,” said Mike Tuzzo, the Lumberjacks senior quarterback. “It’s different because we’ve never gone this far before. It’s cool to be in history, but we want to keep making that history and keep going.”
In order to do that, they’ll need to topple the Section III (Syracuse area) champion Baldwinsville Bees, their opponent in Saturday’s Class AA state semifinal. Kickoff is 6 p.m. at Rochester’s Marina Auto Stadium, where the Jacks won last weekend.
At stake is a trip to the state finals at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, a feat neither program has accomplished.
North Tonawanda, the 11-0 Section VI champions, survived a tussle with V-Webster Schroeder last weekend in the state quarterfinals. Baldwinsville advanced by erasing an early 14-0 deficit and defeating IV-Union-Endicott, 49-34.
The Bees’ high school is named C.W. Baker High School — enrollment 1,421 — but they play under the district name of Baldwinsville. From North Tonawanda, the Central New York village is just under 150 miles east.
The Bees’ school record 11-win season this year is a major turnaround from where they’ve been in recent years. They went 9-19 the three years prior. Now they’re ranked fourth in the state in this, their centennial year of football (NT is ranked second).
“They’ve got some big linemen and they’re definitely going to play all four quarters because the past two games they’ve been behind and then they came back to win,” Tuzzo said.
On paper, it appears these two teams were meant to meet. Neither has advanced this far into the state playoffs, and both have the ability to run the football at will. The Jacks rushed for 395 yards against Schroeder and rolled up 500 yards of total offense. The Bees, meanwhile, stung Union-Endicott for 508 yards on offense, nearly 400 of that on the ground.
It’s no secret that one guy in particular makes Baldwinsville’s offense buzz. His name is Malik Burks. The 5-foot-9, 180 pound senior tailback has rushed for more than 200 yards in nine of Baldwinsville’s 11 games this fall. He has four games with 300 or more yards, including last weekend’s state quarterfinal in which he put up 301 yards and four TDs on 36 carries.
Here’s how Union-Endicott coach Shane Hurd characterized Baldwinsville’s ground game to the Syracuse Post-Standard: “For them, it’s outnumber you at the point of attack, we’re bigger than you, and stop No. 1 (Burks). Most schools aren’t going to be able to do it. We found that out tonight. We thought we had a pretty good defense, and we thought we had a pretty good defensive plan.”
Of Burks, Hurd said, “if you give him a crack, he’s gone. If you hit him, he falls down and picks up four or five yards. That’s a very dangerous football team.”
Burks has 2,803 of Baldwinsville’s 3,460 rushing yards this season, a staggering total for one player.
But the Jacks aren’t far behind the Bees’ productivity; they’ve just relied on more than one individual to produce.
Through its 11 games, North Tonawanda’s rushed for 3,419 yards, only 41 fewer than the Bees. Junior Joe Montesanti leads the Jacks with 769 yards and nine touchdowns on 79 carries. NT has four other guys behind Montesanti who’ve rushed for more than 350 yards — Tom Sell, Steve Kijowski, Mike Tuzzo and Aaron Davis.
Kijowski sat out NT’s offensive drives in the second half of the Far West Regionals due to a shoulder strain. He’s expected to play Saturday. Kijowski gives NT’s ground game its punishing element with his ability to bull his way through the line for tough yards up the middle. Davis, who has an abdominal tear, won’t play. Injuries have limited his playing time for much of the season.
Burks certainly is a big time back, but the Jacks are accustomed to shutting down the top tailbacks, something they’ve done throughout the season. NT held Schroeder’s Pete Noto to 37 yards last weekend; he ran for over 200 in the Section V title game.
In the Section VI semifinal, NT kept Orchard Park’s Okoya Anderson — an 1,100 yard rusher on the season — to fewer than 40 yards. And in Week Four, North Tonawanda shut down one of Western New York’s best backs, Lockport’s David Fluellen, holding him to 74 yards on 30 carries. Fluellen is a finalist for the Connolly Cup, given to the area’s top football player.
“I don’t think he’s any different than some of the backs in our league,” NT coach Eric Jantzi said of Burks, adding that what’s made the difference is the big offensive line blocking for him.
As he has been all year, Jantzi is confident in his defense’s ability to meet the challenge Baldwinsville brings. “Darrik Bloomfield’s been superb all year,” he said of his senior wideout/defensive back, who had two picks last weekend, giving him seven this fall. “They’ve been opportunistic, getting fumbles and making big stops down at the goal line,” Jantzi added of the Jacks’ defense.
NT has outscored its opponents 439-100 to Baldwinsville’s 392-204.
Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.
