After two disappointing weeks of no action – first they had to forfeit a game to Burke due to injuries and then Poughkeepsie forfeited a game to the Raiders – O’Neill’s varsity football team came out strong on October 2.

They won the school’s Homecoming game 23-8, giving them a 3-2 record and a 1-0 record against their Class C opponents.

Coach Adam DiBenedetto and his players felt a bit of a weight lift off their shoulders with that first league win.

“League wins are hard to come by so anytime you get one it is always good,” he said. “Both offensively and defensively we played well; we moved the ball pretty well on the ground and through the air. We equally distributed the ball to our receivers who are all dangerous with the ball in their hands.”

Quarterback AJ Mackey hit Ames Jannetta with an 18-yard touchdown pass for some of the points; Trey Murphy had a 29-yard touchdown run and ran in a two-point conversion; Zachary Parks had a seven-yard touchdown run; and Keegan Arbogast kicked a perfectly centered 23-yard field goal.

For Rondout, which falls to a 2-3 record, Tyler Harned had a two-yard touchdown run. All eight of the Ganders points were in the fourth quarter.

No one scored in the first quarter, despite a long kickoff run by Arbogast for the Raiders and several Mackey to David Prosperie (#12) completed passes. (Overall, Prosperie had three catches for 41 yards.)

As that second quarter opened, Raider Jake Bione (#4) intercepted a Gander pass, giving O’Neill the ball on its own 22-yard line. It was just ten minutes later that Rondout intercepted a Raider pass. Overall, in the second the Raiders got nine points in the quarter, including that Mackey to Jannetta (two-for-41 yards total) pass for a touchdown. The extra point attempt missed, but then with just under a minute left in the half, Arbogast had that field goal.

The Raiders kicked off to Rondout as the second half opened, but Rondout Valley had to turn possession over on downs. O’Neill had the ball on Rondout Valley’s 39-yard line; three minutes later, Murphy had the 29-yard rushing touchdown, followed by the two-point conversion. “Trey was once again a workhorse on offense,” the coach said. “He carried the ball 21 times for 153 yards and had one reception for 15 yards.”

As the fourth quarter opened, Parks rushed in for a touchdown, but again, the extra point missed. Rondout’s Harned took matters into his own hands at that point, with both long and short runs for the eventual touchdown, and earning the two-point conversion.

And that was it for scoring.

“I feel that we were definitely a little bit rusty in this one (the 22 days between games definitely showed),” DiBenedetto said. “But I guess that is to be expected to some degree. We had some difficulty executing and made a few mistakes that ended up not costing us on Friday night, but later in the season could be very costly.”

Specifically, he noted: “We had a couple of drives that stalled in the red zone because of penalties or poor execution. We also could have definitely tackled better defensively. We have to get those things cleaned up … but otherwise we played well.”

In positives, DiBenedetto praised George Fatsis played a great game on the offensive line. As well, Mackey threw for a total of 111 yards in the game.

The fans were full on the perfect Friday evening – Rondout Valley’s fans, dressed in blue and shaking blue cow bells, drove over an hour to make the trek to the Waldo Wood Field. Because it was Homecoming, Raider fans were decked out in ‘tropical’ outfits; that made for a colorful evening. The cheerleaders chanted ‘First down, first down, another Raider first down’ frequently during the game, and, in solidarity with their football friends, did pushups each time points were scored. The National Anthem was sung by members of the high school’s Select Chorus, including several football players and cheerleaders.

The Town of Highlands Ambulance Corps, as it always does, stood by at the game. One significant injury, to a collarbone, happened during the game, but that athlete didn’t need ambulance transport.

The Raiders play at Spackenkill on Friday, Oct. 9. It’s league game number two, the coach said, and the Raiders are looking for another win.