FONDA — It isn’t everyday that a high school football team gets to experience the road to the Dome to Syracuse.
Over the past few months, Fonda-Fultonville got to experience that ride.
It all started with a Sept. 1, Week 0 game against Schuylerville, a 34-32 loss. Then, Fonda-Fultonville pounded out a 12-game winning streak, earning a trip to the JMA Wireless Dome and a shot at the NYSPHSAA Class C championship.
“Some of the other coaches I know who have been there before, they told me at some point to just go out and appreciate that you’re there, to take a look around and take it in for a moment,” Fonda coach Mike Mancini said of reaching the state’s pinnacle of high school football.
“After they announced our team and they ran out of the tunnel, I kind of stayed back for a second and looked up at our crowd and listened to their roar. It was pretty impressive.”
Over that 12-game winning streak, Fonda-Fultonville defeated a strong Hoosick Falls/Tamarac team twice, then got some payback against Schuylerville in the Section 2 Class C Super Bowl with a 31-21 victory.
“I told our coaches that playing Schuylerville Week 0 would be good for us,” Mancini said. “It was a measuring stick of where we’re at. . . . We knew eventually we’d have to play them again.”
For Mancini, who has been around high school football his entire life, his team’s battles with Schuylerville reminded him of the late 1990s.
“It was kind of like those old-school Troy teams that Jack Burger coached,” he said. “It seemed like in the late ’90s, Troy and Amsterdam would always play against each other in the first week of the season. Somehow, it seemed most of the time, Amsterdam would get the better of Troy early on. Then you would find Troy winning the AA sectional title, and making a number of runs to the Carrier Dome.”
This year, Fonda-Fultonville’s trip to Syracuse included a regional victory over Section 10’s Gouverneur 22-0, and a state semifinals win over James I. O’Neill 33-7.
Once Mancini’s squad got to the Dome, they put on a show. Although the scoreboard favored Section 4’s Waverly 46-26, most of the game was a dramatic, back-and-forth battle.
The game saw freshman quarterback Keegan Croucher complete 38 of 53 pass attempts, with two touchdowns, throwing for a career-high 422 yards.
The story has been similar for most of the season, all made possible by senior offensive linemen and wide receivers.
“We had five seniors on the offensive line. Early on in the year, I thought we would be running the football and grinding teams,” Mancini explained. “We did that a lot early on, but as the year went on, we didn’t have to. Keegan got a lot better as we got through September, and [we] went on our stretch run.”
Fonda-Fultonville’s offensive linemen — Zeb Whitcavitch, Owen Lewis, Kyle Kearns, Logan Miller and Aidan Frederick — knew what their job was.
“They took it upon themselves to make sure Keegan didn’t get touched,” Mancini said. “They took it personally when Keegan got hit.
“I remember our first game on grass this year. We went down to Cobleskill and Keegan threw for over 300 yards. It was a rainy week and the field was a little wet, but it didn’t look like Keegan played a football game since the line didn’t let him get touched. I remember they took a picture and they sent it to me like, ‘Coach, he’s clean.’ They did their job.”
Over Fonda-Fultonville’s 14 games, Croucher completed 179 of 284 passes for 2,957 yards and 31 touchdowns.
Karsen Bulan reeled in 58 of those receptions for 1,075 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns. Brady Melious tacked on 47 receptions for 899 yards and seven scores.
On the running side, Jose Vargas rushed for 1,123 yards on 185 carries and one touchdown. Vargas also had one receiving touchdown, which came in the state championship game.
“I’ve watched it back a lot. It’s a pretty impressive play,” Mancini said of that Vargas touchdown. “At the moment, I didn’t really appreciate it, since you’re wrapped up in the game. But you could feel in that moment some of the momentum shift.”
With his team trailing, Vargas refused to go down, breaking multiple Waverly tackles on his way to the end zone. His score kept Fonda-Fultonville within striking distance.
“My father’s been around Fonda football his whole life and he said that may have been the best play in the history of Fonda football,” Mancini said. “It epitomized who Jose is, a gritty, tough, hard-working kid, and that’s what that play was.”
Along for the ride on Fonda-Fultonville’s trip to the JMA Wireless Dome came a sea of maroon in the stands, and one of the best atmospheres for a high school football game.
While the support was impressive, it was nothing new.
“For a small Class C school to have the turnout that we get, it’s pretty impressive,” Mancini said. “We get maybe 1,500 people a game, who are loud and excited, and it makes for a great atmosphere for our kids.”