Wallkill’s season concludes in loss to Minisink

By RICK REMSNYDER
Posted 11/10/21

Though Wallkill’s 2021 campaign ended with a 49-23 loss to Minisink Valley in the Section 9 Class A football semifinals Friday night, coach Brian Vegliando thinks the future is bright.

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Wallkill’s season concludes in loss to Minisink

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Though Wallkill’s 2021 campaign ended with a 49-23 loss to Minisink Valley in the Section 9 Class A football semifinals Friday night, coach Brian Vegliando thinks the future is bright.

The Panthers finished with a 6-3 record, winning their division with a perfect 3-0 mark.

Wallkill also regained possession of The Helmet, the much sought-after trophy given to the winner of the heated Wallkill-Valley Central rivalry. The Panthers had lost four games in a row to the Vikings in the long local series.

Wallkill has The Helmet back for the first time since 2016 following a 7-0 win over Valley Central earlier this season.

The Panthers played an exciting brand of football all season with quarterback Mat Shea slinging the pigskin all over the field to elusive wide receivers Jack Rauschenbach and Ty Crowley and other targets.

“Air Shea” averaged 23.4 points a game. Only twice were the Panthers held to less than 21 points. In addition to the 7-0 victory over Valley Central, Marlboro held the Panthers in check in a 14-7 win over Wallkill.

Although Wallkill will lose Shea, Rauschenbach, Ty Crowley and two-way star Eric Blackshear to graduation, Vegliando is confident the Panthers have enough returning talent to build on the successful 2021 season.

“That’s the nature of high school football,” Vegliando said of the graduation losses. “You have kids who develop over four years. You put everything you can into them because you know they’re going to put everything they have into you and the program. And that’s what this group did. And that’s what the next group is going to do. There’s a good crop of juniors on this team. And there’s sophomores and freshman behind them, too. We’re pretty excited about where we’re at and where we’re headed with the program.”

The second-seeded Panthers got off to a good start vs. third-seeded Minisink Valley (7-3) on a frigid Friday night, jumping out to a 6-0 lead on Shea’s 30-yard touchdown throw to Rauschenbach on their first possession. Wallkill also got a 2-point conversion out of an unusual formation from Blackshear to make it 8-0 with 8:30 left in the first quarter.

In a sign of things to come, Minisink Valley came right back and marched 72 yards on 12 plays to pull to within 8-7 on a perfectly thrown 30-yard TD pass from quarterback Kai Colon to tight end Tyler Mackie with 1:28 to go in the first quarter.

After Wallkill’s offense went three and out, the visiting Warriors took the lead for good at 14-8 when wide receiver Joshua Peguero hauled in Colon’s 33-yard TD throw with 8:09 left in the second quarter.

When Wallkill punted again after not making a first down on the following series, Minisink Valley went 81 yards on 12 plays to build a 21-8 lead. Junior running back Ethan Gallo did most of the heavy lifting on the drive running between the tackles. Gallo, who finished with 206 yards on 30 carries and three touchdowns, scored on a 2-yard run up the middle with 1:10 left in the second quarter.

Minisink Valley was 3-for-3 in scoring drives in the first half and didn’t punt the entire game. Wallkill managed to stop the Warriors just twice in the game, both times recovering fumbles.

Junior linebacker Colin McCartney got the first fumble recovery to set up the Panthers in great field position at the Minisink Valley 37 on the visiting team’s first series of the second half.

Shea (15 of 35, 266 yards, 3 TDs) made the Warriors pay when he found Crowley in the left corner of the end zone on a 29-yard touchdown throw to cut it to 21-14. The Panthers reached into their bag of tricks again on a successful 2-point conversion pass from Mason Ondreyko to Chase Hermance to pull to within 21-16 with 9:35 left in the second period.

But that was as close as Wallkill would come as Minisink Valley answered with 28 points in the fourth quarter to pull away.

Shea hit Rauschenbach with a 43-yard bomb for the last touchdown throw of his illustrious career to close the gap to 35-22 with 5:59 remaining.

Crowley (7-130, 1 TD catch) and Rauschenbach (5-121, 2 TDs) both had monster games in their varsity finales.

Though disappointed with the loss to Minisink Valley, Shea said the Panthers accomplished a lot this season.

“It was a great ride and I love every single one of these guys,” he said. “We worked so hard this year. We came into the season thinking section championship or bust. I wish we could have gotten it done and reached the section championship, but we have to move on.”
Shea said he’ll always cherish the chemistry he built with Crowley and Rauschenbach on and off the playing field.

“We click very well on the football field,” he said. “And they’re both my best friends.”
Minisink Valley will meet top-seeded Cornwall at 6 p.m. on Nov. 12 at Goshen High for the Class A title.