Tompkins Weekly

Groton dominant in debut 8-man season



Groton senior running back Jeter Neff (right) runs alongside junior quarterback Austin Hunt. The duo has led a high-powered Groton offense to an undefeated 5-0 start. Photo by Old Stage Photo.

After two games were scrapped from the Groton football schedule earlier this season, the team did the unbelievable. Groton scheduled and won three games in a nine-day stretch, defeating its opponents by a 173-34 total score. The fiery run improved Groton’s record to 5-0 and placed the team in seventh in the state rankings for eight-man football.

First, Groton beat Unadilla Valley 53-14 Oct. 7. Just four days later, Groton took down Whitney Point 58-20. A 62-0 victory over Thomas A. Edison on Oct. 15 completed the quick succession of games. Third-year head coach Joe Manning discussed how his players were able to pull it off.

“I think that we’ve conditioned the kids to play and continue to keep playing,” Manning said. “We were a little sloppy at Unadilla Valley. We fumbled the ball a few times. But I think by Whitney Point, we were hitting on all cylinders pretty good. We struggled a little bit right off the get-go and then we kind of opened it up a little bit and put some points up.”

The standards are high for coach Manning. He coached his team to be one of the best defensive teams in eight-man football despite the inherent offensive boost the sport experiences when removing six players from the field. Groton has allowed just eight points per game this season, which is second in Section IV eight-man football only to Spencer-Van Etten/Candor’s incredible three points allowed per game. Manning talked about the team’s defensive success.

“We do a lot of film,” Manning said. “We do a lot of defense. Our defensive coordinator Justin Albro does a great job breaking teams down, and we just stick to basic defense. We stick to our responsibilities and play football. I think the biggest thing is we don’t waver from our responsibilities. We have things we need to do each snap of the ball and we do it.”

That defense will be tested on Friday in an intra-county showdown with the 4-1 Trumansburg Blue Raiders. Trumansburg is one of the two teams in eight-man football that has scored more points than Groton this season, and they are led by talented senior quarterback Ethan Fulton, who is responsible for 16 touchdowns. Manning talked about the approach to Friday’s important divisional contest.

“We take it all, we break it down and we have our responsibilities on defense,” Manning said. “We have a plan and we’ll have a different defensive plan lined up for Trumansburg, just like we did every other team. Our plan is to not let them score. That’s ultimately what we do every single week. We’re prepared to not let a team score and we’ve been successful in a couple of games.”

The defense did not allow Lansing to score earlier this season in a 26-0 victory. That’s significant since Lansing has outscored its two other Section IV opponents 76-0 this season. While the defense has stolen the show so far for Groton, the offense is scoring at a very high rate as well. Manning discussed the team’s offensive playstyle.

“We’ve bounced all over the place,” he said. “As a quarterback, I like running power football. I like running a power run game, and we approach it that way. If I feel something opening up, we can open it up. We have athletes all over the field. Last year, we had a couple athletes and couldn’t move the ball. This year, we’ve got five or six athletes that are threats out on the football field that people have to be aware of. We’re not a team that has two or three athletes. We’ve got four or five that can score at any given time.”

The turnaround for the Groton football program has been extraordinary. In Manning’s first two seasons as the head coach, the team’s record was 3-10. The switch to eight-man football has been the recipe for success, already surpassing that win total with a 5-0 record. Manning talked about what sparked the dramatic change.

“I just think we have a group of athletes that love to play the game,” he said. “I’ve coached these kids since they were 5 years old all the way up. I’ve coached every one of these kids. I don’t think there are many coaches that can say that they’ve coached every kid. They’ve just bought into every program we’ve had and they just have a drive to want to be the best.”

Friday’s game will determine who is the best in Tompkins County when Groton hits the road to face Trumansburg. Prior to the season, Manning said the goal for his team was to go undefeated. With just two games in the regular season remaining, Groton is close to achieving that.

One response to “Groton dominant in debut 8-man season”

  1. Anthony Romo says:

    Coach Albro’s
    defense looking Mighty💪🏽🏈

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